By Ian S Palmer
Former WBO Super Bantamweight Champion Isaac Dogboe of Ghana returns to the ring for the first time since losing his title and the rematch to Emanuel Navarrete. He’s scheduled to take on Chris Avalos of San Diego, California in an eight-round featherweight bout at the Bubble in Las Vegas this Tuesday, July 21st. Dogboe lost the rematch by 12th-round TKO in May, 2019 after losing his belt to Navarrete by unanimous decision five months earlier. Avalos last fought in November when he dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to Abimael Ortiz. Tuesday’s bout can be seen live in the USA on ESPN and ESPN Deportes while those in Canada can see it live on TSN 3 and 5.
The 25-year-old Dogboe hails from Accra, but fights out of London, England. He’ll climb into the ring with a fine mark of 20-2 with 14 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 134 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 63.6 per cent. He’s 5-feet-4-inches tall with a 64-inch reach and has also beaten the likes of Javier Nicolas Chacon and Julian Aristule.
Other than Navarrete, Magdaleno, Otake and perhaps Juarez, most of Dogboe’s other opponents 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 then show a lot of fight and heart in both battles with Navarrete.
Avalos is now 30 years old and was out of the ring for two years before coming back to lose against Ortiz in November. He’s now lost two in a row as he was stopped in the eighth round by Leo Santa Cruz in a shot at the WBA Super World Featherweight Title in October of 2017. In fact Avalos has had a rough time of it lately by losing five of his last seven fights and he’ll be climbing through the ropes with a record of 27-7 with 20 Kos.
His chin is questionable since he’s been stopped four times in his five losses but he also has pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 58.8 per cent. It seems the majority of Avalos’ fight end in stoppage either one way or the other and that makes him quite an exciting boxer to watch. He’s 5-feet-7-inches tall with a 68-inch reach which means he’s three inches taller than Dogboe with a four-inch reach advantage.
Avalos turned pro back in 2008 and has boxed 174 rounds since then. His biggest wins have been against Miguel Flores, Yasutaka Ishimoto and Jose Nieves. He also beat Drian Francisco back in 2013 for the vacant WBO NABO Super Bantamweight Crown and beat Khabir Suleymanov for the vacant NABA-USA, and WBO Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight Titles two years earlier. In 2020 he captured the vacant WBO NABO Bantamweight Title against Jhon Alberto Molina.
His other losses were to Christopher Martin (2010) and Jhonaton Romero (2011) by 10-round split decision as well as to Carl Frampton and Oscar Valdez by fifth-round TKOs in 2015 and Mark Magsayo by sixth-round stoppage in 2016. Avalos has struggled when stepping up in class in the past and though there’s no reason to believe things will change now.
Prediction…
Avalos doesn’t have the greatest chin but has enough power to cause damage to anybody. He’s also got a decent height and reach advantage on Dogboe. This is supposedly just and eight-round bout so both boxers can’t wait to get started. I’m going with Dogboe due to his aggressiveness and heart but it could still be a tough test for him.
