Dogboe Nips Gonzalez and Cabrera Overwhelms Flores in Minnesota

Top Rank was out in the boondocks tonight in Hinckley, Minnesota, with a card that aired in its entirety on ESPN+. The main go was a featherweight affair between former WBO 122-pound world title-holder Isaac Dogboe and two-time world title challenger Joet Gonzalez.

When the smoke cleared, Dogboe was deemed the winner by split decision (96-94, 96-94, 94-96). It was a see-saw battle with Dogboe winning the first three rounds, Gonzalez seemingly forging ahead after seven, and Dogboe finishing strong to take the nod. It was a mild upset as Gonzalez, the taller fighter with a 6-inch reach advantage, had the better physical tools. But he was too passive in the early rounds and at various other points in the fight and let Dogboe steal a well-deserved decision.

It was the fourth straight win for Dogboe (24-2, 15) who has turned his career around after suffering a bad beating in his second encounter with Emanuel Navarrete. The Ghana native who spent his formative years in London may be returning to the U.K. for his next fight as there has been talk of matching him against Michael Conlan or Josh Warrington. Joet Gonzalez who at one point seemingly had the fight in hand, saw his record dip to 25-3.

Co-Feature

Based on the odds and the fact that neither guy was a hard puncher, the lightweight co-feature between Giovanni Cabrera and Gabriel Flores Jr seemingly had a good probability of ending in a draw. To the contrary, Cabrera came close to knocking out Flores in the opening stanza and went on to win a lopsided decision.

Flores was on the canvas in the first 10 seconds of the fight, compliments of a straight left hand. Before the round was over, Cabrera registered another knockdown when the ropes held Flores up as he, Cabrera, was banging away. A short right hook in round five resulted in a third knockdown by the victorious Cabrera (21-0, 7 KOs) who prevailed by identical 98-89 scores on all three cards.

Cabrera, who is of Mexican and Italian heritage and grew up in Chicago, was making his second start with Freddie Roach in his corner. It was the second bad loss for Flores (21-2) in his last three fights. The former whiz kid from Stockton, California, is still only 22 years old, but he first laced on the gloves at age seven and it’s not far-fetched to think that he has passed his peak

Other Bouts of Note

In a 6-round middleweight contest, Milwaukee native Javier Martinez advanced to 7-0 (5) with a hard-fought unanimous decision over Davenport, Iowa’s previously unbeaten Pachino Hill (7-1-1). The judges had it 60-54 and 59-55 twice which struck many as a tad wide.

A former USA national amateur champion, Martinez, 26, grew up fast in one of Milwaukee’s grittiest neighborhoods. He is the father of a 9-year-old son.

Italian Olympian Guido Vianello, the subject of a recent profile in these pages, improved to 9-0-1 (9 KOs) with a fourth-round stoppage of Tijuana’s Rafael Rios (11-4). Vianello forced Rios to take a knee late in the fourth round and although Rios made it to his feet before the count of “10,” the referee though it prudent to stop the fight.

In another heavyweight contest, Antonio Mireles, a six-foot-nine behemoth from Des Moines, Iowa, improved to 4-0 (4) with a second-round stoppage of Dennys Reyes (3-3), a Cuban defector now residing in Minneapolis. Reyes was down twice in the second round before the match was halted at the 2:19 mark,

Mireles won the 2020 U.S. Olympic trials, but was passed over in favor of eventual silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. After signing with Top Rank, “El Gigante” was remanded to Robert Garcia’s boxing academy in Oxnard.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank via Getty Images.

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