When Mexican fighter Anabel Ortiz (13-3, 2) defeated Etsuko Tada for the WBA Minimumweight title in July many expected to see her returning to Asia. She had, after all, been connected to the Kameda brother's promotional company which had possibly helped her to claim the title. Ortiz's return to Asia didn't take long as the Mexican traveled to South Korea and took on Korea's very own Hye-Soo Park (3-7-1, 1). Ortiz, a two-time world champion who had previously held the WBC title, was always the favourite here and within a round it was obvious why. Park, unfortunately, had no right to be a world title challenger. Ortiz took the the lead in the opening round using her much more complete skill set and never looked back as she bagged up round after round. Although the Mexican failed to drop, or even really hurt Park, the fight was never in any doubt. In fact the biggest shocks seemed to be when Park managed to have some time amount of success in what was, for all intents and purposes seemed to be a public sparring session for Ortiz. The one sided nature of the contest was reflected in score cards that reflected the one sided nature of the contest, 100-90 across the board. We're hoping that next time out Ortiz will be fighting someone with some sort of a pulse. A rematch with Tada would be the most obvious contest though Ortiz could of course face a genuine Korean threat in the form of either Su-Yun Hong or Ji-Hyun Park. Either of those bouts would be much, much more interesting than this total mismatch was.
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Russia's stunning Svetlana Kulakova (9-0, 1) proved she was more than just a pretty face and sexy legs as she successfully retained her WBA "interim" Light Welterweight title for the first time. The leggy Russian who won her title just a few months ago with a decision victory over Kenyan Judy Waguthii faced her second successive Kenyan opponent as she battled Florence Muthoni (8-3-1, 3). Unfortunately for those in attendance it's fair to admit that highlight of the contest was the model-like-looks of Kulakova as opposed to the fight it's self which lacked good action and real excitement. Kulakova, which is genuinely a talented boxer, appeared to be fighting with the Wladimir Klitschko blue print. She was landing her jab and straights then neutralising the inside action with regular clinches forces the bout to feel disjointed. The lack of flow was great for Kulakova who was taking the rounds with the ugly action, though for fans this was unexciting to say the least. The one time where we did get something to remember was late on as Muthoni had her first real success landing a notably eye catching hook, though it really wasn't enough to have anyone worried and was possibly the sole round that Muthoni won as she dropped a clear 99-91 decision. Although Kulakova is the "interim" WBA champion we really can't see her fighting the "regular" champion, Argentina's excellent Monica Silvina Acosta. It's unfortunate that we won't get to see that, though if Kulakova can keep winning then it's fair to say that fans will want to see her and of course those striking looks of hers. It's not often a female fight can genuinely get the attention of a filled venue but that's exactly what happened earlier today as Japanese boxing had one of the few major female fights of the year. In one corner we had the destructive and big hitting Naoko Yamauchi (22-4-3, 18), the defending WBA Super Flyweight champion, in the other we had Naoko Fujioka (11-0, 6), a fighter who was jumping up from Minimumweight where she had previously held the WBC title. The general view seemed to be that Yamaguchi went in to this bout as the power puncher whilst Fujioka would be the cautious fighter using her movement and speed to try and over-come Yamaguchi's natural strength and power. What we got however was a masterclass of boxing from Fujioka who showed all the skills of a genuine elite level fighter. From the opening round it was obvious that these two were in totally different classes. Fujioka, boxing and moving, was landing her jab, her straight and her hook almost at will. It was obvious that she was wary of Yamaguchi's much vaunted power, especially in the defending champion's right hand, though she was avoiding it with ease before firing back her own shots. As the rounds went on Fujioka became more and more confident. She continued to land her shots at will but became less and less worried about the power of Yamaguchi, in fact when they did trade it was Fuijioka's power that had the lasting effect and not Yamaguchi's with Fujioka scoring a knockdown in round 3 as she continued to dominate. Whilst Yamaguchi was struggling to land her punches round 4 did see her hurting Fujioka, albeit from a headclash which was one of the few times we saw Fujioka in any sort of pain at all. Unfortunately for Yamaguchi she was punished by Fujioka for the clash of heads and staggered late in the round. By round 7 it appeared that Fujioka was set on taking Yamaguchi out. The challenger had Yamaguchi staggering several times as she hunted a second knockdown though Yamaguchi showed great heart in seeing out the storm and hearing the bell. By then though the fight was a lost cause. After a strong Fujioka round in the eighth it really was all over barring Yamaguchi scoring a knockout, something that had seemingly become impossible due to the fact Fujioka took her shots so well. Despite that Yamaguchi did manage to arguably claim the final two rounds which included a scrappy round 9 and a good back-and-forth round 10. By the time we got to the final bell there was only ever one winner. With or with out the knockdown Fujioka had clearly taken the decision and the title as she scored arguably the most notable victory of her career and took home her shiny new title. -The official scores were 98-91, 97-92, 97-92. We had it 98-91.
Courtesy of boxrec.com
Russian blonde bombshell Svetlana Kulakova (8-0, 1) proved there was a lot more to her than a body to die for as she claimed the interim WBA female Light Welterweight title with a commanding victory over Judy Waguthii (12-6-3, 3). The Russian, fighting for her first real world title set the pace from the off with a busy offensive style that forced the Kenyan into a defensive shell. With Kulkakova's offensive style it really gave the Kenyan very few chances to launch attacks, she seems to be bombarded from every direction by a torrent of punches from a fighting wanting to prove a point. To make things worse for the Kenyan, every assault of the Russian drew cheers from the crowd who seemed grow in confidence every time the crowd cheered. It was difficult to give Waguthii any of the first 9 rounds, she may have claimed one but then again there was no guarantee she even managed that. Despite being in a huge hole Waguthii did manage to show some fight in the final round cutting the Russian late in the fight with a hard, solid punch. Fortunately for Kulkakova she managed to see out the trouble and was the clear winner in the eyes of the judges taking a unanimous decision. Although the cards weren't read out it was a very comfortable decision. Although Kulkakova claimed the interim title it's very, very unlikely that she will be fighting for the regular title, held by the very good Argentinian Monica Silvina Acosta. The fight is winnable for Kulkakova but she'd likely have to travel to Argentina for the bout and this would be very unlikely given Kulkakova's win here.
Courtesy of http://www.koreaboxing.co.kr
It's not often we've been able to say this since we started "Asian Boxing" but right now I think we can safely safe that Korean boxing is on a temporary high. The cause of Korean celebrations right now belongs solely to "Defector Girl Boxer" Hyun-Mi Choi (8-0-1, 2) who successfully claimed the WBA Female "interim" Super Featherweight title earlier today to become a 2-weight world champion. The popular Korean fighter, who was born in Pyongyang before escaping to South Korea, faced Japanese veteran Fujin Raika (25-8-1, 10) a former 3-weight world champion. Although Choi was favoured going in to the bout it was seen as a potentially difficult bout with Raika being tough, experienced and a real battler. Despite this Choi actually made the bout look easy at times. Using her height and reach advantage from the off Choi was able to land clean shots as Raika came in looking to get to where she could land. Through much of the bout this tactic worked well for Choi who appeared quicker, stronger and and more skilled as well as naturally larger. Despite being out pointed Raika did her her successes throughout the bout she was, on the whole, unable to have enough of them in the earlier rounds to win them. She was making some competitive but never really doing enough to clearly claim any of them. Although Raika started to look every bit of her 37 years late in the fight where she was obviously tiring she refused to just lie down and take defeat and really went for the big turn around in the final round, a round in which she caught Choi with some solid shots. Unfortunately for the Japanese fighter however Choi fired back her own shots and never looked in much trouble despite the surge of offensive success from Raika. Having given up her WBA Featherweight title prior to this bout Choi will almost certainly be feeling that she made the right move to go to Super Featherweight rather than drain herself down as she had been in her past few fights. Sadly at the end of the fight Raika looked somewhat like a broken fighter. Despite her great career she'll almost certainly be thinking about hanging them up. At her best she'd probably not have beaten Choi though right now she's a long way from her best. On the same card Hye-Soo Park (3-6-1, 1) scored her first career stoppage taking out young Thai Airada Sithsonram (2-1) in the 5th round of a scheduled 10th as she claimed the female PABA Super Flyweight title and Dan-Bi Kim (8-2-1, 2), a former IBFA Minimumweight champion, out pointed the winless Thai Yokfah Sitkhrusin (0-4). |
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