Hometown Favorite Erica Farias vs Marisa Nuñez
After a year of relative calm, some of Argentina’s biggest female boxing stars are coming back to full activity and gearing up for what looms as an even bigger year in 2017.
One of such fighters is super lightweight titlist Erica Farias, one of the hungriest champions out there, who is hoping to make a splash that will bring her the challenges she craves after terrorizing the lightweight division and successfully jumping to her current weight class, in which she will defend her WBC belt against a tough Marisa Nuñez this coming Saturday Nov. 19, in San Fernando.
Farias (23-1, 10 KOs) is hoping to turn this challenge into a homecoming victory that will give her the necessary strength to capture even bigger things in 2017.
“I am looking to make a strategic fight, connecting the most damaging punches to score a big win in my home town and with my people,” said Farias, 32, who will be fighting in her hometown of San Fernando in front of her adoring crowd, with free admission to the venue thanks to her local sponsors. “I am feeling better than in the previous fight, because I was asking for more activity. I didn’t want to be inactive for a full year like it happened (during most of 2015). Now I have the chance to defend the title against Nuñez, and I am happy and very motivated, because every fighter wants continuity and to have a lot of fights. I am happy to be back in the ring, especially in my hometown of San Fernando in front of my fans, who have not seen me fight for a while.”
Nuñez (7-6, 2 KO) is a limited but tough opponent, having survived fights against tough customers such as Ana Laura Esteche and Victoria Bustos, and briefly held the IBF super lightweight title after defeating a faded Monica Bustos back in 2014, in the best performance of her career. She later lost the belt to Celeste Peralta.
Farias is confident that sending Nuñez to .500 will enhance her credentials enough to aim for bigger foes, but is not taking anything for granted.
“Every fight is demanding, and I never underestimate anyone”, said Farias, who has been involved in 15 title bouts in 24 career fights. “I am very respectful of my opponents, especially of my Argentine foes, who are frontal and feisty fighters. For me, every fight counts, regardless of whether my rival was already a champion or not. They are all different and pose different threats. This fight will be terrific, because Marisa Nuñez is a temperamental fighter who goes all out, and so am I – at least when it counts.”
Farias hopes to make her temperament count during her impending negotiations for her dream matchup against unified 147-pound titlist and pound-for-pound queen Cecilia Braekhus, a fighter that has been on her scope for years even though Farias would have to make an untested jump into a higher category to face one of the most physically imposing female fighters out there.
The challenge may sound out of reach for most other fighters, but not to Farias.
“I have a temperament that you have to kill me or run over me to beat me,” said Farias, who sustains her claim of being the best possible opponent Braekhus could wish for. “If I am well-trained and I do things right, I am a dangerous fighter because not only am I a good boxer, but I am also a puncher, I have a style in the ring. If you see my fights you’ll see I haven’t received so many punches as other fighters. I think I am a dangerous opponent, maybe that’s why they’ve been avoiding me so much.”
Braekhus or not, Farias believes that the path she started in March of 2014, when she began a four-bout tour that took her to Denmark, Mexico and Belgium during the course of the next 13 months, is slated to start its second leg in 2017, when she is planning to take her act overseas once again.
“I want to fight abroad. I want to face Braekhus. That’s the fight I want. If I could have a rematch with Delfine Peerson (her lone conqueror to date) doesn’t make a difference to me. I believe I already did my best work at 135 and now I have to settle and have continuity at 140. And then I want to go up in weight and face Cecilia,” said Farias, who has been known to provoke her opponents actively through social media, and she has done that with Braekhus for several months now.
Braekhus’ lack of response is, to Farias, a response in itself.
“She is clearly worried,” quips the champ, succinctly.
Time will tell if those worries were justified, especially if she can produce a dominating victory over Nuñez to finally put Braekhus and the rest of the welter-ish crowd on notice.