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The career of former WBF Womens
World Bantamweight Champion
Renata “Barbie Girl” Szebeledi
is remarkable, to say the least.
She last fought in May of 2013,
but at time of writing the
Hungarian is still only
twenty-four years old and would
have plenty of time to add to
her achievements if she made a
comeback.
- NOTE: This article is
written assuming the date of
birth listen on her BoxRec
profile, and several other
places, is correct, but it must
be mentioned that at least one
other source has Szebeledi three
years older.
Born in Budapest, she made her
professional debut on August 1,
2008, one day before her
fifteenth birthday! That alone
is remarkable. But, despite a
successful past in Kickboxing,
where she won all but a few of
her forty-seven bouts, the
transition to professional
boxing wasn’t easy.
She didn’t have anything handed
to her either, as her first five
bouts were decision losses
abroad against very good
opponents. She likely learned a
lot in those fights, but her
record after fifteen months as a
pro was never the less a
depressing 0-5.
In her debut, still only
fourteen years old (if we go by
1993 as the years she was born),
she was out-pointed by future
European Champion Corina
Carlescu (4-1-1) in Romania, and
at fifteen she lost two
back-to-back decisions to future
European Champion Valeria
Imbrogno (4-0) in Italy.
Two months after her sixteenth
birthday she came up short
against current WBC World
Lightweight Champion Delfine
Persoon (then 1-0) in Belgium,
and a month later she returned
to Italy where debutant Perla
Bragagnolo beat her on points
after six rounds.
But just after Christmas of
2009, things started to turn
around for Szebeledi when she
beat Gabriella Vicze (1-0) in
Slovakia. Between December 2009
and June 2010, she won five of
six outings, only losing to
reigning French Champion, and
future two-time WBF World
Champion, Nadya Hokmi (13-6-1).
That string of success put her
in line to fight Unathi Myekeni
(7-0) for the vacant WBF World
Super Bantamweight title on
September 12, 2010 in Mdantsane,
South Africa. Szebeledi lost the
fight on points, but put up such
a good performance that she was
promised a rematch.
The rematch never materialized,
but just two months later she
fought Oksana Vasilieva (7-4)
for the WBF World Featherweight
title in Russia. Again Szebeledi
did well, boxing well over her
natural weight, but lost a clear
unanimous decision.
In December of 2010 she finally
got a big fight on home soil,
and she took full advantage of
it when she captured the UBO
World Super Bantamweight title
with a fourth round stoppage of
Romanian Gabriella Insberger in
Budapest. She soon vacated that
belt to pursue new titles at
Bantamweight.
After three non-title bout
victories Szebeledi won the
Hungarian national Bantamweight
belt by stopping Eva Marcu (3-0)
in June of 2011. Soon after she
was picked to fight Pia
Mazelanik (12-3-1) in Germany,
with the vacant WBF World
Championship on the line.
This time, on July 7, 2011,
Szebeledi would not let fighting
abroad get in her way. She boxed
wonderfully, and was awarded a
deserved unanimous decision to
become WBF World Bantamweight
Champion.
After a couple of low-key
victories, Szebeldi was offered
the opportunity to move down to
Super Flyweight to challenge IBF
World Champion Simona Galassi
(16-1-1) in Italy. She happily
accepted, and again proved she
was true world class by giving
Galassi all she could handle
before losing a very close, some
would say disputed, decision.
Less than a month after the trip
to Italy, Szebeldi retained her
WBF World Bantamweight crown by,
again, stopping old foe Eva
Marcu (now 6-3) in Budapest.
Convinced that she was still
fighting at a too heavy weight,
it was a god-send when another
phone-call came from Italy.
Simona Gallasi, who had so
narrowly defeated Szebeledi to
defend the IBF World Super
Flyweight title, had moved down
to Flyweight and needed an
opponent to fight for the vacant
WBC World title on October 27,
2012. Szebeledi was given a
second chance, and she took it
and ran with it.
But this time she would not let
the judges have a say. In a
stunning performance, Szebeledi
floored Gallasi in the first
round, and never let the local
girl off the hook as she went on
to stop her in the third,
shocking the Italian fans
watching from Ringside and on
TV.
Seven months later she traveled
to Japan to defend the WBC World
Flyweight crown against Shindo
Go (11-2), but it would not be
another fairy-tale chapter to
her story. Go won a clear
unanimous decision, and, at
least for the time being, it was
the last fight of Szebeledi´s
career.
Her final record being 17-10
(one win not included on her
BoxRec), with ten victories
inside the distance, Szebeledi
only fought in Hungary nine
times. All her losses were
abroad, every time on points and
against opponents with a
combined record of 66-14-2.
Three World titles in three
different weight classes, in
less than five years! Not bad
for someone who started out
losing five fights in a row!
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