8 rounds @ featherweight, co-headlining a Top Rank on ESPN card this coming Tuesday. Each man is coming off a pair of consecutive losses, and both last fought (just once apiece) in 2019. Dogboe had previously been the undefeated WBO super bantamweight champion, 20-0 with 14 kayos and two successful title defenses, before running afoul of even harder-punching Mexican rising star Emanuel Navarrete Martinez. When he steps in with Avalos, it will have been 23 months since he took on an opponent besides Vaquero. Avalos has never held a world title but has contended twice, stopped by Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz. He is a heavy-handed, face-first grinder with more grit than defensive savvy.
Dogboe is a talented and exciting guy and I hope the fight wasn't beaten out of him by that weight bully.
The only way i see this being competitive is if Dogboe is still affected by the navarrete fights, if not he should win comfortably by forcing a stoppage in the first half of the fight. Avalos was a decent gatekeeper some years ago but right now he is shot and used as cannon fodder for prospects.
He only has lost to a single prospect, in his last fight, and on points. All of his other losses since Christopher Martin a decade ago have been to ranked contenders or titlists (Romero, Frampton, LSC, Valdez, and Magsayo). He should be the underdog here is Dogboe is close to his old self - but if the Ghanaian has been decimated by his recent experiences Avalos is dangerous enough to mop him up.
(...speaking of Valdez, btw, he's the headliner, versus Jayson Vélez Jiménez. Probably another full-length 10-round loss the sturdy but limited Puerto Rican - just like against Rios, Jo-Jo, Alvarado, Santiago and Kingry)
