Boxing
Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 6y

Danny Roman, Isaac Dogboe on track for title unification bout

Boxing

Junior featherweight world titleholders Danny Roman and Isaac Dogboe hope to meet each other in a unification fight later this year.

Even before Roman easily outpointed Moises "Chucky" Flores -- who was ineligible to win the 122-pound belt because he was one pound overweight -- in his second title defense on Saturday night at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, Roman and his team talked about their desire for a unification fight.

Afterward, they continued to campaign for one, be it against Isaac Dogboe, Rey Vargas or Ryosuke Iwasa.

"I think a unification fight is in everyone's best interest," Roman said. "I'll face any of the other champions. Bring them on. I just want to fight the best that this division has to offer."

Now that Roman (25-2-1. 9 KOs), 28, of Los Angeles, has taken care of his mandatory defense against Flores he has flexibility with his schedule, and his promoter, Alex Camponovo of Thompson Boxing, said he will pursue a unification bout.

"We're definitely going to push to fight one of the other three champions." Camponovo said. "It's the logical choice moving forward. There are some scheduling hurdles to overcome, but I think it gets done at some point this year and we'll have a huge fight to look forward to."

It could come against Dogboe, who voiced his interest in facing Roman on social media.

"Firstly, congratulations on your win Danny Roman. You did what you had to do," Dogboe wrote. "I want to unify and you want to unify. We both want to Unify. Let's do it. Let's set the division on fire."

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who co-promotes Dogboe, said he is interested in making the fight between Dogboe and Roman later this year. "I think that's a great unification fight," Arum said. "The 122-pound division is very interesting."

Dogboe (19-0, 13 KOs), 23, of Ghana, won a world title on April 28 in Philadelphia when he knocked out Jessie Magdaleno in an enthralling fight of the year candidate. Dogboe survived a first-round knockdown and stormed back to drop Magdaleno in the fifth round and twice more in the 11th round for the victory.

Dogboe is next slated to defend his title in the co-feature of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Aug. 25 at a site to be determined. The bout will be on the undercard of lightweight world titleholder Raymundo Beltran (35-7-1, 21 KOs), 36, a Mexico native fighting out of Phoenix, making his first defense, which could come against either former junior lightweight titlist Jose Pedraza (24-1, 12 KOs), 29, of Puerto Rico, or Russian contender Roman Andreev (21-0, 15 KOs), 32, of Russia. If Dogboe retains his belt on Aug. 25, a Roman fight could take place before the end of the year.

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