Europe Reporting: Dina Thorslund Wins Vacant WBO Super Bantam Title

Dina Thorslund Tops Yessica Munoz in Denmark

 

By Phil Woolever

Hometown heroine Dina Thorslund made her local fans happy with a methodical, unanimous decision victory over visiting Yessica Munoz on Saturday.

 

Thorslund, 121 ½, improved to 12-0 (6KO) and earned the vacant WBO super bantamweight title after a relatively easy effort in the main event of a Sauerland Promotions card at Struer Arena, in the small northern Denmark town where she resides.

 

“My preparations were really good, the best I’ve ever had,” Thorslund told the media. “I trained more rounds than ever before, and I had a lot of quality sparring at home and abroad.”

 

It was not a very exciting contest. Munoz ran straight out into some stiff punches that established Thorslund’s lead and after that the pattern of the match was set.

 

The fighters had identical builds but different styles. The 5’4 Thorslund stood straight up on her toes, dashed in with a couple of shots, and then the women clinched.

 

Munoz bent forward left-handed in a semi-shuffle, throwing jabs that began much too far away from her target. A lot of the time her offense fell short by two feet.

 

By the 4th frame, Thorslund was comfortably ahead after landing wild shots. She started feinting more than punching and action digressed.

 

Munoz tightened up her defense and used better movement to work her way into closer range, but most of her punches still missed by a considerable distance.

 

The second half of the bout settled into a monotonous pattern. Thorslund landed half a dozen shots in each frame that seemed to hurt Munoz and kept her off track.

 

Overall, Thorslund basically pitched a shutout. Final scores were 99-91 and 100-90 twice, The Prizefighters.com gave Thorslund every minute of every round.

 

Just how much of a threat the 27 year old “La Gacella (The Gazelle)” Munoz every really posed to the undefeated Thorslund was a question.

 

Munoz did have some legitimate experience, the type you can only get from fighting before an audience in Agua Prieta or Cuidad Juarez. The journey to Denmark was her first fight outside Mexico.

 

Munoz, 120 ½, is now 17-2-1 (5). After the fight it seemed like the only thing she really brought was the strong international reputation of Mexican boxers.

 

The promotion borrowed plenty of marketing from Gennady Golovkin and prominently dubbed the fight “Mexican Style.”

 

The closest the evening actually got to any sort of Mexican style was with sugar skulls on the fight posters or the “Ole Sauerland” lettering on the undercard referee’s shirt.

 

One of the undercard’s male boxers and his team came into the ring wearing ponchos and sombreros that you would probably never see around anyplace like Tijuana or Nogales, Mexico.

 

Still, the evening appeared to be a success. The audience in Denmark looked quite happy after the fight. In some Mexican towns they probably would have been throwing things after the lack of intensity.

 

It appears Thorslund will be one of those fighters who remains around her base. With Sauerland’s ongoing Nordic series the best current managerial strategy is probably to stay in the hometown comfort zone.

 

Just how much Thorslund might achieve is hard to tell from Saturday’s performance.

 

Except for the well-travelled New York/Jamaican veteran Alicia Ashley, who Thorslund topped for an interim WBC belt in March, she has faced limited opposition.

 

For now, Thorslund still needs to prove she is ready for older, more experienced fighters like Argentina’s Marcela Eliana Acuna or Mexico’s Jackie Nava to truly be considered a global champion, but it looks like time could be on her side.