Looking, if anything, younger than her 19 years, in a denim mini skirt and polka dot top, Jazmín Rivas of Mexico turned heads yesterday as she entered the Hotel Aconcagua in Mendoza for the press conference prior to Friday's world title fight. And the eyes followed her, according to Los Andes, all the way to the podium.

Awaiting her there, as will be the case on Friday in the gymnasium of the club Andes Talleres, where the two will dispute the WBA super bantamweight title, was the champion, Marcela 'La Tigresa' Acuña, who has an unageing beauty: she looked no different at 19 from today at 30; and some day, I expect, people will look at her sons and wonder which is her father.

"All I know about my opponent is her record," began Acuña, "which is quite solid and respectable: she's been a world champion; she has a great deal of experience; and she knows how much a title means. For her antecedents, then, I respect her a great deal; but that doesn't mean I'm going to be intimidated.

"You see, unfortunately, I'm a mother, and the title, to me, is like one of my children. On Friday I'll defend it as though it were."

The young challenger (who looks so sweet, you have to wonder whether The Tigress won't eat her alive) responded with grace ("I also respect her, because she's the champion; but I haven't come all the way to Mendoza just to lose"), a touch of poetry ("The coin's still in the air, and won't fall before Friday"), and some steel ("I've come to win and I'm very well prepared. If I knock her out, so much the better, but one thing I'm sure of is that I'll win.")

Acuña is equally certain that she won't. "The only queen here is me!" she told journalists on Monday; though the rebuke in this case was aimed at Oliveras, who had been scheduled to fight Rivas a few months back herself, but thought better of it.

As for the young Mexican, Acuña repeated yesterday what she said then: "I'll knock her out before the fifth round."

[Sources: El Comercial, TyC Sports, Ciudadano Diario, Los Andes, Yahoo Argentina, Ovación]

 

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