Thi Thu Nguyen beats Japan’s Estuko Tada to Be Vietnam’s First Champion
By Yuriko Miyata
History has been written as top contender Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen (5-0, 1KO) edged the champion Etsuko Tada (20-4-3, 7KOs) by decision to snatch her WBO minimumweight title in a 10-rounds scheduled contest at Wadong Gymnasium, in Ansan, South Korea on Saturday.
26 years old Nguyen became the first ever professional boxing world champion for her country Vietnam, regardless of gender. Japanese southpaw Tada, who turned 40 this May, looked completely shocked when she knew that all three scorecards favored the challenger identically 96-94. The official decision might be uncomfortable also to many who watched the YouTube live stream by Cocky Buffalo Promotion of Kim Sang-Bun who resides in Vietnam.
It was a competitive, busy, and close fight that was hard to score, especially in the earlier rounds. But it was Tada, who established dominance steadily with her long solid right jabs and well designated combinations to secure her first defense of her fourth world title.
For Nguyen, it was a long-awaited stage. When she beat Thailand’s Kanyarat Yoohanngoh to obtain the vacant WBO Asian-Pacific minimumweight title in February 2020 in Cambodia, she won the right to fight for the world title of the organization, which remained vacant as the matchup between Tada and Ayaka Miyao, a former WBA atomweight champion, ended in a draw in January 2020. Then Nguyen vs. Miyao was planned in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, in September, but it did not come true amid the COVID19 pandemic.
WBO allowed the rematch between Tada and Miyao for the title last December, in which Tada knocked out the fellow rival with a short left counter in the ninth round, on the condition of immediate defense to Nguyen. Incidentally, that knockout win was voted Knockout of the Year in 2020 by various publications including this one.
While the mandatory fight, presented by Cocky Buffalo promotion kept getting postponed due to the on-going pandemic, the champion was going to get rid of rust in a nontitle 8 rounds with Sana Hazuki that was forced to be an exhibition by the WBO and the Nguyen’s promoter. Finally, the two met in the ring this time in South Korea.
The Vietnamese fighter looked confident in her heavy straight rights to overcome the champion’s long right jabs from the first round. Though Nguyen was always bold to throw the right hands, the more experienced Tada showed the different level of skills to accumulate clean hits to the body and head, and counter lefts to the challenger’s rights from the fifth round. Nguyen got a cut on her right eyelid that the referee ruled was caused by accidental head butts in the ninth round, and the champion ended the fight strong with a barrage of punches. Both raised their hands when the final gong rang, and the decision brought the first world title to Vietnam.
Losing a strained decision is not unfamiliar to Tada, as she had experienced those in Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and Macao, but it hit much tougher this time for the 40 years old ex-champion. Tada is one of the true pioneers of Japanese women’s boxing. It’s been 20 years since she won a bronze medal in the inaugural Asian championship in 2001, the first honor for Japan in international female amateur boxing, that forced the industry to stop ignoring female boxers. And still the legend has dreamed of fighting in the United States, the center of boxing entertainment, and following fellow queens Naoko Fujioka and Tsunami Tenkai who fought there this past summer. She had hoped to make it next year, after coming through this mandatory fight with the championship belt in her hand… We will soon see what is in her mind.
(Photo by Vietnam Times)