Isaac Dogboe took a step forward on the Oscar Valdez-Jayson Velez card Tuesday.
The Ghanaian fighter, coming off back-to-back losses to Emanuel Navarrete, stopped Chris Avalos with 35 seconds remaining in an eight-round featherweight bout inside the bubble at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
It was Dogboe’s first victory since he stopped Hidenori Otake in August 2018.
“We’re still warming up. I felt great in there today,” Dogboe said.
Dogboe (21-2, 15 KOs) lost his 122-pound title to Navarrete by a unanimous decision in December 2018. In the rematch, five months later, the Mexican stopped him in the 12th round.
That led to a big change. He hired Barry Hunter to supplant his father as his trainer and got to work rebuilding his career.
Avalos (27-8, 20 KOs) wasn’t the stiffest test — the former title challenger was 2-5 in his previous seven fights — but he remains a decent, game fighter. And Dogboe handled him easily.
The first few rounds were competitive but, by Round 3, brutal power shots — particularly those to the body — began to take a toll on Avalos, who took considerable punishment in the later rounds.
As the final round was winding down, Dogboe, obviously trying to score a knockout, landed a big left hand. That was followed moments later by a damaging right, which prompted referee Russel Mora to stop the fight.
Dogboe landed three times as many punches as Avalos, according to CompuBox.