In the lone world title bout of the weekend, WBA bantamweight champion Irma Garcia (7-0-1, 1 KO, 4 NC) put the title on the line in a rematch with Janeth Perez (17-2-2, 4 KO’s) in Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico. The two fought in January of this year, with Garcia scoring a close but unanimous decision to snatch the title from Perez, who had held the belt since July of 2011. It was Perez’s first defeat.
Garcia and Perez put on another entertaining bout that was even closer than the first. Though Garcia had an edge early in the fight, Perez came on strong in the latter half, closing the distance and gaining control of the bout. Garcia was pushed to the canvas twice, once in each of the ninth and 10th rounds. The 10th round fall appeared to cause injury to Garcia’s ankle, and she was allowed ample time to recover before finishing the fight on her feet.
At the end of 10 rounds, Irma Garcia retained the WBA title by split decision: 96-94 twice in her favor and 97-93 in favor of Perez were the official scores. This was Perez’s second consecutive loss, Garcia remains undefeated.
A minor regional title was up for grabs in Australia; Shannon O’Connell (7-1, 4 KO’s) won the vacant Australian Queensland State featherweight title with a six round decision over Narelle Leahey (1-1).
On Lou DiBella’s Broadway Boxing card in New York City, Heather Hardy (5-0) remained undefeated winning a rematch with Mikayla Nebel (0-5) at the Roseland Ballroom. The two first met in Hardy’s pro debut; where Nebel scored a knockdown in the first round but went on to drop a four round decision. Hardy won this bout by shutout scoring of 60-54 on all three scorecards.
In Canada, Michelle Nelson (4-3) won the rubber match with Peggy Maerz (2-4-1) by 10 round decision. The two have fought three consecutive times with Nelson winning the first and third bouts, Maerz taking the second.
In amateur boxing, the USA Boxing National Championships took place this past weekend in Spokane, Washington. The finals in the Elite Women’s division were decided over two sessions on Saturday with nine champions being crowned.
2012 Olympians Marlen Esparza and Queen Underwood were both victorious, winning gold medals in their respective weight classes. Esparza, of Houston defeated Virginia Fuchs by split decision in the flyweight division to win her seventh national title; she has yet to leave a national competition with anything less than a gold medal. Underwood won gold in the lightweight division with a split decision over Tiara Brown.
In the featherweight class, Jennifer Hamann defeated Rianna Rios by split decision, middleweight Franchon Crews defeated Raquel Miller by unanimous decision, Elisha Halstead won the light flyweight championship defeating Alejandra Mercado by split decision, New York’s Christina Cruz won a unanimous decision over Ayanna Vasquez to take bantamweight gold, Bertha Aracil won a unanimous decision over Faith Franco in the light welterweight division, Danyelle Wolf took a unanimous decision over Staten Island’s Fallon Farrar in the welterweight division, and Tiffanie Hearn won the light heavyweight gold medal defeating Dara Shen by unanimous decision.
In other professional bouts this weekend:
In Argentina, Yesika Munoz (1-1-1, 1 NC) vs. Veronica Tesure (0-0-1, 1 NC) ended in a first round no contest after an accidental head clash, Carmen Correa (0-0-1) and Omaira Alvarado (0-3-1) battled to a four round draw in Colombia, in France, Wendy Gervus (1-0) defeated Daniela Bickei (3-17) over four rounds, in Japan, Tomomi Takano (1-0, 1 KO) stopped Ozora Hikaru (0-1) in the first round; both fighters were making their pro debuts. Luciel Quiel (2-0, 2 KO’s) stopped Carolina Montenegro (4-4-2) in the third round in Panama, in Poland Anna Sikora (2-2) won in six rounds over Hana Horakova (2-8), in Slovakia Veronika Hernyak (3-0) won in four rounds over Sara Csillag (0-1). In the United States, Maria Suarez (4-0-1) won a six round decision over Elizabeth Cervantes (3-10, 1 KO) in California and Victoria Cisneros (9-14-2, 3 KO’s) took a five round decision over DJ Morrison (3-17, 2 KO’s) in New Mexico.
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