Cesar Juarez vs Isaac Dogboe
Junior featherweight contender Cesar Juarez was originally supposed to face WBO super bantamweight champion Jessie Magdaleno on November 11th on an ESPN card in Fresno, California. Now Juarez is in Africa to fight Isaac Dogboe for the interim 122LB WBO title.
Juarez, 20-5, 15 KO, 26, of Mexico, and Isaac Dogboe, 17-0, 11 KO, 23, will face each other at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Dogboe’s hometown of Accra, Ghana.
Juarez lost two in a row to end 2015 and start 2016 including an absolute war with Nonito Donaire. He has rebounded since to win three in a row, including an eighth round knockout of undefeated prospect Albert Pagara in July 2016. He only fought once in 2017 though when he stopped Eugene Lagos back in April.
Dogboe just 23-years-old started his career fighting in Switzerland, Ireland and America. Since his seventh fight however he has fought all but one in his home country of Ghana. His most recent bout took place in the same arena as Saturday’s fight when he stopped Javier Nicolas Chacon.
Juarez, who is the top ranked contender, was very skeptical of the whole scenario involving Magdaleno and his injury situation that caused their fight to be cancelled. Now he finds himself traveling to his opponents backyard in Accra, Ghana for this opportunity.
“He just didn’t want to wait, he didn’t believe Magdaleno is coming back anytime soon and he’s tired of waiting. Now he’s fighting in Africa.” Juarez’s manager Sean Gibbons told 3KingsBoxing.com.
“Are we happy to go to Ghana though? Not really. We’d rather have been in Fresno to fight Magdaleno like we were supposed to, like we signed to do. But it didn’t happen so here we are.” added Gibbons.
“I’m not concerned about Dogboe. I think Juarez has more heart and more determination and is a better fighter. I’m more concerned with the judging than the fight, and being in a country we’ve never been to. Dogboe is a nice fighter but he’s never been under the kind of stress Cesar Juarez will bring to the table.” said Gibbons.
By: Chris Henderson
