Navarro Gives Strong Effort

Jose Navarro had just picked up the 20th win without a defeat in his professional career when his vanquished and bloodied opponent whispered in his ear in the center of the ring.

“Eres fuerte,” Martin Armenta said in Spanish through a crimson mask. You’re strong.

“I was just thinking, ‘Then why didn’t you go down?’ ” Navarro said with a sheepish grin.

Indeed, the World Boxing Council’s No. 1-ranked super-flyweight contender had dominated Armenta enough throughout the semi-main event of Saturday night’s card at Staples Center that referee Pat Russell, on the advice of the ringside doctor, ended the bout at the end of the fifth round.

“It would have been better knocking him out instead of him quitting or them stopping it,” said Navarro, whose power has been questioned because of his relatively low knockout percentage. He has won only eight fights by KO.

“But a win’s a win,” he said.

And it’s enough to get him on the short list to challenge WBC super-flyweight champion Masanori Tokuyama for the belt.

Navarro holds such fringe titles as the WBC Continental Americas, North American Boxing Organization and International Boxing Assn. World Continental Americas championships. He met with Tokuyama’s manager, Akihiko Honda, at Staples Center and has an agreement to fight in Japan in July on the undercard of Tokuyama’s title defense.

Should both fighters win that day, Navarro would then meet Tokuyama in Tokyo for the world championship in October.

“I’ve already learned some Japanese,” Navarro said. “I’ve learned how to say, ‘I love Japanese people.’ ”

Locals may have learned how to appreciate Navarro. The 2000 Olympian from South-Central Los Angeles was cheered from the start.

Although he is more boxer than brawler, which prompted a Grand Olympic Auditorium crowd to boo him last year, Navarro sparked interest with the haymakers he landed on Armenta, who lost his fourth consecutive fight by stoppage to fall to 10-6-3.

Using his right jab effectively to set up his left, the southpaw Navarro picked Armenta apart.

Navarro, 22, bloodied Armenta’s nose in the second round by connecting with several overhand lefts, hooks and uppercuts, Armenta’s smiling and throwing his arms up in mock celebration with each blow.

But in the fifth, Navarro caught Armenta in the corner and unloaded with aplomb, hitting him as hard as a 115-pounder can while delighting the crowd.

It all made Navarro, who was put in the pressure-packed position of delivering the Latino crowd, feel more at home.

“When I got booed at the Olympic, it hurt my feelings,” said Navarro, who did not lose a round on any of the three judges’ scorecards. “So I took it out on [Armenta].

“Man, I hit him with some vicious right hands. I thought someone was holding him up. The ropes were holding him up.”

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Also on the card: junior middleweight Carlos Bojorquez (22-4-6) got his 18th KO when he stopped Ronald Weaver (29-14-1) in the fourth round and Ahmed Kaddour (16-0) picked up his seventh KO, stopping Juan Carlos Garcia (7-3) in the fourth round in a super-welterweight bout.