Home Page
Search WBAN
Latest News-Women
Biography- Sue TL Fox
Latest Rankings
Boxer's Profiles
Fight Results
Upcoming Events
Knockouts!
Past/Present Ratings
Fight Photo Gallery
Boxing Trivia
Tiger Tales by Fox
Amateur Scene
Women Cops who Box
Bust a Fighter!  
Mixed Matches
Mismatches
About WBAN

 


Sue Fox Named  in the "Top Ten" Most -Significant Female Boxers of All Time - Ring Magazine - Feb. 2012

HISTORY OF
WOMEN'S BOXING

Historical -All links
Historical Events
History Firsts
Flash from the Past
Past Boxer Profiles
70'S/80'S Past Boxers
Pre-70'S Boxers
Past Amateur Boxers
About Sue TL Fox

TOP GALLERIES!

Video streaming, over
11, 500 photos, and more! 
   

Matchmaker's Hot List - Exclusive Matchup!
   

Hot Hot HOT Photo Galleries!Flash Photo Slideshows!
   

Boxing Records for women boxers..archived records!
To Join Go Here
 
 

Having Problems
 with the website?
Send an Email

Directly to WBAN!





 

 

 

 

 

                 
                                                                                         
                                      
   

 
 



Restored to grace
By Ewan Whyte
April 29, 2007

     
   
   
   
   
Either
 i) that was just a bad night in Formosa; or
ii) Andrea Miranda has improved enormously in the two years since she fought Marcela Acuńa (which, with only four minutes' ring experience separating her attempt to relieve the Argentinian of her world title on that occasion and her attempt to do the same thing to Ina Menzer last night, would seem improbable);  or
iii) the woman who wears the WBA crown is more efficient and implacable when it comes to subjugating rebels than her royal cousin in the WIBF; because, where the Argentinian routed the young Colombian in open warfare in the first round, harried her relentlessly in the second round as she fled, and put her pitilessly in the third round to the sword, Ina Menzer failed even to subdue her; and given the challenger's exceptional stamina,  it is even conceivable that with a different format, last night's engagement may have ended with the WIBF champion overthrown.

ZDF screened three world title fights yesterday evening, two men's and one women's. The men fought twelve three-minute rounds (which, according to my calculator, makes 36 minutes). The women, on the other hand, had only ten two-minute rounds (duh-duh-duh-dah………….20 minutes)  to settle their differences. Now, I've forgotten how to do percentages on this thing, but I make it the men's bouts lasted near enough twice as long as the women's. I hadn't realized the gap between the sexes was that wide. 

Whether the disparity really worked to the challenger's disadvantage isn't something one can say with certainty. Returning after (for her) a long layoff and having experienced some difficulty, we were told, making the weight, Menzer would probably have faded faster than the challenger over a longer distance. That isn't to say, though, that the youngster would have been able to exploit the champion's impending exhaustion to break down her defences and knock her out.  

Menzer I don't think last night enhanced her reputation; she lacked sharpness; but Miranda is now thoroughly rehabilitated at international level, after a performance in which she displayed real nerve. 

Offensively, it must be said, she had nothing; some nice work, occasionally, with the left hand, but never the stinging, insistent jab you would expect from a woman with her athleticism and reach. Her defensive game, on the other hand, (if only she would concentrate more) could be world class. Based mainly on sound instincts and solid footwork, it's embellished in places by the type of flourish you might stumble upon in an appendix to Tartini's Treatise on Ornamentation (or somewhere equally esoteric), but nowhere else. She knows, for example, (as do many fighters), where she is at any one moment; but uses this knowledge to ping diagonally off the ropes (without looking) as she moves round the edge of the ring. He'd get rope-burns, I expect, if a man tried that, but a woman is allowed a shirt; and I counted five times in one minute that she did this; or, at least, that her back touched the ropes.  

It wasn't that she was in trouble. Nor was it the 'rope-a-dope' technique pioneered by Ali. This was a light, glancing contact as she moved laterally to elude an attack. Once or twice in the four rounds ZDF showed us, she made use of the momentum thus obtained to negotiate a corner more swiftly than might otherwise have been possible as Menzer closed in; once or twice, also, to restore her balance after rearing away from a punch.  She wasn't showing off; it was nothing self-conscious; it's just something she does. 

One effect is to make the ring larger;  and this, combined with her long arms, perhaps explains why Menzer was unable to trap her. She has a guard, too, like a cattle-grid – her long forearms form an impenetrable barrier whenever in place – and a belly like iron.  

It was neither her balance, nor her technique, nor her conditioning, though, that was the most impressive feature of her defence yesterday evening: it was her coolness under fire. This time, there was no hint of panic. Even when she was hurt – which she was,  several times – she kept thinking, and found exactly the right response: now covering up, now moving, now clinching; now covering up and moving; but invariably dropping her guard at the earliest opportunity, to obviate the risk of an officious stoppage. She displayed a presence of mind that was extraordinary, when you bear in mind she's had so little experience against quality opposition. 

And she's as hard as nails.

Her finest hour (of the eight minutes ZDF deigned to share with us…) came in the fourth. It was a near-disaster in boxing terms but a real triumph of the spirit.

She was caught by an overhand right to the temple in the 80th second that knocked her sideways, and fell cheek-first into ropes. As she sprang back into Menzer, she took a hard left to the ear, but elected, rightly, not to clinch, and skipped smartly to the side – just fast enough to outpace a pursuing fist. Now she accelerated swiftly away, before changing direction to outfox the world champion as she tried to cut her off. Rotating anticlockwise, she glanced off the ropes in the manner described earlier and threw a jab at precisely the right moment to foil Menzer as she tried to trap her in the corner.

("With her long arms, " complained Menzer, "I just couldn't get inside." In offence, Miranda was often untidy, with a tendency to lead with her head, but this was beautiful.) 

Then, though, having neutralized the position, she committed a blunder through sheer lack of concentration.

With her back to the ropes to the right of the camera position, she shaped to throw a left, but thought better of it. (Worse of it, rather, since it was now too late to do anything else!) This time, as she tried to get her guard up, she made a mess of it and for a split-second was wide open. Menzer must have sensed the opportunity coming, because she put not one punch through it but two. The left was no more than a range-finder but the straight right that followed was one of the hardest shots I've seen. It hit Miranda full in the face and snapped her head back, and if she'd sprung back off the ropes and pitched face-forwards onto the canvas, or simply burst into tears, no one would have blamed her. But she didn't. She tottered slightly – she was hurt, of course, but still lucid – and turned quickly to block the incoming left hook. This time the guard held, and the same glancing contact with the middle rope ensured that she didn't stumble as she backed away.

Menzer hadn't finished, of course, but misjudged the distance as she tried to finish it in the corner. Frustrated for the second time, she ripped two rib-cracking hooks into the Colombian's side and looked for the inevitable opening upstairs.

There was no opening. Miranda leant forward to protect her traumatized ribcage, but her guard didn't move; and she even suckered the world champion into the clinch. Those few seconds, unbelievably, were all she needed to recuperate. She released Menzer immediately when ordered, and resumed with the lightness of foot and alacrity of a fighter that had just heard the opening bell.

You could really do something with this fighter. The things you can't teach, she has in abundance. Those you can, she has mastered. Except one: neither with her left hand nor with her right does she punch – even remotely – her weight.

If she could hit like Mathis,  and still defend as she does today, she could be quite some champion.

WIBF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (FEATHERWEIGHT)
Champion (6th defence)

Ina Menzer (Mönchengladbach, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany) ; 26 years; [16-0-0 (8 KOs)]

Challenger

Maria Andrea Miranda (Mońitos, Córdoba, Colombia); 22 years;  [10-1-0 (5 KOs)]   

Referee: Daniel Van de Wiele

Judges:  Esa Lehtosaari, Roger Tilleman, Arnold Golger

Result:   Menzer by unanimous decision

 
     
     
   
 
Back to WBAN
WBAN DISCLAIMER
     
     
         
         
         

 

 Free to Public!  Huge Database of Boxing Records with Galleries, over 15,000 photos, Galleries connected with the boxing records, Videos. Mpegs, and More!   Go Here!

 

 


         [
HOME [ADD YOUR SITE] [EMAIL TL FOX]  [DO YOU HAVE A TIP?  [WBAN'S MISSION]  [PRIVACY POLICY] 
AUX   
 
              GOOGLE NEWS  [WBAN DISCLAIMER]   [PROBLEMS WITH WEBSITE OR FORMS? EMAIL TL FOX]   
                                        WBAN™ (WOMEN BOXING ARCHIVE NETWORK) Copyrighted© MAY 1998