A char on a variable is not being detected by '==' symbol

I'm here for hours trying to solve this problem but with no success.
I'm doing a Tic Tac Toe game based on an 2D array, and i used a couple of "for" to add '-' symbols to every position of the array.
Now i'm trying to do a validation method to prevent the player from putting his 'X' on a occupied or invalid position.
When i print the board/array the '-' is there on every position, but when i try to do an "if the position has '-' it's a valid movement", the code keeps returning that there's no '-' there, even if it has.
The "jog" and "tab" its because i'm using different class.
Also my debug doesn't shows any variable from the first println on, i dont know why.

public static void main(String[] args) {
Tabuleiro tab = new Tabuleiro();
Jogador jog = new Jogador();
Computador comp = new Computador();
tab.inicializarTabuleiro();
tab.mostraTabuleiro();
System.out.println("Bem vindo ao Jogo da Velha!");
System.out.println("Escolha a dificuldade desejada de 1 a 3");
Scanner dificuldade = new Scanner(System.in);
if (dificuldade.nextInt() == 1){
for (int i = 1; i <= 9; i++){
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Escolha uma posição(1-9)");
int jogada = scan.nextInt();
jog.converteJogada(jogada); //this code converts int from keyboard to a position on array
jog.verificaJogada(jogada); //this code is the problem
System.out.println(jog.row); //used this to check if position is correct, it is
System.out.println(jog.col);//same from above
System.out.println(tab.mat[jog.row][jog.col]); //used to print the position to see if '-' it was there, it was
System.out.println(jog.valid); //to see if '-' is being confirmed or not
} 

public class Tabuleiro {
public Tabuleiro(){
}
public char mat[][] = new char[3][3];
public void inicializarTabuleiro(){
for(int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
for(int j = 0; j < 3; j++){
mat[i][j] = '-';
}
}
}
public void mostraTabuleiro(){
System.out.println("-------------");
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
System.out.print("| ");
for (int j = 0;j < 3; j++){
System.out.print(mat[i][j] + " | ");
}	
System.out.println();
System.out.println("-------------");
}
}
}

public class Jogador{
public Jogador(){
}
public Jogador(int linha, int coluna, boolean valid) {
this.linha = linha;
this.coluna = coluna;
this.valid = valid;
}
Tabuleiro tab = new Tabuleiro();
Jogo jog = new Jogo();
public int linha;
public int coluna;
public boolean valid;
public char nulo;
public void converteJogada(int jogada){
switch(jogada){
case 1:
row = 0;
col = 0;
break;
case 2:
row = 0;
col = 1;
break; 
case 3:
row = 0;
col = 2;
break;
case 4:
row = 1;
col = 0;
break;
case 5:
row = 1;
col = 1;
break;
case 6:
row = 1;
col = 2;
break;
case 7:
row = 2;
col = 0;
break;
case 8:
row = 2;
col = 1;
break;
case 9:
row = 2;
col = 2;
break;
default:
break;}
} 
public void verificaJogada(int jogada){
if ((jogada >= 0 && jogada <= 9) && (tab.mat[row][col] == '-')){
valid = true;
}
else {
valid = false;
}

}

PROBLEM SOLVED Because of poor lessons i was having the bad practice to instance the others classes on every class. This made my code have a lot of arrays and not just one were my code was referencing to. So my main array(e.g. the Tabuleiro) was initialized with the '-' but there was an instance of Tabuleiro class on Jogador class, the array of this instance was not being initialized and that was the array my "verificaJogada" was testing. Thanks for the answers that helped me achieve this.

The cause of your problems is that you have declared the class Jogador to have a Tabuleiro field like this:

Tabuleiro tab = new Tabuleiro();

and that is what Jogador.verificaJogada is testing. But that is a different Tabuleiro instance to the one that you initialized in your main method.

Clearly verificaJogada needs to be testing the Tabuleiro that you created and initialized in main.

> How can i reference the instance of main there then?

You pass the Tabuleiro instance created in main as a parameter:

• either a parameter to the constructor for Jogador (which you can then assign to the Jogador.tab field)
• or a parameter to the verificaJogada method.

> I thought i had to make an instance of every class on every class for this to work..

I don't know where you got that idea from. Each time you write new Tabuleiro(), you are creating a new Tabuleiro instance that is distinct from all previously created instances.

The Java new operator always creates a new instance¹. It never returns an instance that was created earlier.

^{1 - ... or throws an exception.}