Dionicius Beats Fernandez in Argentina, defends IBF Title
By Diego Morilla
MALVINAS ARGENTINAS, Argentina – After an eight-month long hiatus marked by personal misfortunes, IBF super flyweight titlist Debora Dionicius returned to action and successfully defended her belt against Mexico’ Diana Fernandez in a wide unanimous decision after 10 championship rounds at the local Club Social y Cultural El Cruce in the neighborhood of Los Polvorines on Saturday, August 19th.
The fight delivered on its promise to be an entertaining bout between hungry, unbeaten fighters, with Dionicius being the far more experienced fighter and showing her more polished boxing skills with a dominating performance over the distance.
Dionicius (25-0, 54 KO) was clearly in control throughout the entire bout, controlling the tempo of the bout with her strong jab and unloading her right cross on Fernandez’s face repeatedly. Dionicius shook her opponent numerous times with her picture-perfect jab, but Fernandez (16-1, 3 KO) was never in danger of being stopped.
Fernandez had a few great moments in the fifth, seventh and the last round as well, but they were never enough to put Dionicius’ growing control in any peril. Dionicius, a former member of the Argentine national team, gradually started throwing more hooks to the liver and landing at will at a bewildered Fernandez, who in spite of being dominated never held back or turned to survival mode, continuing to move forward on the champion even as the scorecards continued to pile up points for the local fighter.
In the end, the fighter they call “La Gurisa” (“The Kid”, in the local Guarani language of her province of Entre Ríos) ended up taking “Pretty Girl” Fernandez to school with a completely overwhelming final stretch, landing at will and scoring combinations from all angles. The scorecards by Nestor Savino (100-90), Carlos Villegas and Juan Carlos Palmieri (98-92 for both of them) displayed the total control of Dionicius over her able but limited opponent.
The 29-years old Dionicius thus defended for the ninth time the title she took in 2012 against Michelle Preston and which she defended against the likes of Marisa Portillo, Simona Galassi, Olga Julio, Neisy Torres and others. The native of Villaguay comes from a tough few months after suffering the loss of her mother-in-law (cancer) and her brother (accidental drowning), but was able to bounce back thanks to her newfound faith in God, as she had expressed in an interview prior to this bout.
The future may hold an all-Argentine title fight against fellow IBF champ Daniela Bermudez, coincidentally nicknamed “La Bonita” (“Pretty Girl”) just as Fernandez.
“I don’t know whether this is an incentive to send a message to Bermudez and let her know that she is next. If that’s the case, I would love it,” said Dionicius before the fight, and now the fight is closer to becoming a reality in part due to the local Argentine Boxing Federation’s new role as a mediator with local TV networks to produce the best possible matchups at the local level.
The 22-years old Fernandez heads back to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, with a clear but valuable defeat in her young and still promising career, which other than this fight took place entirely in her native Mexico.
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(Photo by Ramon Cairo)