Luis Concepcion vs. Nestor Daniel Narvaes RBR

Omar is much better than what he showed against Donaire.

That was a cash grab, plain and simple.

He is near the end of his career and wanted a big payday that wasn't available in his own division.

 

Well...yes and no. He set everything up behind the jab, which he always could do but often simply neglected to in the past. The power shots were all still wild brawling but threw with speed and confidence allowing him to make full use of his power. Narvaes is a good boxer with solid defense and Concepcion just kept breaking him down with one whammy after the other. He fought intelligently, sort of mixing boxing and brawling, setting it all up with the jab and varying from body to head in response to where Narvaes' guard was located any given moment.

 

This was Concepcion's 1st successful defense of the WBC Silver flyweight title.

Edgar Sosa is the #1 contender to Akira Yaegashi and is the "other" WBC Silver flyweight champion (yeah, I know - :blood) so they could settle the matter to determine a clear undisputed silver champ who could then go on to challenge Yaegashi.

Alternately, with Narvaes falling it will nudge Toshiyuki Igarashi (#6) up into the top five and former champ from Japan will surely be looking to claw back into contention to regain his belt. A showdown with Concepcion for his portion of the silver belt would not only be incredibly entertaining - as would Concepcion vs. Sosa - but could potentially catapult Igarashi to a Yaegasih rematch.

Besides those, plenty of decent but not quite as appetizing options abound.

 

The complete rankings through 20:

1 .- Edgar Sosa (Mexico)
2 .- Luis Concepcion (Panama) SILVER
3 .- Rocky Fuentes (Phil) OPBF
4 .- Noknoi Sitthiprasert (Thai) INTL SILVER
5 .- Nestor Narvaes (Argentina)
6 .- Toshiyuki Igarashi (Japan)
7 .- Wilbert Uicab (Mexico) AMERICA
8 .- Takuya Kogawa (Japan)
9 .- Froilan Saludar (Phil)
10 .- Armando Santos (Mexico) NABF
11 .- Oscar Blanquet (Mexico)
12 .- Silvio Olteanu (Romania) EBU
13 .- Rey Megriño (Phil) INTL
14 .- Yodgoen Tor Chalermchai (Thai)
15 .- Nawaphon Sor Rungvisai (Thai) ABCO
16 .- Myung Ho Lee (Japan) 17 .- Ulises Solis (Mexico)
18 .- Anuar Salas (Colombia) SOUTH AMERICA
19 .- McWilliams Arroyo (P. Rico)
20 .- Giovani Segura (Mexico)

From 21-40 is pretty slim pickings. You have the slumping Sonny Boy Jaro, green domestic-level UK prospect Kevin Satchell, and tons of nobodies. So a next dance partner for Luis ought to come from the above list.

Besides Sosa and Igarashi, the most fun pairings for Concepcion would be with Kogawa, Solis, Uicab, Arroyo...or Segura! :scaredas:

More off the beaten path:

The current European champ, Silvio Olteanu is a lot better than his record would suggest (he fought close with former Silver belt holder Uicab, and his loss to Daiki Kameda is widely regarded as maybe the worst robbery of 2010) and matches up intriguingly with Concepcion with his iron chin, strong jab, high motor and willingness to mix it up. He wouldn't be a KO threat, so it would likely be 12 high-octane rounds of action.