First published on Gambling.com
In Manchester this Saturday, Liverpool’s ‘Popeye piranha’, Nick Ball will attempt to leap several spaces on boxing’s uniquely chaotic hierarchy of ladders and snakes when he boxes Isaac Dogboe in a WBC Featherweight eliminator.
The event is staged by Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions and will be broadcast live by TNT, formerly BT Sport, in the UK. For those inclined, leading betting companies offer markets on this fascinating and potentially thrilling crossroads bout.
Is Dogboe in decline?
For 26-year-old Ball, Dogboe is unquestionably the toughest and most decorated opponent in his career and is both a representation of Frank Warren’s faith in him and a test of the Hall of Fame promoter’s historically shrewd matchmaking.
Short and stout, Ball boasts a ferocious work rate few opponents have thus far been able to cope with. He uses his lack of height to his advantage, creating a compact target for opponents and then using his explosiveness to surprise fighters with leaping hooks. It would be easy to describe his style too simplistically, to focus on the prodigious output and overlook the feints he works into the repertoire. There is method in the frenzy. His ability to ‘show’ a left hook to the body but deliver the uppercut from the inside to lead in the right hand is considered work. He is hard to hit clean coming in too.
Ball is good TV.
Is Ball flattered by weaker opponents?
His most recent victory, versus Ludumo Lamati, a then unbeaten South African, showcased his tenacity and confirmed his ability to carry power and busyness deep into the Championship rounds. Lamati enjoyed significant reach and height advantages and was on a run of two distance victories and a 4th round knockout win in the preceding 12 months.
Albeit those wins were on the South African circuit against men with modest aspiration and meagre history. Lamati, and the true substance of other recent opponents Ball has acquired attention beating, permits doubt in the narrative that this fight is Ball’s qualifier for the big leagues. A storyline that makes assumptions about Dogboe, casting him as the tired former champion taking steps down from the summit.
Warren is an astute judge of timing. A careful student of the deposed champions or those holding a belt and ripe for the plucking. If he proves to have timed this right, it may be among the finest examples of the craft because there is little to encourage the notion. Bookmakers share that view however and installed Ball as a 2/5 favourite.
Dogboe pedigree in a dog-fight
Dogboe is 29-years-old and is 10 years into a nomadic career that has seen the Ghana born Brit base himself in England for a number of years before relocating to Florida more recently. In 2018 he beat Cesar Juarez for the interim WBO Super-Bantamweight belt via TKO5 and then converted that breakthrough into the full World title stopping Jessie Magdaleno three months later. An upset win, Magdaleno was 25-0 at the time, the victory was testimony to Dogboe’s quality and conditioning. At 5/2 he provides genuine pedigree and an attractive margin for a win that would surprise but not shock.
In the five years since, Dogboe has also fought 24 rounds with the exceptional Emanuel Navarette in two spirited, but losing efforts. A narrow win over Joet Gonzales in the summer of 2022 reaffirmed his credentials and earned Dogboe a shot at the WBO belt he’d lost to Navarette against the surging Robeisy Ramirez. A contentious knockdown in the 12th ensuring Dogboe lost a wide points verdict in April.
But Ball is not Ramirez. The high flying Cuban is an offensive counter puncher, slippery in that classic Cuban style – though perhaps more aggressive than many of the island’s most famous sons – and had success with Dogboe from mid-range. A Southpaw too.
Ball presents entirely different dynamics to contend with but Dogboe will relish not navigating a long jab or avoiding counter punches to launch his own. As will Ball.
The fight will be determined by fine margins and Warren’s implied contention, that Dogboe will not have the freshness to impose himself on the younger man, cannot be ignored here.
A distance fight looks probable, both are sturdy and haven’t shown weakness early. The precision and power of Dogboe is more likely to surprise Ball than visa versa as the Liverpool man’s chin is untested at this level.
Consider a fatigued finish in the later rounds; 20/1 with SkyBet for Dogboe to close the show between 9-12, with Ball available at 10/1 with BetFair and SkyBet for rounds 10-12.
Best bet on a 50-50 match up
Despite Ball being the backed asset here, the promotor’s fighter, I think Dogboe, at 5/2 with most bookmakers, is good value. And worth a small investment with the late Ball stoppage as the contradictory ‘cover’ a worthy pairing.
BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK 
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