While it was Anne Sophie Da Costa who came in as the reigning World Boxing Federation (WBF) Womens World Strawweight Champion, and the fight took place in her hometown of Reims, France, it was Mexican challenger Yesenia Martinez Castrejon who started their fight best by far on Saturday night, November 9.
Castrejon took the fight to Da Costa, who in the first few rounds looked besides herself and surprised by the aggressiveness and hard punching of the visitor. Da Costa tried hard to take control, and slowly started to find her rhythm in the fourth.
After six rounds it was anybody’s fight, but in round seven the champion really found her groove and started to pull away with more precision and a higher work rate. Da Costa was at that point fighting with more aggression and urgency than Castrejon, who was still dangerous, especially with her overhand right and body-punching.
Going into the last round it still looked as if the fight could go either way, as many rounds were close and hard to score. Da Costa finished best, but both boxers put on a magnificent performance and the crowd, which included WBF Womens World Super Welterweight Champion Anne Sophie Mathis, seemed unsure if their local favorite had managed to keep the world title in France.
Judge Jean Marcel Nartz scored the bout a 95-95 draw, but Vincent Dupas and Jacqui Valliant had it 97-93 for Da Costa, scoring two more of those close rounds for the reigning champion.
A jubilant Anne Sophie Da Costa (31) remained undefeated and improved her professional record to 16-0 (7), while the very game and determined Yesenia Martinez Castrejon falls to a deceiving 15-13 (9) after an admirable effort. At only 24 years of age, she should get a new opportunity at a world title in the future.
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.
