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2010 World Boxing Federation
Female Fighter of The Year,
Super Featherweight World
Champion Ramona Kuehne from
Germany, was a fighter long
before she became a boxer.
Born in Berlin in 1980, she
started her combat career in
Jiu-Jitsu at age twelve, and won
several local and national
championships before winning
bronze at the world
championships in 2000.
She later switched to Kickboxing
after meeting trainer
Stephan Boestfleisch,
whom she is now married to, and
went 45-6 in that sport, winning
many championships along the
way, before taking up regular
boxing in 2005. As an amateur
boxer Kuehne impressively won
all of her eleven bouts, and the
German championships, and
decided to turn professional in
2006.
Kuehne made her paid fighting
debut in Berlin-suburb
Brandenburg with a unanimous
decision over Latvian Natalija
Dolgova. After only nine pro
fights she won the Interim WIBF
World Light Welterweight title
by beating Spaniard Loli Munoz
in October 2007, not much more
than two years after her first
amateur boxing bout. Quite an
accomplishment!
Nicknamed “The Dragon”, an alias
certainly not fitting her
beautiful looks, the magnificent
career of Ramona Kuehne had by
no means peaked with the Munoz
victory. While it is most common
that boxers move up in weight to
win titles in other divisions,
Kuehne did the exact opposite
seven months later when she took
on Bulgarian Galina Ivanova for
the vacant WIBF World
Lightweight title, and came out
on top with a close split
decision.
After one defense of her
Lightweight title, a clear
unanimous decision over
Dominican Dahiana Santana in
November 2008, Kuehne continued
her unusual climb down the
weight divisions when she beat
Kenyan Judy Waguthii for the
vacant WIBF Super Featherweight
title in March 2009 to become a
three-time, three division,
world champion.
After one defense of the Super
Featherweight crown, Kuehne
moved down in weight once again
in an attempt to make her story
even more incredible with a
fourth world championship, but
undefeated Ina Menzer derailed
the Kuehne-express and retained
her WBC, WBO and WIBF
Featherweight titles when a
nasty cut made it impossible for
Kuehne to continue in the sixth
round.
Still the WIBF Super
Featherweight champion, Kuehne
moved back up in weight and
added the vacant WBF and WBO
world titles to her collection
five months after the setback
against Menzer by stopping
Maribel Santana in four rounds.
She has since defended her three
belts twice, beating undefeated
opponents Irma Adler and Arleta
Krausova.
At 18-1 (5) and having won five
world championship titles in
three weight classes, Ramona
“The Dragon” Kuehne is surely
one of the most accomplished
female boxers on the scene
today. With her good looks,
pleasant personality and
outstanding boxing skills,
promoter Ulf Steinforth of SES
Boxing has a real star on his
hands.
The Super Featherweight division
is filled with talented fighters
and champions such as Frida
Wallberg (WBC, 10-0), Amanda
Serrano (IBF, 12-0) and Kina
Malpartida (WBA, 13-3), just to
name a few, and the
possibilities for genuine
super-fights are plenty. Ramona
Kuehne would stand a great
chance against anybody in the
world. |
