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(JULY 28) Following an extensive and
impressive amateur career, Ana Julaton made her professional boxing
debut last November with a four round decision over tough veteran
bantamweight Rita Valenti, a first bout choice of opponent that
surprised and impressed many fight fans. Three months later, Julaton
won a split decision over another ranked fighter, Carly Batey. Not
only were these two good opening wins for a professional boxer, but
the four and six round bouts confirmed the high expectations that
preceded Julaton into the professional ranks. In March and June,
respectively, Julaton took an earned step down in competition,
winning a four round decision over Clara De La Torre (1-3) and a 37
second TKO of Salina Jordan (2-4). The four wins essentially
affirmed Ana Julaton's spot as an up-and-coming fighter in the sport
of Women's boxing.
Julaton's next opponent, in July, was a move back on the fast track,
Johanna Mendez, a young (just turned 18) fighter with a 3-0 record.
After six fast paced rounds, underneath Kendall Holt/Ricardo Torres
in Las Vegas, with Mendez starting quickly, Julaton regrouping and
closing strong, the bout was declared a draw. Julaton, coming off
her first professional bout in which her hand hadn't been raised,
had been slated to fight August 21 at the Tachi Palace Hotel and
Casino in Lemoore, CA and her opponent was subsequently named as
Donna Biggers, a tested veteran boxer with five years and 28 bouts
on her record. Biggers has been in with some of the best fighters in
the bantamweight division and thus this bout appeared a good example
of a fighter, Julaton, coming off a slight bump in her career, a
draw with a good fighter, climbing right back into the ring with a
tough opponent. Then came the announcement, from the WBC, that the
Julaton/Biggers bout had magically morphed into an International
Female super bantamweight title fight.
Huh?
This immaculate conception of a "title" fight matches Julaton,
coming off the first non-winning bout of her career, against Biggers,
a boxer who has not had a win in the ring in over a year, and that
win, a two round TKO of a pro debut fighter in June 2007. As
stipulated, Julaton has shown a great deal of potential in her first
five bouts and Biggers has competed against nearly every top boxer
in the bantamweight division. Julaton/Biggers is a compelling bout,
as any Youth Vs. Experience bout usually is; it is also a very good
step-up bout for Ana Julaton, closely following what was the first
difficult bout of her career. What Julaton/Biggers isn't is a
credible title fight. It is, instead, another in a line of
depressingly frequent examples of the sport of Women's boxing
headlong descent into the morass of a "day camp, let's give everyone
a medal" syndrome. The fact that the bout is an "International"
title may be press-released as rationalization that since the fight
is not for a major title, the bout should be granted some leeway
from carping critics. Here's a fact: there are, today, simply too
many titles available in the sport of Women's boxing and as a
result, the sport is coming precariously close to turning into a
sort of "tallest midget" reality show. The unintended consequence is
that "titles" now mean less and less while being awarded more and
more. Such a "belt for everyone" mentality not only diminishes those
fighters who capture these minor titles, but, at the same time,
blurs the value of major championships in the sport. And the fact is
that the fighters who ascend to those major championships work too
hard and too long to be subjected to any type of connection or
comparison to these lower pedestal titles.
This is no indictment of Ana Julaton or Donna Biggers or any boxer
who has competed for an "International," "European," "South Side of
Chicago" or any of the other junior varsity titles available from
various sanctioning bodies throughout the sport of Women's boxing.
Fighters fight and they toil, with maximum effort, at their
difficult sport with little regard to whether there is a title on
the line. Once the bell rings, a fighter's primary concern is the
opponent in front of them and to clutter a bout with a meaningless
title, that will be forgotten before the arena clears, is of small
moment to the fighters and, in truth, to the majority of fans. The
Julaton/Biggers bout, on it's own, qualifies as a good match-up; it
doesn't qualify as anything approaching a title fight.
Neither is this an overall indictment of the sanctioning bodies in
the sport, specifically, in this case, the WBC. That organization
has sanctioned more good female bouts than questionable ones,
similar to most of the major sanctioning bodies currently operating
within the sport of Women's boxing. The WBC, for example, was a
major factor in putting together the Ann Marie Saccurato/Jessica
Rakoczy ten round bout last December at the Tachi Casino. That fight
set the gold standard for female bouts in 2007 and, possibly, for
several more years. No, the problem is that these sanctioning bodies
have lost sight of what the label, "title fight" means. It should
mean that the top two or two of the top three or four fighters, are
stepping into the ring with each other and the winner emerges the
champion. Any other bouts involving boxers beneath those top
fighters should be treated, by everyone associated with the sport,
as fights leading to qualification for title fights. A title fight
should be the culmination of a fighter's journey up the weight
division ladder, not part of that journey. Instead what we now have
in the sport is a prevailing attitude that the more titles and more
title bouts there are, the better for the sport. In point of fact,
the exact opposite is true.
Championship bouts, true championship bouts, do not fall into "the
more the merrier" category. Announcing that a bout is a title fight
doesn't, necessarily, grant it title status. All too often it is
only an indication that another minor belt has materialized. If a
title fight is not between two of the top ranked fighters in the
weight class, it is a title fight with a belt, but without status.
Ana Julaton, coming off a draw against a fighter who can, arguably,
be described as the first tough fight of Julaton's career, does not
qualify as one of the top ranked bantamweight fighters......yet.
That day may come. The Donna Biggers bout will go a long way towards
answering some tough questions about Julaton and her future. It's a
tough bout against a tough fighter and if Ana Julaton wins, she'll
be back on her way up the bantamweight ranks. But, with fighters
like Johana Mendez, Danielle Bouchard and Ronica Jeffrey waiting,
that's all.
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