Top Rank promotions and ESPN head down to the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to host a stacked fight card at The Liacouras Center on April 28, televised live on TV and streamed on ESPN’s APP.
The fight card features a super bantamweight world championship main event with Jessie Magdaleno defending his WBO belt against undefeated challenger Isaac Dogboe of Accra, Ghana.
Leading up to the fight Dogboe and his father had some harsh words for the Mexican-American champion, including threats to deport him to Mexico and present the championship belt to US President Donald Trump. The comments were insensitive and considered in poor taste given the current political climate.
Magdaleno took great offense to the comments and will be extra motivated to humble the brash talking Ghanaian boxer and his father.
The undercard showcases local Philly fighters Jesse Hart a super middleweight contender taking on Demond Nicholson, and Bryant Jennings versus Joey Dawejko in a battle between two Philadelphia heavyweights.
Jennings only two losses came at the hands of former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and a TKO stoppage to Luis Ortiz in 2015, he took a year off and in 2017 continued his boxing career with 3 solid wins on his way back to the top.
Dawejko was once a highly touted amateur boxer, and at 5 foot 10 he is one of the smaller heavyweights with a similar build to James Toney. He uses a lot of slick boxing techniques, even though he has 4 defeats he is still a very difficult opponent to face, this is a very important fight for Dawejko because a big win over Jennings could propel him from fringe contender to a serious title challenger.
Jesse Hart suffered his first career defeat to undefeated Mexican boxer Gilberto Ramirez in 2017, he said it was an off night for him and wants to make a huge statement tonight against hard hitting Demond “D’Bestatit” Nicholson of Maryland.
US Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson will continue to develop as he takes on unbeaten featherweight Roxberg Patrick Riley in his sixth professional bout.
Top Rank ESPN Fight Card
Main Event – Jessie Magdaleno (Champ) vs. Isaac Dogboe (WBO super bantamweight title)
Super Middleweight – Jesse Hart vs. Demond Nicholson
Heavyweight – Bryant Jennings vs. Joey Dawejko
Featherweight – Shakur Stevenson vs. Patrick Riley
Watch Jessie Magdaleno vs Isaac Dogboe, Jennings vs Dawejko and Hart vs Nicholson on April 28, 2018 at 7:00/4:00 pm ET/PT live on ESPN and online live stream at espn.com/watch and ESPN APP.
