Isaac Dogboe is a storm on the horizon

The former WBO bantamweight king has endured a rough year after his first two career losses. Newly motivated and a bit more experienced, he discusses the next leg of his career

I’m motivated to get back into the ring and get back to winning ways. So right now I’m just taking things slowly. I am starting to enjoy boxing again so right now that is a plus for me. I have been able to sit back and look at things from other perspectives and really learnt a lot through this past year. Since the loss. I’m maturing in the game as well. Its an achievement”-Isaac Dogboe.

12th May 2019 was the last time Isaac Dogboe mounted the boxing ring. He was there on a mission of revenge. Trying to reclaim the super bantamweight title he had meekly relinquished to Mexican slugger, Emanuel Navarette five months prior. The outcome would not be different as he succumbed in the 12th round after an onslaught of epic proportions.

That loss was not just a bump in the road. It was a road cave-in that put paid to an elaborate building process that had taken years. He had gone from a bright prospect just three years prior to one of the biggest names in the bantamweight division, catching the eye of Top Rank’s legendary boss, Bob Arum. The spotlights and cameras were on. The biggest interview platforms were open and accessible.

Those two losses put all those things in jeopardy.

Where there were no questions previously, now there was doubt.

Was he too cocky? Did he take his training seriously? Did he even need to fight Navarette again when there were safer options?

Boxing is one of the cruelest professional sports. Not for its obvious brutality but for its pure lack of loyalty. One day you are the flavor of the town and another, you are the runt of the family. Especially in a sports crazed country like Ghana.

Though they were dark days, Dogboe can laugh about it now as he recalls the immediate moments after that second loss in a chat from his USA base.

“An hour after the fight, I was in the hospital having a checkup. There was a lot of craziness and I was thinking. Oh damn! Shit! This happened. It is something I had to learn to rise above the waters. In every step of the way God has been right beside me and he has helped me through all those things. Right now I feel really different. I feel like what is coming is going to be greater. I am in a much better place.

What is coming is his return to the ring. A year later. A July date against a game Chris Avalos at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It will be a chance for boxing fans, at home in Ghana and in the USA to assess this new version of Dogboe for themselves. It will bring a long wait to an end. A waiting period within which his silence on the next stage of his career led to whispers of early retirement.

It is an episode the normally very laid back fighter sounds upset about.

“I never said I was retired. People say too many things. Everybody has turned into a journalist because they have the world at the tip of their fingers. I am committed to a comeback. God has blessed me and I am enjoying myself and my training.”

There are those who are still to be convinced that he made the right call in his previous two losses. For instance, after he lost his WBO title to Navarette, some pundits felt he had more than enough clout to pursue a bout against the then IBF title holder, Ireland’s TJ Doheny. Others felt he could have taken an easier bout to get himself back in the saddle rather what was perceived as a fool’s errand in chasing Navarette again.

Isaac will have none of those assumptions. It is part of his nature to be assured of the decisions he makes.

“Let me tell you this. People will always say if. If I had lost or whatever. But what if I had won? You see the different picture? Sometimes it’s good to make educated guesses and things like that, but you also want to take the risks. My whole philosophy has been to overcome adversity. So when someone puts you down, you want to go back and regain your place”.

It is also interesting to note that he makes no excuses for the beating he took and the decision to activate the rematch clause. In most ways he has taken the loss better than most of his fans in Ghana did.

“It didn’t happen the way we wanted and he got the better of me. In terms of the decision making, that was up to me and my team. I am a fighter and my job is to fight. The business side of things is handled by other people but let me say this. I have no regrets. If I had won it would have been something different, but I make no excuses. I believe in taking risks and whatever comes out of that we embrace it".

The process for getting back has involved making changes physically, spiritually and mentally. The most obvious is the physical aspect.

Dogboe made the announcement of the fight of his upcoming fight via his official Twitter account and he showed off his incredible looking physique It will be interesting to know at what weight the fight with Avalos will be contested. His American opponent is comfortable fighting at both bantamweight and featherweight. Dogboe on the other hand has struggled to make 118 pounds and wants to fight at featherweight. His weight cut battles have been attributed to some of the issues he faced in his previous fights.

What has been a pretty light conversation becomes a bit heavy as we enter the discussion on his faith.

There is no professional sportsman in Ghana who has worn his faith as publicly as Isaac Dogboe.

A member of the Anyako ARS Church in the Volta region of Ghana, he has no qualms about mixing his faith and profession so openly. It does not appeal to everyone and spawns the occasional bout of controversy due to his willingness to listen to his spiritual advisor, Prophet Kwesi Wogbloexo Wovenu II as part of his fight preparation.

Dogboe, however, is in no doubt about the benefits of his spiritual connections.

“Let me put it this way. Picture this. There is a staircase going up. With faith if you don’t make the first step you won’t know what’s on the next level. Every time I wake up, I know God is with me and he is going to do something good in my life. Without faith what are we? When it comes down to it, I believe God has given me everything I need for me to achieve. He has given me power to conquer the world. We take baby steps each day knowing that God is going to do something great.”

Linked to as well his his relationship with his father, Paul Dogboe.

The architect of Dogboe’s career splits opinions in Ghana. He is abrasive,confident and not afraid to speak his mind. Suffice to say he rubs most casual observers the wrong way. When Dogboe was winning, these traits were overlooked. Losses, however, have a way of throwing everything into sharper focus and one of those was the role of his father and other family members in his career. Suggestions were made for him to perhaps split the operation and have his father handle his business affairs while another takes charge of his pre-fight activities.

They have not washed with Isaac. He is still close to his father who is still the man in charge of team Dogboe.

For his son, having family in the corner goes beyond even his father.

“Family is how you connect with people. You can have people in boxing circles we all refer to as family. They are good for the job. I know people say its not ok to work with family, but I have to make decisions that are best for me. My father being the man that he is, has always made sure that things are done right. So everything is great.”

The maturity in Dogboe is quite obvious when you talk to him these days. At least in his personality. The fighter will be judged another time.

However ,mental maturity is also important for a fighter, especially when you accomplish so much at a young age. Dogboe is still only 25. He is one of the most recognizable faces in his country and can still be considered among its top two fighters. He enjoyed a celebrity status that could sometimes be taken for granted.

Recovering from the kind of fall he took after his loss in May, 2019 seems to have invited an introspection that is refreshing.

We are all different. Sometimes we all have our challenges and demons. It’s about how they choose to deal with them. It’s about your mentality. If you want to react to everything people say or do then you will question yourself. You have to realize that not everything is within your control. You can only control the things within your own space and they are the important ones. It works for me. Knowing that I don’t have to bother about what people say about me, but rather, focus on the things I have power over. It makes life very easy.”

No longer at a crossroads after a year of soul searching and plotting his return, Dogboe is quite clear in his mind on what is required of him. He has a deeper appreciation and respect for the sport he has invested his life in. Irrespective of its dark side.

“I admire all fighters. Anyone who is putting in the work to better themselves and the sport of boxing. Anyone that is a competitive type. Boxing has now become a business where somebody is fighting someone with a record of 13 wins -13 losses. That is quite ridiculous but it is what it is. But i admire the people who are putting in the work. I pray that all the hard work they put in will not go unnoticed.”

Speaking of hard work, Dogboe seems to have put a lid, at least temporarily, on fighting back in Ghana. He has cross cultural links as well to the UK where he was raised and first fell in love with the sport that has brought him fame and fortune. With boxing enjoying a golden age across the pond, it is reasonable to ask why he has not fought in his second home.

“We made the move to the US from the UK because we felt that it was the best decision at the time. If you want to be the best you have to fight in America. Every kind of fighter is here. When you are mixing up with them you become diverse, so when you get into into the ring you have already experienced different styles and are better prepared. The UK has always been a great boxing nation. I have never fought there professionally, but there has been a lot of interest for me to fight there. We will bide our time and make a decision.

Ghana’s chances are a matter of numbers. Profit and loss.

Dogboe brought a new lease of life with his self promoted bouts in Ghana over a two year period as he worked his way up the bantamweight food chain. The investment might have paid off in the ring, but out of it there is still cost to be accounted for. And that is a disincentive.

“God willing, we can do another promotion in Ghana but everything is down to money. All the time that we have operated in Ghana, we have never broken even. We will consider it if things change. We have done the best that we can for Ghana boxing and we feel we have paid our dues. We leave the rest other people.”

On July 21 we will all see what the new Isaac Dogboe brings. Boxing is a sport of evolution. Old dogs can be taught new tricks. A fighter with a lot to prove is dangerous. But also very vulnerable. Isaac Dogboe might have spent the past year finding out a lot about himself, but the proof of that will be in what he does in those 12 rounds. Whichever way it goes, it will be worth the watch.

The weather forecast is clear. A storm is on the horizon.