4 reasons why Isaac Dogboe lost to Emmanuel Navarette

Young Ghanaian boxer Isaac Dogboe was handed the first defeat of his career, after succumbing to Mexico’s Emmanuel Navarette.

The 24-year-old was in action in the early hours of Sunday, but unfortunately lost his World Boxing Organization super bantamweight title to his opponent.

It was the first professional loss of Dogboe’s career after his Mexican opponent recorded a unanimous victory after 12 rounds.

Two of the judges scored the bout 116-112 and a third making it 115-113 – all in favour of Emmanuel Navarette.

Below, we take a look at four reasons why Dogboe lost this bout:

1. Lack of proper preparation

On Sunday morning when pictures of Dogboe started flooding social media, many could not believe how bad the defeat was. But one thing that the pictures told was that, Dogboe was well beaten by Navarette.

And this can largely be attributed to the lack of proper preparation from the Ghanaian.

As champion, you do not have the luxury to switch of for even a second, but it appears Dogboe and his team lost a bit of focus and that ended up costing them.

Navarette may have been unknown going into the bout, but Mexicans are known to be fierce boxers. He took advantage of Dogboe’s inadequate preparation to grab the golden moment.

2. Underrating his opponent

Again, one of the biggest mistakes any boxer could make is to underrate his opponent. Unfortunately, Dogboe did not take Navarette serious and he was made to pay for it.

The boxer himself admitted after the bout that he underrated his Mexican opponent. For an unbeaten boxer, this should never have been the case.

It was careless on the part of Dogboe and his team to treat his title defense with such an attitude.

Clearly, they thought Navarette would be a walkover. However, by the time it was realised that the Mexican was no pushover, it was already too late in the ring.

3. Reach advantage

Isaac Dogboe’s team also did a poor job in nullifying the reach of Emmanuel Navarette. The Mexican is well-built and is far taller than Dogboe.

As a result, he had the reach advantage which he used to full effect. Navarette relied on jabs and boxed from the outside.

Dogboe could simply not contain him and it was credit to the Ghanaian that he was able to last the full 12 rounds.

4. Wrong approach

Typical of Isaac Dogboe, he went into this bout to exchange blows with his opponent. That has always been his approach, but he should have varied his tactics for this fight.

The pound-for-pound approach was never going to work due to Navarette’s reach and height.

The Mexican had everything working for him because Dogboe played to his advantage by deciding to engage in a give-and-take.

A more relaxed or defensive approach would, perhaps, have been better and more suitable for this kind of opponent.