Title Fights From Around the World: Wins for Melvin Jerusalem and Nina Meinke
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. This edition of “Title Fights From Around the World,” consists of two recaps. In Germany, a new featherweight champion was crowned. Over in the Philippines, a reigning minimumweight champion held on to his title.
Title Fights From Around the World
Melvin Jerusalem Retains 105-lb Title Against Luis Castillo
Melvin Jerusalem (23-3, 12 KOs) remains the WBC minimumweight champion with a unanimous decision win over Luis Castillo (21-1-1, 13 KOs).
Scores were 120-107 (x2) and 118-119. With the victory, Jerusalem makes the first defence of his title. He had won the belt with a split decision victory over Yudai Shigeoka earlier this year.
The fight headlined a September 22 MP Promotions card at Mandaluyong City College in Metro Manila, Philippines. Boxing fans in the Philippines could catch the action live on One Sports. Those in Latin America could do so with ESPN Knockout.
In the opening round, a straight right hand from Jerusalem sent his opponent down. Castillo was able to get up and make it to the end of the round. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t overcome the flurries and potshots from Jerusalem, who was just faster. The Filipino won wide on the scorecards to retain his minimumweight title.
Nina Meinke Becomes Featherweight Champion
Nina Meinke (19-3, 4 KOs) became the new IBF featherweight champion with a majority decision win against Daniela Bermúdez (32-5-3, 12 KOs).
While one judge had the action 114-114, the other two saw it 119-109 and 118-110. Unlike several women’s world title fights, this was over 12 three-minute rounds. With the victory, Meinke wins the IBF belt on her second attempt. She had previously lost a unanimous decision to Sarah Mahfoud in 2022.
The bout headlined a September 21 P2M event at the Sporthalle in Hamburg, Germany. Boxing fans could catch the action live on DAZN, but only in Germany. Since the fight, P2M have uploaded the contest to their YouTube channel.
With a minute to go in round two, an accidental clash of heads opened a cut on the forehead of Meinke. For the remainder of the fight, blood poured from the cut but it was never cause for ending proceedings. Bermúdez was mostly on the front foot while her opponent was content with moving around the ring during their gruelling clash. Both fighters appeared confident in having their hand raised in the end, but it was Meinke’s work over 12 that the judges preferred.
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.
