“Estrella” Millan Retains WBF Flywight Title
WBF flyweight champion Isabel “Estrella” Millan (18-2-1, 8KO) of Culiacan, Sinaloa, scored the first defense of her title via disqualification over Mexico City’s Sonia Osorio (8-3-1, 1KO).
The championship bout took place on Friday night, December 9th, at the Nuevo Leon Gymnasium in Millan’s adopted hometown of Monterrey, Mexico. The main event was scheduled for 10 rounds and televised locally by Azteca Noreste and presented by Uppercut Promotions.
Millan captured the title back in April by traveling to enemy territory and scoring a unanimous decision over Amira Hamzaaoui in Paris, France. In August, she defeated Aracely Palacios in her hometown of Culiacan in a keep busy fight over eight rounds. Now, she was ready to defend against Osorio who is trained by the legendary Nacho Beristain unable to be in her corner because he was working the corner of another fighter in another part of the country.
Early on the taller Millan began to establish the distance with a steady jab as Osorio had trouble cutting the real estate between the two. Soon enough, in the first frame Osorio found her mark with wide over hand rights that caught the champion flush as Millan was able to counter with her own right hand.
Millan kept developing her fight in the first half of the fight, using her jab to frustrate Osorio who couldn’t find the way in as her corner implored her to throw more punches. As Millan began to slow down a bit with her work rate, Osorio began to press on as she rushed in, scoring to the head and body and then grabbing.
Millan began to complain to the referee Sergio Hernandez of Osorio’s head that the Mexico City fighter was using as a third weapon. Millan never backed down as she constantly moved forward behind a constant jab while Osorio looked to close the gap enough to score to the body followed with her best punch, the over hand right.
The fifth was one of Osorio’s best rounds as she caught Millan coming in scoring well to the body but Millan was still able to score a telling combination. Osorio kept pushing in the sixth and seventh round as Millan began to develop hematomas over both eyes and under her right eye first from head butts and then punches from Osorio who followed her corner’s instructions to go after the affected areas.
By the seventh Millan’s frustration of the head butts and constant holding by Osorio was evident as she complained every chance she got to the third man in the ring. Finally, early in the eighth, the referee did something about it and took a point from Osorio for the fouls.
Osorio did not relent and kept attacking Millan every which way she could concentrating with hard body blows and then following up to the body. With time running out, Osorio was a different fighter for the last two rounds, initiating exchanges and scoring with three and four punches combos as Millan’s vision began to be affected by the swelling of both eyes.
In the last round Osorio might have been the most aggressive she had been in the whole fight when the Mexico City fighter scored the hardest right hand blow of the night from either fighter. The punched turned Millan’s face as Osorio came in once again with her head and this time opened up a ghoulish gash over the left eye of the defending champion. The referee quickly halted the action as he took Millan to the ringside doctor who stopped the fight that instant. At that moment the referee decided to disqualify Osorio for excessive head butts after numerous warnings.
At the time of the stoppage and after nine rounds scored, MIllan was ahead on all cards with local judge Luciano Rocha scoring it 88-82 while Tijuana’s Enrique Sotelo and Manuel Rincon scoring it 90-80 and 89-81 respectively.
In a short address to the crowd, Millan apologized and blamed her opponent for not being able to give a better performance. She mentioned she wanted to put this fight behind her and look towards bigger and better things.