With the victory, Dogboe won a regional title (and shiny belt) but more importantly, moved into position for an eventual opportunity against WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas or WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete, who owns two wins over Dogboe and one over Gonzalez.
Dogboe started quickly in winning the first three rounds and looked to be on his way to a comfortable decision win before Gonzalez began to rally in the middle rounds with his highlight coming when he wobbled Dogboe with a right hand in the fourth that came the closest to scoring a knockdown from either fighter.
My card was dead even after eight rounds as Gonzalez had been the more accurate puncher with Dogboe throwing more in a good but not great battle.
Dogboe turned up his attack in the ninth and won the final two rounds to win the fight on my scorecard 96-94 and that was the same as both judges that chose Dogboe scored the fight with the Gonzalez judge scoring the exact score for the Californian.
The fight was very close and 96-94 for either fighter is a very reasonable scorecard and although a rematch would make little sense for Dogboe, I wouldn't be against one happening, and I'd wager you could see one a year or two down the road after Dogboe receives his chance at a championship.
I'd think that Dogboe might prefer a chance against Vargas rather than a third try at Navarrete, who owns both of the career losses for Dogboe but an attempt against Vargas comes with the difficulty of Top Rank working with the promoter of Vargas, which is PBC.
As for Gonzalez, the defeat may hurt him a small bit for a short time but close losses against world-class fighters don't tend to hold fighters back over the long haul as long as they remain active and work their way back through the division.
In the co-feature, undefeated lightweight Giovanni Cabrera won a convincing unanimous decision and may have erased the prospect status for good of the once-trumpeted Gabriel Flores, who has now lost two of his last three, and his win sandwiched in between the losses was very close.
Cabrera dropped Flores with the first punch that he threw in the first round as a straight left crashed Flores to the floor.
Cabrera would score another knockdown later in the round with Flores being very fortunate to reach the end of the opening stanza.
Flores won the fourth round (the only one that he won on my scorecard) and seemed to possibly win the fifth before Cabrera knocked him down again late in the round and deflated Flores for the remainder of the bout.
If Cabrera would have been a harder puncher (only seven knockouts in his twenty wins entering Saturday), Flores could have been seriously injured as he was strafed with blows throughout and was cut and dealt with severe swelling on and under his left eye.
Flores showed plenty of heart in surviving to the end as he did in his first loss to Lopez but the appeal that he once had as the youngest fighter that Top Rank ever signed to a promotional agreement has been extinguished and at minimum, Flores will have to be rebuilt and matched very carefully for his next few fights as he has taken far too much punishment for such a young fighter in his last three matches.
As for Cabrera, he will make a move up in competition in the division soon, maybe against someone like Jeremiah Nakathila, and a win would move him into the top ten in the division.
At 28, Cabrera will need to stay active as he may not have the time to wait for those types of fights.
Boxing Challenge
TRS: 133 Pts (2)
Ramon Malpica: 113 Pts (2)
Vince Samano: 109 Pts (2)
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