Mexicans are not cheap boxers! That is the sad reality which dawned on our own Isaac Dogboe rather too late after two straight defeats to a virtually unknown Mexican quantity, Emanuel Navarrete.
The legendary Azumah Nelson will tell you what he went through against Mexican warriors such as Jessie James Leija, Marcos Villasana and Mario ‘Azabache’ Martinez. The African Hall of Famer confesses himself that his back-to-back brawls against these largely ‘unknown’ Mexicans were the toughest fights in his illustrious career.
Mexican boxers themselves say they are thought from scratch to die in the ring! That is the secret behind the success story of Mexican fighters in boxing history. I blame the young man’s predicament on the sycophants Team Dogboe surrounded himself with.
I hope and pray our only world champion, Richard Commey, would take a cue from this and build his future around people who will tell him nothing but the truth.
How I wish many a Ghanaian had listened to the candid views expressed by Ghana’s foremost referee/judge, Ataa Eddie Pappoe, on GTV Sports+ last week. I remember GBA member, Alhaji Muritella Torfik, also came out to warn against Team Dogboe’s decision to go for a fourth round knockout against a Mexican who had beaten the Ghanaian hands down to strip him of his title only last December.
Despite everything, the tenacity of Dogboe can raise him to the top again if only he can get some experts to advise him to hasten slowly and learn on the job so he could bounce back stronger.
Though Dogboe’s story is similar to that of former Ghanaian world boxing champion, ‘Marvellous’ Nana Yaw Konadu, I pray his promising career doesn’t end on the same script.
The sweet-sour story of Nana Yaw Konadu, which will be news to the young generation, is that he decisioned two-time champion, Gilberto Roman, to capture the WBC Super Flyweight title on November 7, 1989. He, however, lost his belt to a little known South Korean brawler by name Sung Kil Moon by a ninth round technical decision in his first defence the following year.
When Ghanaians were expecting Nana Yaw to come back stronger to reclaim the title from Moon, he lost the rematch in a rather bizarre manner via a knockout in 1991. But with perseverance, the Sunyani-born boxer, who took over from Azumah Nelson, bounced back strongly to become a two-division world champion on January 28, 1996, after winning the WBA bantamweight title via a TKO victory over Veeraphol Sahaprom, who later became a long-reigning champion.
Nana Yaw’s see-saw career saw him losing his belt in his first defence against Daorung Chuvatana by a technical decision, only to recapture it the following year in a rematch. He defended the belt once before losing it to Johnny Tapia in 1998.
I expect Dogboe to draw inspiration from Nana Yaw’s chequered history and bounce back stronger without rush.
-Graphic.com.gh
