FILIPINO Charly Suarez kept himself on track for a lucrative, highly-awaited rematch with current world junior lightweight star Emanuel Navarrete following his one-round destruction of American Manuel Avila in California on Sunday.
It didn’t take long for Suarez to warm up, as he went to work right away and swarmed all over Avila, scoring a couple of huge rights that caught the 34-year-old American with his guard down.
A big right followed by a short left hook wobbled Avila seconds later, before falling down on his knee for the count.
Avila managed to stand up for the 10-count, but appeared shaky, prompting referee Ivan Guillermo to stop the fight where the WBO International super-featherweight title belt was at stake.
The end came at the 2:31 mark of the first round.
Suarez, 36, improved his perfect record to 19-0 (11 KOs) and remained the No. 1 WBO contender, in strong contention for a rematch with Navarrete, the reigning, unified WBO and IBF super-featherweight title holder.
The camp of the 31-year-old Navarrete, however, is in talks with reigning WBC champion O'Shaquie Foster for another unification bout after earlier claiming the IBF title belt with an 11th round TKO of Eduardo Nunez.
Stiil, Suarez and traner Delfin Boholst remain hopeful the rematch with Navarrete will come soonet than expected.
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