What some would call stubborn, Jonathan Navarro labels self-belief.
Coming off two consecutive losses and devoid of a convincing victory since returning from a five-year layoff prompted by a torn biceps muscle, Navarro runs right back into the proverbial flames by meeting Bryan Flores Saturday night in the ProBoxTV main event.
“I feel like the people already forgot who I am,” said Navarro, a former Golden Boy Promotions prospect from Buena Park, California. “They forgot everything, and I feel like whatever credit I have, it’s kind of gone because I was out for very long. They assume I’m done.”
Navarro, 29, has fought three times since the 2019 injury, beating Clarence Booth narrowly on the scorecards in his 2024 ProBoxTV debut, then blamed personal distractions for his first career loss versus Denilson Palomares before getting stopped in the fifth round of a June 2025 bout versus current welterweight champion Liam Paro.
Now a promotional free agent facing Mexico’s Flores, 28-1-1 (16 KOs), Navarro said he believes he’s fully righted while training among the remarkably talented stablemates at Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Southern California.
“Being where I am… honestly, it’s inspiring,” he told BoxingScene Tuesday. “You can ask any of those guys in the gym… they’ll tell you that I still hit very hard. I’m still very sharp.
“There’s been some bad luck, the injury, the setback.
“Having another loss on my record, I can’t accept it. This one, I know I’m not going to lose against Flores. I just know I’m not. I’ve told myself so many times. I just can’t lose to this guy. There’s no way. There’s no way that this guy can beat me.”
Navarro was off to a 17-0 record with nine KOs when he defeated Lebin Morales on October 24, 2019, at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. The bout was followed shortly after by the COVID-19 pandemic and as he was preparing for a high-profile bout against fellow title contender Pablo Cesar Cano in 2021, his injury sabotaged the promising start and his peak years.
“It took a good while for me to recover. It’s not just an easy surgery. It’s about preparing and then kind of getting your mind to be at 100%, as well, learning and believing that it’s not going to happen again, knowing that it’s not going to be as easy as it was before just challenges everything,” Navarro said. “I would say that – more than anything – is what took a while.
“Me being okay, me realizing I’m good, that I don’t need to worry so much about this. Because it stays in your mind. You kind of get that little feeling like, ‘What if it happens again,” or, ‘What if I get injured again?’ It’s a fear you have, and you have to walk through it. You have to forget about it and just move on.”
Navarro missed the sport so badly he half-joked with his wife that he hoped someone on the street would threaten them so he could finally “throw hands again,” but when that comeback bout against Booth arrived, the nagging thoughts of a reoccurrence struck and he won by three 76-75 scorecards.
Losing in Australia to native son Paro, 28-1 (16 KOs), who in late June captured the IBF welterweight belt against Lewis Crocker, was no crime, and Navarro now moves back to ProBox, which prides itself on evenly-matched, high-stakes fights.
Navarro’s stakes? “I can’t lose again,” he said, adding that while he wouldn’t expect a third loss to send him to retirement, he does believe a setback would provoke some deep thoughts.
“It’s hard for me to come to boxing and think I’m going into easy fights. I want to be sent right into the wolves,” Navarro said. “I would say that what I’ve done shows the kind of fighter I am. It shows I’m not scared of anybody, and that I won’t say no to any fight because… I’m here.”
Flores, 30, is the No. 13-ranked 140lbs contender whose lone loss is to Navarro’s stablemate and soon-to-be IBF 140lbs title fighter, Lindolfo Delgado.
In the gym, Navarro has both spoken to Delgado to gather a scouting report on Flores while sparring with top 140lbs contender, Mexico’s Oscar Duarte, and chatting with Flores’ former amateur teammate, Raul Curiel.
“Obviously, if you’re in [the Garcia camp], you’re there for a reason,” Navarro said. “You’re not just a C-class fighter. You’re not a D fighter. You’re a very high-class fighter.
“So, I’m very confident with the fight. I see a lot of mistakes in him. I see a lot of things that I can capitalize from.”
Living in Buena Park, California, Navarro also is afforded the luxury of driving over from his home to San Bernardino for the Friday morning weigh-in. On fight night, he expects deep home-region support.
“I really have a lot of fans that have told me they’re going – a lot of family members,” Navarro said. “I know it’s going to be a packed house and, just having that momentum, having everybody there that you grew up with, I think that kind of gives you that feeling he’s coming to my house to fight me. All that momentum is gonna help me out.”
