Isaac Dogboe remained in contention for a featherweight world title shot Saturday night.
The former IBF 122-pound champion out-pointed Christopher Diaz and won a Majority Decision in a classic crossroads bout between boxers who have been beaten by WBO featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete.
Judge Eric Cheek scored the action even, 95-95, but judges Tim Cheatham (96-94) and Don Trella (97-93) scored their fight for Ghana’s Dogboe at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Puerto Rico’s Diaz (26-4, 16 KOs) had hoped to revitalize his career by defeating Dogboe (23-2, 15 KOs) in his first fight since Navarrete stopped him in the 12th round of their fight for Navarrete’s WBO featherweight title April 24 in Kissimmee, Florida.
Navarrete previously defeated Dogboe twice in 122-pound championship matches.
Dogboe got off to a slow start, but he picked up the pace and had some success during the second half of the 10-rounder on the Terence Crawford-Shawn Porter undercard.
Diaz connected with a counter left hook toward the end of the fourth round. With just over a minute to go in the fourth round, Dogboe snuck in a hard left to Diaz’s body.
With about 40 seconds to go in the sixth round, Dogboe landed another left to Diaz’s body and followed with a right hand up top that made Diaz retreat.
Barely 30 seconds into the sixth round, Dogboe landed a right hand that caused Diaz to hold him. With just under two minutes remaining in the sixth round, Dogboe drilled Diaz with a thudding left to his body.
A left hook by Diaz knocked Dogboe off balance with just over 20 seconds to go in the eighth round. Approximately 10 seconds later, a clash of heads caused a brief break in the action and prompted the referee to warn Dogboe for leading with his head.
Dogboe landed a counter left on the inside about 40 seconds into the ninth round.
Dogboe tried to press Diaz during the 10th round, but he had trouble catching Diaz with flush punches. He landed a straight right in the final minute of the fight, though, and repeatedly threw hard shots at Dogboe’s body.
