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Despite a game effort from South
African challenger Julie
Tshabalala, World Boxing
Federation Women’s World
Middleweight Champion Christina
Hammer impressively dominated
the proceedings to retain her
title with a unanimous decision
on Thursday night, April 5, at
the Vodova Arena in Brno, Czech
Republic.
While the reigning champion had
the upper hand from the
beginning, she did have to work
hard in every round and the
lopsided scores of 100-90,
100-90 and 99-91 didn’t reflect
the spirited effort of
Tshabalala. Hammer improved her
record to 12-0 (7), and
Tshabalala dropped to 4-2-1 (1).
Hammer had predicted a knockout
victory, and with this in mind
Tshabalala took the fight on the
inside to avoid the long range
and hard straight shots from the
German, who adjusted nicely and
countered with hooks and
uppercuts.
Tshabalala had her best moments
in rounds six and seven, and
seemed to be catching her second
wind, but Hammer was back on top
in the final three rounds,
making Tshabalala miss and pay
for her mistakes.
As the final bell sounded the
South African appeared happy to
have survived all ten rounds,
and there was never any doubt
about who would be awarded the
verdict. Christina Hammer had
once again proven her
superiority in the middleweight
division, and status as one of
the pound-for-pound best female
fighters in the world.
The fight was promoted by Ulf
Steinforth and his SES Boxing,
and was broadcasted live
worldwide on
www.bild.de. The card
also featured a championship
fight with local hero Lukas
Konecny, and the atmosphere at
the Vodova Arena was electric
throughout the evening. |
