Don’t sleep on Saturday’s Top Rank on ESPN show. It may lack a big name, but it brings a really great world title main event between two top up and coming super bantamweights when Jessie Magdaleno defends his WBO belt against Isaac Dogboe. Bryant Jennings and Jesse Hart will also be in action on the broadcast.
Jessie Magdaleno (25-0, 18 KOs) was far from an obscure prospect when turning pro. Top Rank signed him right out of the amateurs after all and he has fought under their banners for every fight since. Yet, he wasn’t some guaranteed blue chip success with a deep international amateur pedigree either. He had the chance to become that, but he chose to join the paid ranks in 2010 rather than pursuing a reasonably likely spot in the 2012 London games.
Magdaleno moved up the rankings slowly in the way Top Rank prospects usually do. There is nothing really notable go to over until late 2016, nearly six full years into his career. That is when he got his first title shot against The Filipino Flash, Nonito Donaire. This was a huge step up from the likes of regional fighters like Rey Perez or Raul Hirales. Nonito had struggle against virtuoso Guillermo Rigondeaux and up at featherweight, but he still seemed way too much for an untested super bantamweight prospect. He wasn’t too much at all in the end. Jessie Magdaleno took fair decision in a competitive fight on his volume to claim his first world title. This result was considered an upset to most.
Even though that fight took place in November of 2016, Jesse has only fought once since then. Last April he took a now borderline traditional victory lap defense by toppling overmatched Brazilian non-contender Adeilson Dos Santos inside two rounds. A wrist injury has kept him out of the ring since. He was supposed to defend against Cesar Juarez in November before being injured.
Isaac Dogboe (18-0, 12 KOs) instead ended up being the one to fight Cesar Juarez. Like Jessie Magdaleno versus Nonito Donaire, it was a big step up fight after a weak run of competition as a prospect. Dogboe passed his test even more emphatically, however. He thoroughly neutralized, thrashed, and stopped Juarez in five rounds at home in Ghana. Granted, Donaire is certainly the tougher out between the two, but that doesn’t diminish Dogboe’s performance. He was really dynamic against Cesar Juarez.
This fight is taking place stateside in Philadelphia. Geography has been an interesting part of Dogboe’s life and career. He was born and raised in Ghana until age eight when he relocated to the UK. His amateur boxing career began there. When he and his father found it difficult to qualify for the 2016 Rio games given that Isaac was only seventeen at the time, their attention returned back to Ghana. He represented his African home well in Rio despite losing his first fight. He fell by a single point to popular two time Olympian and eventual Japanese bronze medalist Satoshi Shimizu in the opening round. With a less difficult draw, Dogboe might have been a medal threat at only seventeen years old
Dogboe turned pro strangely with a fight in Sweden and then the UK before taking his next five bouts in the United States. His last time stateside was in April of 2015 as he has fought ten of his last eleven back home in Ghana. He and his family returned to traditionally strong the African boxing nation following the death of his grandfather. Ghana is where he finished rising as a prospect and where he became a serious contender at the expense of Cesar Juarez.
I really love this fight. Both of these young men have serious talent and skill. They also have both taken a single step up fight and passed their test brilliantly. Dogboe is a fast, dynamic athlete while Magdaleno is more of a volume oriented grinder at a higher level than that description would normally imply. The potential in ring style matchup also points to an action fight on paper and both fighters have serious career momentum. Neither man brings the name value that Danny Jacobs is bringing to HBO or even Josesito Lopez is bringing to FOX, but this is the best fight of the weekend. Everything about it is great. For my money, I like Isaac Dogboe to win more rounds with his quicker work. Whether or not that would get him a decision on the road remains to be seen.
Both heavyweight and super middleweight contenders Bryant Jennings (23-2, 13 KOs) and Jesse Hart (23-1, 19 KOs) are in action on the undercard against Joey Dawejko (19-4-4, 11 KOs) and Demond Nicholson (18-2-1, 17 KOs) respectively. Jennings is slowly building the second chapter of his career under Top Rank while Hart is looking to jump back into contention after a strong showing in a narrow loss to titleholder Gilberto Ramirez. Both of them are in soft, Jennings especially.
Another great thing about this show is that it begins early at 7 PM Eastern time. This means it will not conflict with HBO’s show, though it will with the first half of PBC on FOX. If you subscribe to ESPN+ the pre-TV undercards begin at 4 PM and will feature 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson (5-0, 2 KOs).
