WORLD champions Ray Beltran and Isaac Dogboe both made weight Friday for their respective title defences at the Gila River Arena, Glendale, Arizona tonight.
Beltran boxes Jose Pedraza for the WBO lightweight crown. WBO super-bantamweight boss Isaac Dogboe boxes Hidenori Otake. Both are defending their titles for the first time.
“I feel like my heart is in half. I feel like a Phoenix fighter, but I’m also a Mexican fighter from my hometown. I can’t believe what I’ve come from. I come from nothing. I come from a place where nobody is supposed to make it. I think it’s important that the people where I came from know about it, so they get the message — whatever you want to do in life, if you work hard, you can make a change,” Beltran said.
“Pedraza is a former world champion. I believe he’s going to bring some heat. He’s going to come and fight hard to take the belt away from me. He bobs and moves around the ring a lot. He’s got good footwork, but we’ve been working at Wild Card with all different types of styles.”
Beltran is confident that victory will set up a major fight. “Hopefully, we have another big fight coming up against [Vasiliy] Lomachenko. I’m pretty happy when I fight the best. I’ve had no easy fights in my boxing career. We made our own way. We made our own name. We got a contract with Top Rank after 20-something fights. Nobody created our record. I have a lot of knockouts, but I have more power than it looks like,” he said.
“I’m ready. Right now, I’m focused on Pedraza, but we dream big.”
Weights as follows:
Ray Beltran 134.6 lbs vs. José Pedraza 134.4 lbs
(WBO Lightweight title – 12 Rounds)
• Isaac Dogboe 121 lbs vs. Hidenori Otake 121.4 lbs
(WBO Junior Featherweight title – 12 Rounds)
• Mikaela Mayer 129.4 lbs vs. Edina Kiss 128.6 lbs
(Super Featherweight – 6 Rounds)
• Arnold Barboza Jr. 141.6 lbs vs. Luis Solis 142 lbs
(Super Lightweight – 10 Rounds)
• Antonio Lozada Jr. 137 lbs vs. Hector Ambriz 136.6 lbs
(Lightweight – 8 Rounds)
• Francisco De Vaca 124.4 lbs vs. Jesus Serrano 126.8 lbs
(Featherweight – 8 Rounds)
• Carlos Castro 121.4 lbs vs. Diuhl Olguin 121.2 lbs
(Super Bantamweight – 8 Rounds)
• Robson Conceicao 129.8 lbs vs. Edgar Cantu 129 lbs
(Super Featherweight – 8 Rounds)
• Trevor McCumby 172.4 lbs vs. Jessie Nicklow 169.8 lbs
(Light Heavyweight – 8 Rounds)
• Sagadat Rakhmankul 150 lbs vs. Christian Aguirre 151.2 lbs
(Super Welterweight – 6 Rounds)
• Breenan Macias 116.6 lbs vs. Philip Adyaka 118.4 lbs
(Bantamweight – 4 Rounds)
