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Although it has been known for a long time that Top Rank had booked August 25 for an ESPN card, the promotion officially made the announcement.
Top Rank will have a televised ESPN live Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona and two world title fights: Raymundo Beltran vs. Jose Pedraza for the WBO Lightweight title and Isaac Dogboe against Hidenori Otake for the title of super bantam WBO.
Beltran will make his first title defense as Pedraza, the WBO Latino Champion and No. 2 contender for the title, will replace as a substitute opponent for the mandatory challenger Roman Andreev. Top Rank recently won a scholarship for Beltran against Andreev but Andreev fell due to an appendicitis attack and underwent surgery, leaving him unable to train for the fight.
Dogboe won the Interim WBO title in January and he became the WBO World Champion at 126 pounds after defeating Jessie Magdaleno in April
Although the news of the World Double title is not surprising, the only potential, albeit improbable, that could have changed the plans for the map was Vasiliy Lomachenko. Lomachenko, who won the WBA lightweight title in May, was scheduled to fight on the August 25th card before being ruled out of a shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum.
Lomachenko recently shared a video on Instagram he would fight in August, but that came back to wishful thinking from the three-division champion. Lomachenko still figures in the Top Rank and ESPN plans for the book-book superstar to beat before the end of 2018 but the announcement of Beltran against Pedraza at the top of the card's 25th card August precludes the possibility that Lomachenko is part of the event.
This will be the second time that Beltran will enter the arena after winning the WBO lightweight title then vacant in February.
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