Isaac Dogboe and Hidenori Otake will be battling each other this Saturday Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona in USA.
Dogboe will make the first defense of his WBO junior featherweight title against Japanese challenger Hidenori Otake.
The two pugilist met for the first time in a press conference on Thursday ahead of their battle.
Here is what they had to say:
Isaac Dogboe
“First and foremost, I give all the glory to the almighty God for bringing me here safely and making me who I am today.
Otake is a great guy, and I can’t wait to get back on ESPN. It’s a big platform for myself and also a great platform to showcase my talent once again. I want to say thank you to Bob Arum and Top Rank promotions and all the staff for putting this show together. It’s great. It is always a huge platform.
Like I said, Otake is a great guy. Physically, he’s strong. This is his second world title challenge, his second opportunity, and we know he’s going to come out fighting. He’s going to come out guns blazing. But, you know, like we always say, we don’t have to get ready, we’re always prepared. Everything he brings to the table, we have an answer for it.
Come Saturday night, you don’t have to stay at home. Everyone has to come down to the Gila River Arena. It’s going to be fireworks because there’s no way that something we worked so hard for is going to slip through our hands. He says he’s going to be fighting for his soul. I have no need for his soul because I did not create him. I just want to knock him out on Saturday night and retain my title.”
“Hidenori is very tough, and he’s a credit to Japan. He’s one of the guys who’s making Japan boxing rise. At this moment, he’s a stumbling block that’s in my way to get to a unification fight. We are looking to go out there Saturday night and put on a masterclass performance and look forward to unify the division, God willing.
With Top Rank and Bob Arum, we can hopefully fight at the end of the year or early next year in a unification fight. Hard work never stops. Right now, our main target is to take care of Hidenori Otake.”
Hidenori Otake
“First of all, I am so very happy to be here. I want to thank Bob Arum and everyone at Top Rank for giving me this amazing opportunity.
As you may know, in my first world title match in England {against Scott Quigg}, I lost. As happy as I am, taking that into consideration, I have trained very hard to make the most of this opportunity.”
Photos credit: Mikey Williams