By Ian S Palmer
WBO Super Bantamweight Champion Emanuel Navarrete will square off against former champ Isaac Dogboe of Ghana in Tucson, Arizona this Saturday, May 11th in a rematch of their December slugfest.
Navarrete took the title via unanimous decision five months ago and hurt Dogboe several times along the way. The 12-round bout can be seen live in the USA on ESPN and ESPN Deportes while fans in the UK and Ireland can catch it on BoxNation and those in Canada can see it live on TSN 5.
The 24-year-old Dogboe hails from Accra, but fights out of London, England. He’ll climb into the ring with a fine mark of 20-1 along with 13 Kos. He enjoyed a fine amateur career and boxed at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. He turned pro a year later and has boxed 122 rounds since then. He’s also won several regional and minor titles since turning pro including the West African Boxing Union, WBO Africa, WBC Youth Silver and WBO Oriental Featherweight Titles as well as the WBO International and WBO World Super Bantamweight Titles.
Dogboe won the interim belt in January, 2018 when he stopped Cesar Juarez in the fifth round. He then earned the full belt when he stopped former champion Jessie Magdaleno in the 11th round of a thriller just three months later. He may have been dropped in the first round by Magdaleno, but proved he owns a solid chin as well as pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 67 per cent. He’s 5-feet-2-inches tall with a 64-inch reach and has also beaten the likes of Javier Nicolas Chacon and Julian Aristule.
Other than Magdaleno, Otake and perhaps Juarez, most of Dogboe’s opponents, even Navarrete when they first met, won’t be recognized by the average boxing fan, but that doesn’t really matter since he made a name for himself and burst on the international scene after his very impressive performances against Magdaleno and Otake. He’s now got a very tough task ahead of him in his attempt at regaining the title.
Navarrete is also 24 years old and enters the rematch with a record of 26-1 along with 22 big Kos. This gives him a current knockout ratio of 81 per cent, but Dogboe halted his stoppage streak at eight in December by going the distance. The new champion stands 5-feet-7-inches tall with a 72-inch reach so has a big five-inch height and eight-inch reach advantage on Dogboe. He turned pro back in 2012 when he was just 17 and has boxed 113rounds since then.
Navarrete’s lone defeat came in his sixth pro bout when he came out on the wrong end of a four-round unanimous decision to Daniel Argueta. Other than meeting Dogboe, the average fan won’t really recognize any of Navarrete’s opponents up to now other than perhaps Dennis Contreras, Luis Orozco and Glenn Porras. But on the bright side, most of his foes have entered the ring with winning records. Navarrete proved he has the size to give Dogboe some problems as well as the power to hurt him.
Prediction…
This will be another tough and exciting fight for Dogboe since Navarrete used his size advantage to good affect the first time around and applied the pressure. Dogboe made it a dogfight and showed a lot of heart but just couldn’t do enough to retain his title. There could be a knockdown or two along the way and don’t be surprised by any ending. That being said, I think Navarrete will leave the ring with the title belt still around his waist after a hard battle by win or draw, but he’ll have to work hard to keep
