By Jim Dower: Showing superior youth, energy and punching power, unbeaten 23-year-old Isaac Dogboe (23-0, 14 KOs) overwhelmed previously unbeaten WBO super bantamweight champion Jessie Magdaleno (25-1, 18 KOs) in stopping him in the 11th round on Saturday night on ESPN at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dogboe knocked the 26-year-old Magdaleno down twice in the 11th round to get the stoppage. Following the second knockdown of the round, the referee Benjy Estevas stepped in and halted the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:38 of the round. Dogboe also knocked Magdaleno down in the 5th round. Earlier in the fight, Magdaleno dropped Dogboe in the 1st round.
Magdaleno got the better of Dogboe in rounds 1 through 3. Dogboe came back strong to dominate rounds 4 through 8 with his hard body punching. In round 9, Dogboe let his foot off the gas and Magdaleno was able to come back. However, after getting a pep dog in between rounds by his trainer, Dogboe came out hard in the 10th and punished Magdaleno badly with powerful body shots. Most of the round, Dogboe pounded Magdaleno with hard body shots while he was trapped against the ropes. Magdaleno looked like he needed help from his trainer after the 10th round had ended, as he took a real shellacking in that round. Sensing blood in the water, Dogboe went all out in the 11th round in dropping Magdaleno twice in the round to get the stoppage.
The loss for Magdaleno was the first of his 8-year pro career, and it ends his 2-fight reign as the WBO 122 lb. champion. Magdaleno captured the WBO super bantamweight title in November 2016 in defeating Nonito Donaire by a 12 round unanimous decision. In Magdaleno’s first and only successful defense of his WBO title, he defeated Adeilson Dos Santos by a 2nd round knockout last year in April. Since then, Magdaleno has been inactive due to injury problems. Coming off of a 1-year layoff to take on a dangerous fighter like Dogboe was bad news for Magdaleno. This guy was too young, too strong and too energetic for Magdaleno to be taking on after a long layoff like that.
In other boxing results on the card, former super middleweight title challenger Jesse Heart (24-1, 20 KOs) defeated Demond Nicholson (18-3-1, 17 KOs) by a 7th round knockout to win the vacant NABF super middleweight title. Hart knocked Nicholson down in the 7th, and the fight was then halted by referee Shawn Clark. Nicholson chose not to get back up to his feet to continue fighting.
The official time of the stoppage was at 2:26 of round. Hart knocked Nicholson down twice in the 7th, but the referee failed to give him credit for it for some reason. Hart also knocked Nicholson down two times in round 3. Earlier in the fight, Nicholson hurt Hard in the 1st round with a big shot. However, he was unable to take advantage of it.
Former heavyweight world title challenger Bryant Jennings (23-2, 13 KOs) used his long reach to defeat Joey Dawejko (19-5-4, 11 KOs) by a one-sided by 10-round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 98-92. Jennings was able to hit Joey Dawejko at will with his long jabs and single right hands when he was on the outside. Joey Dawejko lacked the reach to get to Jennings. When Joey Dawejko did close the distance to get his shots off, Jennings used his big arms to pick off the shots. Jennings looked good for the level of opposition he was facing. The question is can Jennings fight at this level against the better heavyweights like IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
For Jennings, this was his fourth consecutive win since making a comeback in 2017 after being out of the ring for 2 years. Jennings was beaten in back to back fights by former heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko and Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz in 2015. Jennings has looked a lot better against the weak opposition his promoters at Top Rank have matched him against since he made his comeback last year.