WORLD champions Ray Beltran and Isaac Dogboe both made weight Friday for their respective title defences at theย 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 likeย my heart is in half.ย I feel like a Phoenix fighter, but I’m also a Mexican fighterย from my hometown.ย 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.ย I think it’s important that the people where I came from know about it, so they get the messageย โย 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.ย He’s going to come and fight hard to take the belt away from me. He bobs and moves around the ring a lot.ย He’s got good footwork, but we’ve been working at Wild Card with all differentย 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:ย
Ray Beltranย 134.6ย lbs vs. Josรฉย Pedrazaย 134.4ย lbs
(WBO Lightweight titleย – 12ย Rounds)
โข Isaac Dogboeย 121ย lbs vs. Hidenori Otakeย 121.4ย lbs
(WBOย Junior Featherweightย titleย – 12ย Rounds)
โข Mikaela Mayerย 129.4ย lbsย vs. Edina Kissย 128.6ย lbs
(Super Featherweightย – 6ย Rounds)
โข Arnold Barboza Jr.ย 141.6ย lbsย vs. Luis Solisย 142ย lbs
(Super Lightweightย – 10ย Rounds)
โข Antonio Lozada Jr.ย 137ย lbsย vs. Hector Ambrizย 136.6ย lbs
(Lightweightย – 8ย Rounds)
โข Francisco De Vacaย 124.4ย lbsย vs. Jesus Serranoย 126.8ย lbs
(Featherweightย – 8ย Rounds)
โข Carlos Castroย 121.4ย lbsย vs. Diuhl Olguinย 121.2ย lbs
(Super Bantamweightย – 8ย Rounds)
โข Robson Conceicaoย 129.8ย lbs vs. Edgar Cantuย 129ย lbs
(Super Featherweightย – 8ย Rounds)
โข Trevor McCumbyย 172.4ย lbs vs. Jessie Nicklowย 169.8ย lbs
(Light Heavyweightย – 8 Rounds)
โข Sagadat Rakhmankulย 150ย lbs vs. Christian Aguirreย 151.2ย lbs
(Super Welterweightย – 6ย Rounds)
โข Breenan Maciasย 116.6ย lbs vs. Philip Adyakaย 118.4ย lbs
(Bantamweightย – 4ย Rounds)