Title Fights From Around the World: Gabriela Alaniz Wins Upset, Yamileth Mercado Retains
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 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. Today’s edition of “Title Fights From Around the World” consists of two recaps. An upset win saw one woman crowned the unified flyweight champion. In México, a reigning champion was dominant on her way to victory.
Title Fights From Around the World
Gabriela Alaniz Shocks Marlen Esparza
In an upset, Gabriela Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs) won a split decision against Marlen Esparza (14-2, 1 KO) to become the unified flyweight champion.
While one judge saw Esparza winning 98-92, the other two had it 97-93 and 96-94 for Alaniz. The fight took place at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, CA. This was part of a Golden Boy Promotions event on DAZN that saw José Ramírez defeat Rances Barthelemy. Esparza had won the first meeting between the two but lost her titles after failing to make weight for this bout. As a result, Alaniz was the only one who could win the WBO, WBA and WBC belts and was successful in doing so.
Alaniz was a lot more active throughout the bout. On the other hand, Esparza was more selective with landing her sharp shots and boxed off the back foot for much of the fight. In the end, two of the judges preferred the high work rate and aggression from Alaniz – making her a unified world champion.
Yamileth Mercado Records Dominant Victory
Yamileth Mercado (23-3, 5 KOs) remains the champion with a unanimous decision win over Linda Lecca (16-8-2, 3 KOs).
The fight took place at the Nuevo Toreo in Tijuana, México. All judges saw Mercado winning 100-90. She made the seventh defence of her WBC super bantamweight world title. (BoxRec does not show that Mercado’s fight against Paulette Valenzuela was a title defence. However, the WBC does recognize the clash as a title bout. Big Fight Weekend is going with the WBC’s stance in this case).
After a quiet opening round, Mercado asserted her dominance against an opponent who offered little in return. In the sixth, Lecca was hit with a hard shot that changed how the rest of the fight was fought. She adopted a passive approach and moved around the ring to avoid getting hit, hardly punching. As a result, Mercado easily won the fight.
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.
