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On Friday night, February 15, at
the Galveston in Gent, Belgium,
Elite Promotions presented
“Elite Boxing Superstar 2”,
headlined by two World Boxing
Federation (WBF) championship
fights.
In a clash between two
foreign-born but Belgium-based
boxers, reigning WBF
International Welterweight
Champion Meriton Karaxha,
originally from Albania,
successfully defended his title
by unanimous decision over
Rwandan Jean Pierre Habimana.
Most of the ten rounds were
dominated by Karaxha, who forced
the tough Habimana on the
back-foot and made it difficult
for the challenger to gain
momentum. In the seventh round
it even looked as if the
champion might have Habimana
hurt, but “The African Warrior”
still came back and tried to
retaliate.
Judges Hugues Hellebaut,
Christophe Hembert and Philippe
Wouters all scored the fight
widely in favour of Karaxha:
99-91, 98-92 and 99-91.
Karaxha (27), who won the title
last November with a first-round
demolition of Frenchman Jean
Moraiti, takes his professional
record to 23-5-2 (8). Habimana
(35), a much better fighter than
his misleading statistics
suggests, drops to 9-16-3 (4).
In the co-feature of the show,
former European title-challenger
Elfi Philips (25) captured the
vacant WBF Womens
Intercontinental Light
Welterweight title, unanimously
out-scoring tough-as-nails
Montenegrin Aleksandra Vujovic
(27).
In a competitive fight, Philips
was the faster and more agile of
the two, and had success with
combinations from the start. But
Vujovic fought back hard, and
even hurt Philips in round seven
with a big right hand and drove
her to the ropes, but couldn't
capitalize.
The visitor finished the fight
strongly, but it was too late
and in the end there was no
doubt about the outcome as
judges Christophe Hembert,
Hugues Hellebaut and Jean Pierre
Van Imschoot scored it 98-92,
98-91 and 100-89 for Philips.
Vujuvic has one point deducted
in round nine for holding.
The new WBF Intercontinental
Champion improved to 10-5-3 (4),
while Vujovic, who lost a
short-notice shot at the same
title in 2017 to another
Belgian, current WBF World
Champion Oshin Derieuw, falls to
a deceiving 4-9-2 (2).
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