Isaac Dogboe of Ghana defeated a persistent Joet Gonzalez on Saturday night to secure a chance at the featherweight championship.
A 10-round split decision was won by the former WBO junior featherweight champion in the ESPN+ main event as he got off to a strong start and held off Gonzalez’s comeback in the later rounds. On Saturday night, Ghanaian Isaac Dogboe held off the persistent Joet Gonzalez to secure a chance at the featherweight championship.
On the scorecards of judges Mike Fitzgerald and Tim Cheatham, Dogboe prevailed in their back-and-forth battle 96-94. Gonzalez was declared the winner of their entertaining bout by judge Patrick Morley with a score of 96–94. By defeating Gonzalez, who entered the ring ranked first among the WBO’s challengers for Emanuel Navarrete’s 126-pound championship, Dogboe (24-2, 15 KOs) at least put himself in a position to face Navarrete a third time.
The WBO has Dogboe ranked second at 126 pounds, but after overcoming Gonzalez, he must face Navarrete (25-3, 15 KOs). However, Mexico’s Navarrete (35-1, 29 KOs) might upgrade to the 130-pound category after an optional defense of his WBO featherweight title against Eduardo Baez (21-2-2, 7 KOs) on August 20 at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
To earn the WBO junior featherweight championship in December 2018, Navarrete defeated Dogboe by unanimous decision in their maiden contest. By knocking Dogboe out twice and ending the fight in the 12th round, Navarrete prevailed in their subsequent rematch in May 2019. Since Navarrete defeated him in their rematch, Dogboe, 27, has gone 4-0-0. Dogboe will probably compete against another highly regarded contender for the vacant WBO title if Navarrete gives up his crown.
Although Dogboe-Gonzalez was a WBC elimination fight, it is not anticipated that the fifth-ranked Dogboe, who prevailed over the fourth-ranked Gonzalez, will be the WBC’s mandatory challenger for their recently crowned featherweight champion, Rey Vargas (36-0, 22 KOs). Gonzalez, who is 28 years old, suffered his first professional defeat in a non-title bout in ten years. The Glendora, California native had only ever suffered unanimous defeats in WBO featherweight title fights against Shakur Stevenson (18-0, 9 KOs) and Navarrete before Saturday night.
Gonzalez was unofficially given credit by CompuBox for landing seven additional punches total (197-of-549 to 190-of-783). Just before the halfway point of the eighth round, Gonzalez used a right to get around Dogboe’s defense. Gonzalez persisted in pressing the action in the closing minute of the eighth round, connecting on several solid right hands.
Just after the ninth round’s midway mark, Dogboe successfully caught Gonzalez with a left hook. About ten seconds later, another left hook from Dogboe forced Gonzalez to reposition himself. The majority of the 10th round’s strong punching was exchanged on the inside between Gonzalez and Dogboe. Both fighters delivered blows to the body and head over those three minutes, although neither fighter seemed injured at any time.
