As the boxing world is slow to enter 2018, there is only one fight of note to report on this week. An interim WBO belt will be on the line in Ghana as a prominent Olympian gets a big step up.
Saturday, January 6th
Isaac Dogboe (17-0, 11 KOs) v Cesar Juarez (20-5, 15 KOs), super bantamweights – Ghana – BeIN Sports Español, 11 PM Eastern
Unbeaten Ghanaian super bantamweight Isaac Dogboe will have homefield advantage in this interim WBO title fight. Jessie Magdaleno holds the real version and the winner will eventually get their shot, so this is really more of a concrete number one contender showdown than a championship fight. Regardless, Cesar Juarez is a very game and durable Mexican fighter. He will be an outstanding test for the 23 year old 2012 Olympian. This is a good fight. BeIN Sports En Español reportedly will televise in a bit of a surprise given that this is going down in Africa. Their website has boxing vaguely listed for 11 PM, so I assume that is the show on some sort of tape delay.
Otherwise, the closest thing we have to a significant fight is 45 year old Lolenga Mock (41-14-1, 13 KOs) meeting former Chris Eubank Jr victim Dmitrii Chudinov (20-1-2, 13 KOs) in Denmark on Friday. Despite being 45 years old, Mock has won ten straight fights and has emerged as something of a fringe contender at super middleweight with his high volume style.
