Junior featherweight world titlist Isaac Dogboe is in a New York state of mind.
The “Royal Storm” will make his second title defence against Emanuel Navarrete on December 8 at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, Top Rank announced Wednesday.
The fight will serve as the co-feature of the previously announced lightweight world title unification bout between pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko and Jose Pedraza on the Top Rank Boxing.
“Put me among the best, and you’ll see the best of Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe,” Dogboe said. “We love the New York crowd. That’s what will motivate us and make us fight harder. Madison Square Garden is a legendary place. It’s a place where many fighters were made.
“Lomachenko and Pedraza are great fighters and being featured on a show with other great fighters is an honor. We are ready to roll. And to my fans, trust me — the ‘Royal Storm’ is coming to entertain.”
The fight will be Dogboe’s first since he signed a long-term promotional agreement with Top Rank earlier this month.
“Many boxers come and go like the common cold, but Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe is here to stay,” said Paul Dogboe, Isaac’s father and trainer. “This is it. New York, here we come.”
The fight will be Dogboe’s fourth of a busy year. In January, Dogboe boxed at home in Accra, Ghana, and knocked out Cesar Juarez in the fifth round to win an interim title. Then Dogboe (20-0, 14 KOs), 24, traveled to Philadelphia in April and won the full 122-pound title in a fight of the year contender. He survived a first-round knockdown and rallied to drop Jessie Magdaleno twice and knock him out in the 11th round.
On Aug. 25, Dogboe made his first title defense and scored an electrifying first-round knockout of Japan’s Hidenori Otake in Glendale, Arizona, on the undercard of Pedraza’s lightweight world title victory against Raymundo Beltran.
Navarrete (25-1, 22 KOs), 23, of Mexico, has won 20 fights in a row since a four-round decision loss in 2012 and is coming off a 12th-round knockout of Jose Sanmartin on June 2 in Monterrey, Mexico. But in Dogboe, he will be facing by far his most accomplished opponent.
“This is the opportunity I was waiting for,” Navarrete said. “I have a lot of respect for Isaac Dogboe, but this title will be mine. I feel very happy and motivated by this opportunity, even more, because of fighting in New York City. I know that from Dec. 8 forward, the name Emanuel Navarrete will be known all around the world. I’m sure this win will be mine.”