Crisscross Fights Boxing and MMA and Female Fight News for week of Jan. 22.
By David A. Avila
Another pebble has been tossed into the lake of prizefighting and could be causing more than just ripples in the near future.
Heather “The Heat” Hardy and Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton who are both professional boxers and Mixed Martial Artists signed to clash in both an MMA fight and then later a boxing match. Their first encounter takes place on Feb. 16 at the Mohegan Sun Arena. It will be an MMA bout on the Bellator 194 fight card. The boxing match takes place at a later date.
Each began in pro boxing and acquired accolades and recognition in the prize ring. Hardy won the WBC International Title and remains undefeated as a featherweight boxer. Julaton captured WBO and IBA world titles as a super bantamweight. Both now participate in MMA.
Recently Julaton and Hardy fought on the same MMA fight card but endured losses simultaneously. But the intrigue of the two fighting each other in boxing and MMA could be opening the doors for many other similar pairings.
With one of the top pound for pound boxers Amanda Serrano now throwing her hat into the MMA cage and following in the footsteps of previous boxing standouts like Holly Holm, it doesn’t take much imagination to see this occurring more often. All it takes is two promoters willing to participate.
Hardy has a boxing contract with DiBella Entertainment and an MMA contract with Bellator. Julaton has a boxing contract with Allan Tremblay and also has an MMA contract with Bellator.
This form of crisscross promotion between boxing and MMA has already been done with Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, but only had boxing. It suits female prizefighting perfectly because there are many women doing both sports.
In Serrano’s case she has a current boxing contract with DiBella and now has an MMA contract with Combate Americas. It’s easy to see the Puerto Rican slugger crisscross too.
San Antonio
A couple of female bouts took place in San Antonio, Texas. It seems the female fight world in the Alamo town has been busy developing female fighters in that area.
This past weekend Faith Morones, Nina Gallegos, Brianna Gonzalez and Brittany Ordonez all were scheduled to fight on a boxing card in San Antonio. One female bout fell out but the bantamweight contest between Gonzalez and Ordonez took place with Gonzalez winning a six round unanimous decision on the co-main event on Saturday. The other bantamweight fight was canceled because of a weight disparity. Gallegos weighed in more than 10 pounds past the limit.
TMB & PRB Entertainment have been staging female fight cards to accompany the male fights with good effect. That will open the door to even more female fight interest among the women in that area.
In the past San Antonio developed several elite female fighters such as Celina Salazar and Christine Ruiz. Another fighter currently making waves is Selina Barrios who recently captured the vacant NABF lightweight title last month.
San Antonio has become a hotbed for female fight talent.
Female Fight News
Argentina
Nazarena Romero (1-0) defeated Paola Farfan (0-3) by unanimous decision after four rounds on Saturday Jan. 20. The featherweight fight was held in Catamarca.
Cristina Cuevas (4-7-2) beat Roxana Laborde (8-19-3) by decision after six rounds on Friday Jan. 19. The welterweight fight was held in Villa Gobernador Galvez.
On Friday Jan. 26, flyweights Evelyn Bermudez (5-0) and Maria Cano (2-3) meet in a six round fight at Arroyo Seco, Santa Fe. Also, super bantamweights Eliana Cuello (0-1) and Elizabeth Britos (1-3-1) meet in a four round bout.
Belgium
Delfine Persoon (40-1) was the winner by unanimous decision after eight rounds versus Monica Gentili (6-8) on Saturday Jan. 20. The non-title fight took place in Moorslede. Persoon holds the WBC lightweight title and could be facing Ireland’s Katie Taylor in a battle of lightweight champions.
On Saturday Jan. 27, super lightweights Elfi Philips (8-4-3) and Katarina Vistica (1-10) meet in a six round fight at Rebecq.
China
Lili Xie (3-0) won by technical knockout in round four versus Suchaya Bualuang (0-1) on Saturday Jan. 13. The lightweight bout was held in Xu Zhou, China.
Dominican Republic
On Saturday Jan. 27, featherweights Dyana Vargas (1-0) and Claribel Ferrera (0-6) meet in a four round contest at Santiago de los Caballeros.
Finland
On Saturday Jan. 27, middleweights Sanna Turunen (3-0-1) and Sanja Ostojic (1-2) meet in an eight round clash at Vantaa, Finland.
France
Maiva Hamadouche (18-1) won by majority decision over Myriam Dellal (15-7-3) after 10 rounds on Saturday Jan. 20. The IBF super featherweight title fight was held in Levallois-Perret. It was Hamadouche’s third defense of the title since winning it in November 2016. Hamadouche is 28.
On Saturday Jan. 27, featherweights Nahed Kharchi (1-0) and Ainara Mota (2-3-1) meet in a six round battle at Menton, France.
Germany
Alicia Melina Kummer (12-1) was the winner by unanimous decision after 10 rounds against Dominican Republic’s Lina Tejada (11-4) on Saturday Jan. 20. The super lightweight battle for the GBU, GBC, WIBA, WIBF titles took place in Buchholz. Kummer, 29, fights out of Hamburg, Germany.
Mexico
Valeria Perez (9-3) was victorious by majority decision after six rounds versus Judith Rodriguez (8-13) on Saturday Jan. 20. The bantamweight fight took place in Tlalpan, Mexico City.
Turkey
On Saturday Jan. 27, welterweights Gulsum Tatar (1-0) and Maria Al Mardan (0-0) meet in a four round bout at Istanbul, Turkey.
United Kingdom
On Friday Jan. 26, super welterweights Hannah Rankin (3-1) and Klaudia Vigh (2-21-1) meet in an eight round bout at Glasgow, Scotland.
On Saturday Jan. 27, super bantamweights Kristen Fraser (2-0) and Lana Cooper (0-9) meet in a six round bout at Moodiesburn, Scotland.
USA
Briana Gonzalez (3-1-1) defeated Brittany Ordonez (2-2) by unanimous decision after six rounds on Saturday Jan. 20. The super bantamweight clash took place in San Antonio, Texas. Both live and train in San Antonio. Also,
Shianne Gist (3-0-2) was the winner by unanimous decision after six rounds against Natalie King (1-9) on Saturday Jan. 20. The welterweight fight was held in Moundsville, West Virginia.
Zimbabwe
On Friday Jan. 26, super lightweights Monalisa Sibanda (4-7) and Enelless Nkhwanthi (0-4-1) meet in a six round contest at Harare, Zimbabwe.
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