By T J Rives
January 14, 2023
Source: Big Fight Weekend
Photo Source: Big Fight Weekend
Looks like we’re getting an intriguing featherweight showdown for a world title, as Robeisy Ramirez will tangle with Isaac Dogboe in a Top Rank Boxing main event in April.
“Two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez (11-1, 7 KOs), a 29-year-old southpaw, and former junior featherweight titlist Isaac Dogboe(24-2, 15 KOs), 28, of Ghana, will meet in 12-round featherweight fight that will headline the April 1 edition of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+, sources told Fight Freaks Unite.
The bout will be either for the vacant WBO interim featherweight title or the potentially vacant full title. It will depend on what happens in the Feb. 3 Top Rank on ESPN+ main event between reigning WBO featherweight titlist Emanuel Navarrete and Liam Wilson, who meet for the vacant WBO junior lightweight title in Glendale, Arizona.
After the fight, Navarrete will have to decide whether to remain at 130 pounds or return to 126 to defend his title in that division.
If he stays at 130, as is expected, the Ramirez-Dogboe winner will claim the vacant featherweight title. If Navarrete makes an unlikely return to 126, the winner will claim the interim title and be mandated to face Navarrete.”
Watch our BetUS TV preview of the Top Rank heavyweight main event Saturday night on ESPN between Efe Ajagba vs. Stephan Shaw here,
As Dan wrote above, Navarrete, 36-1, 30 KOs, is slated to meet Liam Wilson in a couple of weeks in his own Top Rank event. The hard hitting Mexican was to have fought former unified 130 lb. champ Oscar Valdez on February 3rd. However, Valdez withdrew due to injury.
So, the two division world champ Navarrete will instead meet the Australian Wilson, who is 11-1, 7 KOs, and ranked third by the WBO at junior lightweight. Navarette has built up quite a KO resume’ in title fights over the past three plus years. That includes his sixth round body shot knockout of Eduardo Baez in San Diego last August, while defending his WBO featherweight crown.
Navarrete burst on the world title stage by upsetting Dogboe in a one-sided decision win in New York in December 2018 to capture the WBO jr. featherweight crown. He hammered Dogboe in the immediate rematch with a fight that shouldn’t have been allowed to see the 12 round before it was stopped in May of 2019.
Navarrete then scored four more KOs in defense of that 122 lb. crown over the next year. However, as Dan wrote, he’s unlikely to come back down to featherweight, and that opens the door for Ramirez or Dogboe to eventually be world champ, if they win in April.
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