A wide variety of options now await “Vaquero,” who holds the WBO and IBF titles at 130 pounds.

During his post-fight press conference at the Desert Diamond Arena in Arizona, Navarrete discussed further unifying the division with a fight against WBC champion O'Shaquie Foster, facing WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza, and giving Charly Suarez a rematch after their May fight was controversially ruled a No Contest.

Navarrete (40-2-1, 33 KOs, 1 NC) also entertained the idea of moving up to 135 pounds for a second time in hopes of becoming a four-division titleholder, while others took it one step further and pondered an unlikely pitting against The Ring and WBO 140-pound champion Shakur Stevenson.

As a world of savory options awaits after stopping “Sugar” Nunez, Navarrete threw his sombrero into the mix to be considered for a supporting role during Canelo Alvarez’s return on September 12 on the “Mexico vs. The World” show in Saudi Arabia.

“Who wouldn't want to be involved on a night like that and have the possibility of supporting Canelo,” said Navarrete. “But it's premature to talk about things at the moment. I just want to stay calm and see what the shuffled cards look like on the table.”

While everyone focused on the future, Navarrete was still enjoying the present and how he nullified Nunez (29-2, 27 KOs) in a fight he was projected to lose as a betting underdog.

“It was a strong and difficult fight, but it was a really great fight from my point of view,” said Navarrete. “It was wonderful to finally unify titles. It was a long time coming. You can feel his strength, but he wasn’t able to solidly connect on me the way that he would have wanted to.”

The fight was stopped a second into the 11th round when the ringside physician deemed Nunez unfit to continue due to a deeply damaged right eye. Navarrete really piled on the pressure in rounds nine and ten, landing 80 punches in those frames, 70 to the face of his fellow Mexican rival.

Nunez got off to a slow start in the fight and never gained momentum in what materialized to be a competitive, one-sided clash.

Overall, Navarrete outlanded Nunez 236 to 140, per CompuBox.

“I'm hoping Nunez can recover and come back soon,” he added. “We're professionals. This sport can look cruel at times, and even though I have great respect for Nunez, I wouldn't make that decision [to hold back] for personal and sporting reasons. It would be a lack of respect for my career, my team, the work that I've put in. Nunez was a strong fighter. Despite being hurt, he continued to fight. I'm just grateful to him for showing the will to fight.

“The key to making my victory look easy was that I had some really great sparring for this fight to fit Nunez’s style. We were able to develop the plan perfectly to neutralize his abilities.”

The win revived the 31-year-old Navarrete’s career after a 27-month stretch yielding a run of uneven results.

Before the Suarez fight, Navarrete stopped Oscar Valdez in six rounds, lost to Denys Berinchyk via split decision in his lightweight debut, and settled for a majority draw against Robson Conceicao despite dropping him twice.

“I didn't expect to have such a prolonged career and so much longevity,” said Navarrete.

“But I was really happy with what I saw tonight. I am going into a new stage of my career. We tried new things in training, and you saw the fruits of that labor. I feel like I am far away from retiring at the moment. I am sure there are going to be some spectacular things on the horizon for me.”

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.