The proverbial
fur should fly when María José ‘Panterita’ Núñez Anchorena, the
Uruguayan based in Paraguay whose first outing as a professional
inspired the immortal headline ‘The Little Panther with the Face
of an Angel and Murderous Fists’, meets ‘The White Tigress’,
Alesia Graf of Belarus, for the WIBF super flyweight title on
the Universum ‘Champions’ Night’ card in Magdeburg on the 9th
September.
Having made a career out of massacring Brazilians
with names like ‘Da Silva’ and ‘De Souza’ (of whose true
identity one is never quite certain), Núñez is something of an
unknown quantity: her stance is listed as ‘orthodox’ by Boxrec
but it was her left hand that did all the damage when she kayoed
the luckless Lourdes González of Argentina in her first fight,
as was reported at the time:-‘González,
who had been greeted with chants of ‘Lourdes!’ and ‘Argentina!
Argentina!’ as she entered the ring, was staggered by a left
cross in the course of an opening exchange that signalled the
future course the fight and drew a gasp of dismay from the 4,000
mainly Argentinian fans packing the arena, but fought back
bravely and began trading punches with the debutante. Several
times more, though, in the course of the opening round, Núñez
got through with the left hand, and as she made her way
unsteadily back to her corner at the end of the first round,
dazed and demoralized, the welts were already beginning to show
on González’s face.
‘Smelling
blood, and lacking the lucidity and experience in only her first
fight to pick her shots more carefully, Núñez took longer
perhaps than she needed to finish it, but in the end she got the
job done. With her opponent’s right eye now closing, she
connected with a succession of clean blows, and suddenly the
Argentinian’s head was jerking from side to side as her defence
collapsed completely.
‘The fight
ended as it had begun. Just as the Colombian referee, Dr
Francisco Hernández, was about to separate them and award the
TKO, Núñez pre-empted him with a peach of a left that caught
González flush on the jaw and sent her crashing to the canvas in
her own corner. There was no point in counting. She wasn’t
getting up.’
*
Another of
her victims, if the records are to be believed, was Carina de
Souza, whom she is said to have knocked out in the first round
when the two met in Caaguazú, Paraguay; but in the light of
recent events, it has to be asked whether her real opponent
wasn’t perhaps one Karina Britos of Argentina, who has fought
once, if not twice, under the name ‘Carina de Souza’ in the last
fourteen months alone, as well as usurping the identity of
Liliane Balles (also of Brazil) on the televised ‘Huracán en
el Orfeo’ bill in Córdoba last month. That imposture, which
ended in her being knocked out by
Carolina ‘Chapita’ Gutiérrez,
is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Federación
Argentina de Boxeo (FAB) in which Patricia Quirico and her
trainer, Alberto Galli, are due to give evidence today.
Whilst denying
that this is in any way an accusation of wrongdoing, the FAB has
already taken the less than judicious step of suspending
Gutiérrez’s trainer, Carlos Alberto Tello, and his son, Carlos
Andrés Tello (who put the undercard together), pending their
appearance before the same disciplinary committee next week. The
fighter herself has not been suspended, although she, too, will
be required to testify.
A report in the
Brazilian press today conjures up images of a Jack Lemmon or
Walter Matthau classic with an account of how the fighter’s
uncle, Gustavo Javier Brito, who was posing as her trainer,
hurried to interrupt whenever she was asked a question, in an
attempt to conceal the fact that the fighter, who was supposed
to be Brazilian, didn’t speak a word of Portuguese.
*
Though the South
American press still seems to think she will be fighting Ina
Menzer on the Universum ‘Champions’ Night’ bill in Magdeburg on
the 9th September, it appears that Patricia ‘La
Leona’ Quirico’s place there has been usurped by the Colombian
Leli Luz Florez [8-2-0 (3 KOs)]. Quirico had hoped also to meet
the luckless Lourdes Gonzáles Ocampo over six rounds on the
Casanova-Acosta undercard in Santa Fe on the 19th August, but
the fight appears to have fallen through.
*
Another who had
planned to fight at the weekend had a suitable opponent been
found was Jackie Nava, for whom a slot had been reserved on the
‘El Legado de las Leyendas’ bill in El Paso. After her
traumatic defeat at the hands of Alejandra Oliveras in Tijuana
on May 20th, Nava’s manager had been hoping to get
her a few easy fights to rebuild her confidence; but although,
supposedly, there’s one born every minute, no one on this
occasion was prepared to volunteer.
*
Speaking of
which, opponents have yet to be found for the unbeaten Julia
Sahin [15-0-0 (2KOs)] and Susi Kentikian [11-0-0 (9 KOs)] on the
Universum bill, despite the inducement of the WIBF interim
junior flyweight, and WIBF intercontinental, titles
respectively; whilst Natascha Ragosina, the WIBF super
middleweight champion, who had also been scheduled to appear,
has had to cry off after injuring a hand in training. If she was
going to injure her hand, it’s surprising she didn’t do so
earlier in the year when she caught a thief going through her
handbag in the changing room of the gym where she trains. ‘The
intruder,’ reported Mein Geld, ‘was despatched with a
swift combination of the type with which Natascha’s opponents in
the ring are all too familiar.’
*
Zulina ‘La Loba’
Muñoz, who failed to stop fellow Mexican Fredee González when
the two met in Cuautitlán Izcalli on the 26th May, has warned
her she won’t be so lucky next time. ‘I’m not making excuses,’
she told Box Latino, ‘but I was ill when I climbed into the ring
for that fight.’ For the rematch on the 9th September
in Acapulco, when Muñoz’s NABF bantamweight title will again be
on the line, she means to be in peak condition and do the job
properly. ‘She’s a thorn in my side, now,’ says Zulina. ‘This
time, I aim to beat her convincingly.’
*
Gloria Ríos, the
34-year-old granny, has recovered it seems from the pounding she
took from Ana María Torres in Mexico City in May. Esto
reports that she’s back in training and looking for a fight.
*
‘Arriving at the stadium amid a
huge throng, we found the entrances blocked by fans without
tickets (or the requisite number thereof) assailing the ears of
officials with a farrago of preposterous stories to explain the
deficiency’ (Al Borde del Ring). The venue in question
was the Centro Deportivo Municipal (or ‘CeDeM’) #2 in
Caseros and the date, the 12th August: as always in Argentina
when Marcela Acuña is fighting — even when the event is being
televised live — the stadium was sold out. ‘A night of glamour
that will go down in history’ Enzo Dallacamina of Campeones
en el Ring called it. ‘Of course, we are talking about
female boxing,’ began Carlos Irusta of Boxing Scene
churlishly. ‘But, she is a Star. A real Star.’
Besides having ‘a
cheek that bordered on irreverence,’ as the Reuter’s report put
it, her 22-year-old Colombian opponent, Anays Gutiérrez
Carrillo, turned out to be something of a showman too, and a
dancer into the bargain, with an entrance routine ‘worthy of
Shakira’ and plenty of slick footwork once the fight got
underway.
Acuña had
promised the Uruguayan actress, Natalia Oreiro, whom she trained
for her role as a boxer in the telenovela ‘Sos mi Vida’
and who was sitting in the front row, she would knock Gutiérrez
out; but in the event the Colombian turned out to be a very
awkward customer — and an impudent little brat into the bargain,
constantly sticking out her tongue, and clinging to her opponent
like a frightened child whenever she came within grabbing
distance. On one occasion, according to Reuters, she did the two
things simultaneously, and managed the unusual feat of licking
her opponent’s shoulder-blade in the clinch. At such moments,
the soubriquet ‘Lady of the Ring’, which for some reason they’ve
hung on her, seemed startlingly inapt.
‘When she stuck
her tongue out like that, it was to tell me I hadn’t hurt her,’
commented Acuña, ‘but I knew I had, because I’d hurt myself in
the process.’ According to Luis Blanco of Al Borde del Ring,
the youngster demonstrated a wealth of ring savvy that belied
the fact that this was only her twelfth professional fight. ‘She
soaked up all Acuña’s onslaughts, replying each time only after
the squall had passed and it was safe to do so.’ She even had
the Tigress down at one point — it wasn’t ruled as a knockdown
because the Argentinian slipped at the same time (‘you could
have called it either way’ opined Osvaldo Bisbal, President of
the Federación Argentina de Box in his piece on the FAB
site) — and caught her on several other occasions in the face
with counters, but her blows lacked power as well as being too
few and far between.
Some commentators
felt her tactics were of dubious legality but all concurred in
describing her as exceptionally brave. ‘Directly in front of
where we were sitting,’ wrote Blanco, ‘we saw her take three
straight rights to the head that landed with full force, but she
didn’t go down.’ ‘Perhaps I just didn’t hit her in the right
place or at the right moment,’ speculated Acuña.
All those years
sparring with the boys have turned Gutiérrez Carrillo into a
tough little cookie. Embittered perhaps by the loss of her
unbeaten record, she was ungracious in defeat. But she’s only
twenty-two. (And, besides, who cares?) ‘I thought Marcela would
be better,’ she paltered. ‘She showed me nothing. The truth is,
I never even felt her punches. The only reason she won is that
she had home advantage; if we’d fought in my country, the result
would have been different...’
But the look of
relief on her face, and of frustration on that of Acuña, when
the final bell sounded told a different story.
Whilst
commentators found the fight exciting (though hardly a great
exhibition of skill) , the same criticisms were levelled at
Acuña here as after her failures against Ashley and the
unnecessarily drawn-out torture to which she subjected the other
‘Lady of the Ring’, Damaris Pinock Ortega, whom she had out on
her feet in the first but took a further four rounds to bully
into submission: she’s over-reliant on the right cross —
opponents see it coming — and when she has an opponent hurt, she
lacks the lucidity to step back and take her out with one clean
shot, preferring instead to pound the midriff, which may pay
dividends in the long run against an opponent whose defences are
proving hard to breach but is totally inappropriate when they’re
at your mercy, as was the case with Gutiérrez on several
occasions from the seventh round onwards — at least, in the view
of Ana Zunilda Rodríguez of Ring de Ideas. What has
improved is her footwork. Here she did a good job of cornering
Gutiérrez Carrillo; but — impatient for the kill — found herself
constantly getting sucked into the clinch instead of remaining
at a distance from which she could vary her angles and pick her
shots.
Acuña celebrated
her victory arm in arm with the actress, to the strains of
‘Porque tengo el corazón valiente / voy a quererte / voy a
quererte’ (‘Because I have a brave heart, I will love you
...’) — the theme song of the series. In a future
episode, Oreiro’s character, ‘La Monita’, is due to fight the
‘real’ Acuña (which presumably means Acuña playing herself). ‘We
all know how that one will end,’ snorted Terra. ‘The script’s
too obvious.’
‘In the world of
non-fiction, though,’ the same author continued, ‘the Tigress
now has the belt of one of the sport’s traditional governing
bodies with which to lure Alejandra ‘La Locomotora’ Oliveras
into a unification, and that’s a fight the outcome of
which is rather less easily predicted.’
No sooner was the
WBC belt around Acuña’s waist than the challenge was issued. ‘I
want Oliveras,’ she told reporters. ‘This is the ideal
opportunity to find out which of us is the better. But it has to
be now, while she still has the WBC belt. If she loses it, I’m
not interested. I haven’t the slightest intention of giving her
cheap publicity.’
Oliveras isn’t
interested at all, or so she would have us believe: ‘At the
moment, I have engagements far more important than any fight
with Marcela Acuña,’ she said in an interview on Radio Palermo.
‘This last week alone, I’ve received offers to fight in Italy
and Germany, where they pay well, and these are far more
inviting than any fight with ‘The Tigress’ — however desperate
she may be to fight me.
‘Besides which,’
she added. ‘After my fifth fight, I took the microphone and
asked her in front of all the spectators to please give
me a chance; I challenged her; but, as the ‘Tigress’
herself admitted only the other day on TV, I was nobody at the
time and she chose to ignore me. Fine. Now it’s her that wants
to fight me, and I’m the one that’s not interested.’
Then she seemed
to relent: ‘The truth is, I will take the fight, because I also
want both belts.’
First, though,
she has a fight in Rosario in October [‘possibly,’ she says,
‘against Maribel Santana of the Dominican Republic’ (not Jazmín
‘Rusita’ Rivas, then, as had been announced?)] followed by a
fight with Leona Brown in Las Vegas on the 18th
November on the Morales / Pacquiao III undercard.
But the
challenge from Acuña,
who thinks she’s a grass snake („primero
tira la piedra y después esconde la mano”),
isn’t going to
go away. “When she recovers from her hand injury,” she told DyN
back in June, “she’d better fight me, because I’m going to
pursue her through heaven and earth. I’m going to apply pressure
through the media until this fight gets made. Somehow, I don’t
think Oliveras is going to like it when people start calling her
a wimp.”
[Sources: Al
Borde del Ring, Ring de Ideas, Reuters, SportsYa, Boxeo-Boxing,
Boxing.de, Mein Geld, Esta, La Voz del Interior, Superfight, DyN]
