Title Fights From Around the World: Ivana Habazin and Clara Lescurat Show Their Class
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 just one recap. A clash in Croatia saw a new welterweight champion crowned. In Australia, a reigning champion successfully defended her super flyweight title.
Title Fights From Around the World
Ivana Habazin Becomes Welterweight Champion
Ivana Habazin (23-5, 7 KOs) is a world champion once again – with a unanimous decision victory against Kinga Magyar (14-5, 6 KOs).
Scores for the bout were 99-92, 98-92 and 97-93. The fight took place at the KC Drazen Petrovic in Zagreb, Croatia. Fight fans could catch the action live on the Salita Promotions YouTube channel. With the win, Habazin now holds the WBC title.
The Croatian had previously held the IBF welterweight belt after winning a split decision over Sabrina Giuliani in Belgium in March 2014. She then lost the title in a clash for undisputed against Cecilia Brækhus later that year. Since then, Habazin has challenged for world titles four times, only achieving success on the fourth attempt.
Read More: Five Underrated Welterweights to Watch Out for in 2024
For most of the fight, Magyar was the one coming forward. Habazin mainly fought off the back foot, relying on her defence to avoid most of what her opponent threw. An orthodox fighter, the former IBF champion occasionally fought in the southpaw stance. While Magyar did press forward, her defence let her down. Habazin landed punch after punch, doing enough over 10 rounds to get her the unanimous decision.
Clara Lescurat Retains Her Title
Clara Lescurat (11-0, 4 KOs) made a successful world title defence with a unanimous decision win over Linn Sandstrom (8-3-2, 2 KOs).
Scores for the fight were 100-90, 99-91 and 97-93. The bout took place on the undercard of Nikita Tszyu-Danilo Creati at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia. Fight fans could catch the action live on Main Event and Kayo as a PPV. Fox Sports 3 was also broadcasting the card.
Read More: Five Underrated Flyweight Boxers to Watch Out for in 2024
Lescurat has now been involved in five world title fights, winning all five. She won the WBA super flyweight title with a split decision against Maribel Ramírez in June 2022. The bout with Sandstrom was her second time defending that belt outside of her native Argentina, having gone to France in May last year to stop Daniela De Jesus Aguiar in eight.
Between the two, Lescurat was able to dictate terms in the fight. The Argentinian proved to be the better fighter offensively as Sandstrom struggled to keep up in terms of punches landed. In the end – Lescurat had landed far more punches than her opponent and was the clear winner. The judges also saw things that way, scoring the fight unanimously for her.
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.
