Bernard Hopkins wasn’t the only one making history this week. Thursday night at the Barclay’s Center, amateur star Christina Cruz won her eighth consecutive New York Golden Gloves title, breaking the record she set last year and also winning the tournaments award for best boxer. The 31 year old bantamweight competitor was fresh off a win at the National Championships, her third straight, and continues to keep her sights set on the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Christina was kind enough to grant me an interview for The Boxing Tribune, which will be published late this week.
Only one major contest in the pro ranks this week. Delfine Persoon (29-1, 13 KO’s) scored a 10 round decision over previously undefeated Erica Anabella Farias (19-1, 9 KO’s) in Belgium to win Farias’s WBC lightweight championship.
Persoon also holds three other world titles in the lightweight class; she won the WIBF strap in early 2012 and made one defense in 2013 and in her last contest against Lucia Morelli, she scored a 10th round TKO win to grab the WBF and WIBA belts. That was in December, and was her seventh bout of the year.
Farias came in with a long championship reign, having won the interim WBC title in her eighth pro bout in 2010, winning the full title three fights later, and going on to make a total of 11 successful defenses before this weekend’s loss.
Light flyweight champion Yesica Bopp (26-1, 12 KO’s) will be in action this coming week, making the jump to the flyweight division to face Daniela Bermudez (16-2-2, 5 KO’s) for the vacant WBO title. Bopp has been a world champion since 2008, and holds the WBO and WBA world titles. Bermudez is undefeated in her last 11 contests and is a former bantamweight and interim super flyweight world title holder, as well as the current WBO super flyweight champion.
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