Top Rank Presents Lightweight World Championship: Emanuel Navarrete vs. Denys Berinchyk
Saturday, May 18 | Live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+
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Top Rank Boxing on ESPN presented by AutoZone: Navarrete vs. Berinchyk will be presented live this Saturday, May 18, at 10:30 p.m. ET/ 7:30 p.m. PT on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+. The event takes place at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California, and continues Top Rank’s MAYhem Tour featuring 11 world title fights spanning four continents with 17 world championship belts up for grabs this month.
Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete hopes to join an elite circle of his Mexican countrymen, but he’ll have to venture into a new weight class against one of its top contenders, Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk.
Navarrete (38-1-1, 31 KOs) claimed his first world title in 2018 defeating Isaac Dogboe for the WBO junior featherweight crown. After five defenses, he moved up to featherweight, handing Ruben Villa his first pro defeat while becoming a two-weight champion. The 29-year-old then stepped up to junior lightweight, securing the WBO title with a win over Liam Wilson. Navarrete successfully defended the title against Oscar Valdez and dropped Brazilian Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceição twice en route to a majority draw last year.
Berinchyk (18-0, 9 KOs), makes his U.S. debut and receives his first crack at a world title. A 2012 Olympic silver medalist on the same team as Vasiliy Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk, he began his professional career in 2015, overcoming stiff tests on his ascent up the lightweight ladder. In 2021, he defeated Jose Sanchez via third-round TKO and later that year decisioned Isa Chaniev across 12 rounds. After a yearlong layoff, he defeated Yvan Mendy to win the European title and followed that up last August with a convincing decision over former world title challenger Anthony Yigit.
In the 12-round welterweight co-feature, San Diego’s Giovani Santillan, the WBO No. 1-ranked contender, will take on fellow unbeaten Brian Norman, Jr.
Santillan (32-0, 17 KOs) has steadily ascended the welterweight rankings since turning pro in 2012. In 2022 he gave Julio Luna his first pro loss on the undercard of Navarrete’s featherweight title defense against Eduardo Baez. In 2023 he defeated Erick Bone via 10-round decision. He stunned the boxing world in his last outing with a one-sided, six-round demolition of then-No. 1 contender Alexis Rocha at Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
Norman (25-0, 19 KOs), a former U.S. amateur star, is a six-year pro taking a sizable step up in class. He went 3-0 in 2023, capping off the year with a one-sided verdict over Quinton Randall on the Shakur Stevenson-Edwin De Los Santos card in Las Vegas. Norman made his 2024 debut in March, fighting to a no contest with Janelson Bocachica after Bocachica suffered a severe cut on his forehead.
Undercard action begins at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT and streams live and exclusively on ESPN+ featuring U.S. Olympic silver medalist and heavyweight knockout artist Richard Torrez Jr. (9-0, 9 KOs) stepping up against fellow unbeaten Brandon Moore (14-0, 8 KOs).
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Navarrete vs. Berinchyk (All Times ET)
| Date | Time | Event | Fights | Title | Platform |
| Fri May 17 | 4 p.m. | Weigh In | — | — | ESPN+ |
| Sat May 18 | 10:30 p.m. | Main | Emanuel Navarrete vs. Denys Berinchyk | (Vacant) WBO Lightweight | ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+ |
| Co-Feature | Giovani Santillan vs. Brian Norman Jr. |
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| 6:30 p.m. | Feature | Richard Torrez Jr. vs. Brandon Moore |
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ESPN+ | |
| Undercard | Jonny Mansour vs. Anel Dudo | ||||
| Emiliano Fernando Vargas vs. Angel Varela | |||||
| Charlie Sheehy vs. Manuel Jaimes | |||||
| Alan Garcia vs. Wilfred Flores | |||||
| Jonathan Lopez vs. Edgar Ortega | |||||
| Art Barrera Jr. vs. Levy Josue Garcia Benitez |
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