Natalia Smirnova of Russia is the new World Boxing Federation (WBF) Womens Intercontinental Lightweight Champion after beating the Czech Republic’s Hana Horakova for the vacant crown on Saturday night at the Express in Rostov on Don.
This was a rematch of their original meeting this past May where Smirnova won a hard-fought decision after eight rounds, but this time she had no trouble proving herself as the better of the two.
Horakova tried her best to even the score, and had a few moments of success, but Smirnova was just too skilled and quick from the start.
After ten rounds of boxing dominated by Smirnova, judges Evgeny Drobyshev, Alexander Kalinkin and Ruben Zaburov all had the local favorite a clear winner by scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 99-91.
The new WBF Champion improved her undefeated record to 7-0 (4), having been very active since turning professional this past February.
Horakova dropped to 3-10 (0), a ledger not doing her justice as she has fought competitively with many world class opponents.
Televised live throughout Russia on Boets TV, the Smirnova vs. Horakova WBF Intercontinental title fight was promoted by ITS Promotions, in cooperation with SKV Boxing.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
