The Naoya Inoue/Michael Dasmarinas card isn’t the type of card that bolsters a high profile main event, and a last minute, make-shift undercard with no interest attached to it. The two top fights on the undercard actually carries more interest than the πΊmain event, in terms of evened out opposition, which garners extra reasoning as to why this is a card that should be watched in its totality.
The co-main event will feature rising female star & new titlist πΊπΈMikaela Mayer (14-0-0, 5KO) trying to defend her WBO Super-Featherweight world title against former 2-division long reigning Champion π¦π·Erica Anabelle Farias (26-4-0, 10KO
), who is attempting to win a title in a 3rd weight class.
Mayer is without a doubt one of the current faces of female boxing, and is the very reason why Top-Rank began to entertain featuring women’s boxing, as they were a little late in coming around towards doing so. Their gamble has certainly paid off, as Mayer has managed to galvanize interest in fans looking to see new talent, in any capacity. She will defend her title for the first time.
Erica Farias was a former titlist at both Lightweight, and Junior-Welterweight. The 36 year old is coming down in weight for this opportunity to co-feature on a major card. She defended her WBC Lightweight title 9 times before losing it to Delfine Persoon, and defended her WBC Junior-Welterweight world title 4 times before losing it to πΊπΈJessica McCaskill.
She certainly brings experience to the table to see her through the task, and will look to test the young, skilled Mayer, looking to add another chapter to her career.
Leading up to that co-main event is arguably the most compelling bout of the night. “Neho!”, circumstances never change the mantra. Once feared former WBO Super-Bantamweight titlist π¬ππ¬π§Isaac Dogboe (21-2-0, 15KO) is taking a step-up opportunity at Featherweight, and will be going up against talented, well-liked, strong world contender πΊπΈAdam “Blunose” Lopez (15-2-0, 6KO
), with both boxers looking to rise up on the pecking order, Dogboe to get another world title shot, and Lopez to get his opportunity.
Blunose made his name known when he took his breakout fight on one-days notice, that being against π²π½Oscar Valdez. Though Lopez lost, he vehemently impressed onlookers, and people in the business, as someone who was good enough to fight Oscar tooth and nail, even putting him on the canvas, after taking this last minute opportunity.
Now that he has had a full training camp for another step-up fight, he may be primed for a major victory to manifest in the young fighters career. As for Dogboe, he was sitting on top of the world after defeating Jessie Magdaleno to win a world title. He dominated in his lone title defense, before running into (at the time) little known π²π½Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete.
Navarrete scored the upset decision over Dogboe to take his title. They ran it back for an immediate rematch, and Navarrete ransacked Dogboe mercilessly, causing a stoppage victory. Dogboe appeared to be broken. Picking up the pieces of his psyche, he changed his corner, and his weight class, in pursuit of a strong performance over a live opponent (such as Lopez) to get him back in a world title fight. Now’s the time, if he is to turn his career around.