Jessie Magdaleno

At the age of 26, Jessie is a seven-year pro. A former WBO junior featherweight world champion, he won the title in November, 2016, and made one successful title defense. Before his debut, he was an amateur standout at the national level.

Jessie is a stablemate of WBO featherweight world champion and rising young star Oscar Valdez – both are managed by Frank Espinoza, trained by Manny Robles, and promoted by Top Rank. He is also the younger brother, by five years, of lightweight contender Diego Magdaleno.

In his last fight on April 28 in Philadelphia, Jessie lost the WBO title by 11^th-round knockout against Isaac Dogboe.

ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael reported from ringside [excerpts]: In a grueling and physical fight, Dogboe rallied from a first-round knockdown to drop Magdaleno three times in an 11^th-round knockout victory before 3,727 Saturday night in the main event of the Top Rank on ESPN card at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University.

Magdaleno, making his second title defense, was fighting for the first time in a year, partly because of a hand injury that forced him to withdraw from a mandatory fight with Cesar Juarez that was scheduled for Nov. 11. While he was out, Juarez traveled to Dogboe’s home country of Ghana in January and got knocked out in a vacant interim title fight that made Dogboe the mandatory challenger for Magdaleno.

Magdaleno had a huge first round. He dropped Dogboe with a left hand in the midst of a flurry, knocked him into the ropes with a left hand later in the round and landed several clean punches that shook Dogboe.

A straight left hand rocked Dogboe in the third round, forcing him to hold onto Magdaleno, who seemed to rattle him with every solid shot he landed. By the fourth round, Dogboe’s left eye was swelling.

But Dogboe came back strong to take the title convincingly.

Dogboe came roaring back in the fifth round when he nailed Magdaleno with a clean right hand on the chin for a knockdown 30 seconds into the round. He had Magdaleno on the ropes and continued to pressure him, but Magdaleno got himself together and stuck out his chin at Dogboe to taunt him, after which Dogboe threw and missed several wild punches.

Dogboe came on strong in the middle rounds. In the seventh, he pinned Magdaleno along the ropes and unloaded to the head and body for a stretch as Magdaleno looked to cover up.

Dogboe hurt Magdaleno with a right hand along the ropes in the 10^th round and then unleashed several more hard shots upstairs and downstairs. He continued to bull forward as Magdaleno tried to dance out of the way, but he kept getting caught.

Magdaleno appeared to be fading in the 11^th round when Dogboe crumpled him to all fours with a powerful left hand to the head. Dogboe showed no mercy, attacking him with abandon when the fight resumed. He pinned Magdaleno in the corner and continued to pound on him until he went down again, causing [the] referee to wave the fight off at 1 minute, 38 seconds.

Dogboe was ahead on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage: 97-91, 96-91 and 95-93. [End Rafael item]

In his post-fight interview, Jessie said, “He was the better man tonight. He did what he had to do. The inactivity got to me, but I don’t want to take anything away from Isaac. He is a great warrior. He got a great opportunity, and he took it. I wish nothing but the best to him.”

AMATEUR, PERSONAL BACKGROUND: Jessie said, “I was born in Pomona, California. I don’t remember exactly, but we were in Pomona for a couple of years, then we moved back to L.A., where my mom is originally from, and from there we moved to Las Vegas. There’s six of us – I have three older sisters, my older brother Diego, and my younger brother, Marco. My dad played soccer professionally.

“When I was younger, I loved playing soccer – soccer was my passion. But as I started progressing in boxing, I left soccer behind and just stayed with the boxing.

“I was about seven years old when I started boxing. Diego’s about five years older than me – seeing him training every day, being in the gym, that’s what got me involved in it. I always followed him when I was younger, I wanted to be the same as him.

“Altogether, I had about 138 amateur fights. I remember I had 15 losses.

“I’m naturally right-handed, but I can write with both hands. I broke my right hand when I was in fourth grade and I learned how to write with my left hand.

“I was married November 19, 2017. My wife’s name is Julia and we have a son, Leonardo. He was born on May 25, 2014. I think Julia will be at the fight, but she won’t bring Leonardo. He’ll stay at home with the grandparents.”…