Had Refugio Navarro never changed his mind, his son, Steven Navarro, likely would have never picked up a pair of gloves.

Navarro comes from a family of boxers, which includes his father and uncles, Jose Navarro and Carlos Navarro. Refugio had 10 fights (5-3-1, 1 no-contest), Carlos (27-6-1, 22 KOs) fought the likes of Nate Campbell and Bobby Pacquiao and Jose (27-6, 12 KOs) was the most successful of the trio as a 2000 U.S. Olympian at 112 pounds and fought for the WBC super flyweight title twice.

Despite having boxing in his blood, Refugio didn’t want Steven to follow their path, having seen how brutal the sport can be.

“He knew the experience of being a fighter is a hurt sport and he didn't want that for me,” Steven told The Ring. “However, there's certain life experiences that one went through. At the time, I knew nobody was gonna come rescue me, so that was when I really became a young man, and I knew how to find my answers. Thanks to the man above, it was boxing and worship.

“I did Muay Thai for a year-and-a-half and even then, he didn’t think I was ready for boxing. I got in the ring with somebody who was experienced and it's all about what you put in. I was studying, I was training hard and when I finally got to box an experienced fighter, I did well.”

A sparring session immediately changed Refugio’s perspective. One day, he was convinced to take Steven to a local boxing gym and he sparred a much more experienced kid. Despite the gap in experience, Steven held his own, and in turn, Refugio was convinced it’d be OK to let his son follow the same path as he and his uncles.

“He did his thing and did good,” Refugio told The Ring of the sparring session. “Didn't completely dominate it, but he showed me that he had what it took to be in a ring and to box. It was very, very emotional for me.”

Now, they’re tied at the hip as Steven makes his rise as one of boxing’s top prospects with Refugio as his trainer. Steven (6-0, 5 KOs) returns to the ring Saturday to defend his NABF junior bantamweight title against Cristopher Rios on the undercard of Xander Zayas vs. Jorge Garcia Perez at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York.

“It's like a best friend that you can't shake off,” Steven said of having his father as his trainer. “My father, he's a great man. He's my biggest inspiration. He's constantly reminding me [of the importance of] discipline. My father is an engineer. He works, he does a 12-hour shift, and he comes home and he works with me in the gym. So if I have a man like that in front of me, I never complain. I show up every day and work. It's just admiring and I’m just trying to try to be worthy of being his son.”

“These are surreal moments for me,” Refugio said. “We've been doing this for 10 years, and to finally see the results, I'm just happy. I'm happy to be here. This is a dream to me.”

Steven, 21, was a 13-time US national amateur champion and reached the finals of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at 115 pounds before turning pro on April 6, 2024. He fought five times last year, notching four victories inside the distance. In his last fight, Steven was scheduled for eight rounds for the first time and withstood some adversity to stop Juan Esteban Garcia (15-2-2, 12 KOs) in the fourth to win the then-vacant NABF title on April 5 in Las Vegas.

Through six fights, Steven looks the part of a fighter who was brought up in a boxing family. Steven fights out of orthodox and southpaw and leans heavily on his angles and movement to set up his offense, not too dissimilar to former four-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko and unified WBC/WBO/Ring junior bantamweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. Steven, who began boxing as an orthodox, also credits his uncle Jose, who was a southpaw, and Refugio for their help in honing his style from both stances.

“I did grow up watching a lot of switch hitters,“ Steven said. “Jose helped me out with that. There were certain habits that I had as a right-hander that were a bit difficult for me to overcome. I was able to rebuild my style without the habits as a southpaw, and my father's big on fundamentals, so he helped me out with that a lot.”

Rios (11-2, 7 KOs) represents a stiff test, his losses coming by majority decision to Andy Dominguez Velasquez (12-1, 6 KOs) last year and split decision to Billy Rodriguez (6-0, 3 KOs) in 2023. Steven will be the third eight-round fight of his career and he went 10 rounds in his loss to Rodriguez.

In his last fight, Rios defeated a previously unbeaten Daniel Barrera (9-1-1, 4 KOs) by majority decision on Feb. 21.

“He's a great fighter,” Steven said. “He's very tough, very rugged [and] he's game. I'm going to show that IQ plays a huge role in the sport of boxing and that's what I'm ready to showcase. ... I expect to get my hand raised, and I expect to satisfy the fans and to really show the school of boxing.”