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In yet another busy weekend of
World Boxing Federation (WBF)
Championship boxing, new
champions were crowned on
Saturday night, October 14, in
Slovenia, Mexico and Germany.
And, also in Germany, a
defending champion retained his
title in what was the last fight
of his career.
18-year-old undefeated
“Wunderkind” Ema Kozin became
the youngest ever WBF World
Champion when she scored a
hard-fought unanimous decision
over tough and rugged Kenyan
Florence Muthoni to lift the
vacant Womens World Middleweight
title at the Tivoli Arena in
Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The taller Kozin had the clearer
shots, but Muthoni was always
coming forward and often
troubled the home-girl, who
didn’t manage to maximize her
height and reach advantage.
Consequently, the fight was
mostly at close quarters, which
kept Muthoni in the running.
But after ten rounds, Kozin, now
11-0 (6), was deservedly
declared the winner by scores of
96-94 (Bela Florian), 97-93
(Predrag Aleksic) and 99-91
(Ventsislav Nikolov). Muthoni
drops to 11-6-2 (5). Referee in
charge of the action was Jurgen
Langos.
In Ocotlan, Mexico, another
talented youngster in Jessica
Nery Plata (23) had her crowning
moment when she captured the
vacant WBF Womens World
Flyweight crown against
streaking Argentinian Champion
Maria Magdalena Rivera.
In a very fast-paced encounter,
the first four rounds were nip
and tuck with both boxers giving
as good as they got. But from
the fifth it started to turn in
favour of Nery Plata, now 21-1
(3), who managed to push Rivera,
10-5-3 (3), back and was very
effective with her body-shots.
It was competitive and
entertaining through-out, but in
the end Nery Plata had done
enough to deserve a unanimous
decision victory by scores of
96-94 (Max Zuniga), 97-93 (Raul
Wilhelmy) and 97-93 (Carlos
Ruiz). Referee was Tony Weeks.
German veteran Werner Kreiskott
(39) had his farewell fight at
the Unihalle in his home-town
Wuppertal, and retained the WBF
International Heavyweight title
with a somewhat lacklustre
unanimous decision over Georgian
challenger Gogita Gorgiladze.
Judges Christophe Hembert and
Roman Morawiec both scored the
fight 115-113, while Judge Jens
Uwe Baum saw it a lot wider at
119 – 109 for the local hero,
who improved his professional
record to 25-19-2 (17) and send
Gorgiladze home with a 36-20
(30) ledger. Referee was Thomas
Hackenberg.
In the semi main event,
promising prospect Sherif
Morina, born in Kosovo but now
residing in nearby Dinslaken,
won his first championship in
the paid ranks when he stopped
former Tanzanian Champion Saidi
Mundi in round eight to take the
vacant WBF International
Welterweight title.
Mundi, 20-5-1 (12), gave the
upstart some trouble in the
first few rounds using an
effective jab, but Morina came
back strong and eventually took
over. In round seven Mundi was
floored by a perfect shot to the
liver, and, while he beat the
count of referee Christophe
Hembert, the writing was on the
wall.
In round eight Morina was
relentless and scored two more
knock-downs, both from punches
to the liver, and at that point
Hembert had seen enough and
waved it off. The new WBF
International Welterweight
Champion is now 6-0 (4) since
turning pro in June of 2016.
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