Title fights from around the world: Sarah Bormann wins third consecutive split decision
Today, boxing world title fights take place around the globe and are more accessible to watch than ever before. Sometimes, championship bouts do not receive as much attention and go underreported. Big Fight Weekend commits to writing about boxing news, previews, and recaps. As such, the site now has a recurring segment on boxing championship bouts from around the world from the past week.
The focus of these pieces will be on clashes ranging from atomweight to heavyweight that had the WBA, WBC, IBF, and/or WBO titles on the line. This week’s edition of “Title Fights From Around the World” consists of one recap. Read on to see how the fight went. Note: Big Fight Weekend has also included a recap of a bout that occurred in May that we had forgotten to cover.
Sarah Bormann wins third consecutive split decision
Sarah Bormann (22-1, 7 KOs) won a third consecutive fight by split decision against Chaima Bounouar (7-1, 1 KO).
Although one judge had it 95-94 for Bounouar, the other two saw it 97-92 and 95-94 for Bormann. The German remains the WBA and WBO minimumweight world champion with the victory. Bormann won the WBO title in 2024 against Jennifer Meza and has now defended it three times. She became the WBA champion in October last year against Yuko Kuroki. This was her first time defending that belt.
The bout occurred on an Oct. 31 Ruhe Boxing card at the Messe Karlsruhe in Rheinstetten, Germany. Fight fans around the world could catch the action live as a pay-per-view (PPV) on Fight24.
Bormann started off pressing forward, but Bounouar proved dangerous with her overhand rights. It was not uncommon for the two to get tangled up as they both swung punches at each other. An accidental clash of heads in round three caused a cut to appear by the right eye of Bounouar.
Bormann was ruled knocked down in the fourth. At the beginning of round five, however, referee Diana Milani reversed the ruling and called a slip instead. As the fight progressed, both women continued to swing punches at each other with mixed success. Their arms got tangled up repeatedly with the swinging, causing referee Milani to step in several times to separate them.
Bounouar was deducted a point in round nine for repeatedly leading with her head. Overall, this was not the cleanest of fights. The styles of both women did not mesh well. Bormann did spend much of the fight pressing forward, which probably convinced two judges to score in her favour in the end.
Bormann’s previous two fights also ended in split decisions. Her opponents for those bouts were Kuroki and Isabel Rivero.
The Big Fight Weekend verdict: Quick update: An omission from May
During the course of writing this piece, Big Fight Weekend discovered that it forgot to cover a world title fight that took place in May. Below is a quick recap of the result.
Isabel Rivero (13-3-1, 1 KO) won a unanimous decision against Watcharaporn Namphon (14-2, 8 KOs). Scores for their bout were 100-90 (x2) and 99-91. Rivero remains the WBA atomweight world champion with the win. She won the title in November last year against Silvia Ramírez and this was her first defence of it. Rivero-Namphon took place on a May 17 Tundra Promotions card at the Cúpula del Milenio in Valladolid, Spain.
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Featured image credit
WBO X
S Saadeq Ahmed
Currently writing out of Toronto, Canada, Saadeq first became a boxing fan while living in Doha, Qatar. Looking to become more involved in the sport, he began writing about boxing and has had work published in outlets such as Seconds Out and Boxing Social. He looks forward to continue covering boxing on Big Fight Weekend.