What next for Uganda Bogere after fierce title eliminator loss to Fortuna

BOSTON. Sharif ‘The Lion’ Bogere’s coach Thell Torrence refuses to dwell on second half collapse by his boxer in last Saturday’s defeat at Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, California, USA.

It is not easy, considering Bogere bottled up a five-round lead and lost to Javier Fortuna in that 10 round lightweight eliminator contest, where all three judges scored 96-93 in favour of the 29-year-old Dominican Republic boxer.

“It stings, but we need to use this as a lesson learned,” Torrence said Wednesday after reviewing the fight. “We need to go ahead and use this to get better. If you have a negative, pessimistic approach to it, then that’s all wrong.”

The loss, also coming as the second in Bogere’s fantabulous career, bore a striking resemblance to the way Bogere’s World Boxing Association (WBA) World lightweight title fight against Richard Abril ended in 2013.

Early dominance
Against Abril, Bogere started very well, making sure that the Cuban felt his aggressiveness and physical presence. He controlled the first half of that fight with his close fight style, hitting Abril with all sorts of punches and at one point the referee had to stop the fight to deduct a point from the Cuban who had made it a habit of holding Bogere.

Even Adrian Broner, who was then WBC lightweight and WBA welterweight champion, was in the audience cheering Bogere before tables turned to Abril’s advantage late into the second half of the fight for the Cuban to win the title on points.

Except in last Saturday’s fight, the opponent, was awkward, nasty and dirty.
“Fortuna is a nasty and dirty fighter. He should have had points deducted from him in almost every round,” said Bogere’s manager Jimmy Alex.
“If it wasn’t for that cut, the outcome of the fight would have been different. The blood from the cut poured straight into Bogere’s eyes and this affected his sight, his confidence went down and this is when the fight went out of his control.”

Bogere controlled the fight in its initial stages until round six when he got a cut.

During an exchange of punches, Fortuna used his dirty moves to push Bogere down and referee Edward Collantes counted it as a knockdown. This was also the second time in Bogere’s career that he hit the canvas. First was in 2008, a body shot by Mike Peralta sent him down.

The supraorbital ridge on the frontal bone above Bogere’s right eye socket sustained a deep cut as a result of clash of heads. The 30-year-old Ugandan got 10 stitches after the fight and will need about two weeks before they’re removed. “He (Bogere) is fine and resting as he recovers from that deep cut that went all the way to the bone. He won’t be doing sparring for some time,” said Alex.

Way forward
The loss may have caused a dent at Bogere’s quest for a title fight but didn’t close doors for another opportunity. “As far as our title fight ambitions are concerned, we went a step back,” said Alex.

“But if you look at Bogere’s record, its good and attractive. He can still get a big fight and can challenge for a big title. We plan on him having one more fight to lift his morale up again, then we can think about a title shot, and we want all those to happen this year.”