(MAY 12) In some rare and very appreciated coverage of the sport, we received a fight report from a boxing tournament that took place on Friday, May 8, 2009,  in Cairo, Egypt. (If anyone has photos or video of this event, WBAN would like to get those). The following report is as follows by Amr Hussein:

Last Friday, I attended a female boxing tournament in Cairo, Egypt, although most of the girls are still amateurs, I was really impressed by how far they have come since I first saw them in 2001. The girls came from different places in Egypt to the capital Cairo, for this tournament and they were different in so many other things other than their weight classes.

For example, some of the girls wear the Islamic veil which covers their hair right under their head gear, others didn't wear it, but both see no contradiction between being boxers and keeping their Muslim practices. The girls have really improved, they don't brawl any more or try to hold their opponents in the ring. Now, in most of the fights that I have seen, the girls have become more of head hunters. In every fight, the winner was the girl with the more accurate punches. Adding to that, the girls now fight four rounds, at two minutes in duration. Some did go all the way, yet 6 out of 11 fights ended with either a TKO or stoppage, which shows you the level of intensity in the tournament this year.

Results of the Tournament:

46 kg
Walaa Mohsen defeated Marwa Elsaid
A good opening round with exchange of blows from both girls, but Walaa was the quicker fighter and dominated the other rounds and won by a unanimous decision.

48 kg
Hend rezk defeated Nadia Abdel Samad
Hend [a good friend of mine] came in as the better fighter after a late start in the 2nd round. Hend was able to avoid Nadia punches and score with left an rights to win by decision.

51 kg
Samiha Ali defeated Samia Selim
Although Samiha won when Samia's corner decided to retire after two rounds, but I was surprised that Samiha who used to win her fights by KO or TKO had such a hard time with Samia the ne wcomer, it really shows how much heart Samia has for the sport.

54 kg
Amal Iibrahim defeated Omnia Hamdy
Another impressive show of skills by both girls and a very close decision.

57 kg
Sabreen Gamal defeated Samira Ggalal
Win by decision.

60 kg
Ayat El TKO over Hanan Hussein
Hanan, the veteran who was making her come back to the ring after a lay off due to her having her first child was totally overwhelmed by the younger Aayat who dominated the bout until the 3rd round when Hanan's trainer had no option other than to retire his hurt fighter.

64 kg
Walaa Abas TKO over Nesma Iibrahim
Another early stoppage in my opinion, until the 3rd round, the fight was dead even. This is the first time I have seen walaa winning in a while..

69 kg
Rana Eelsaid TKO over Amira Khamees
Ssince I first saw her in 2001, I never really liked Rana. She is a dirty fighter who makes all kinds of violations and never gets a warning! She also makes weird noises in order to intimidate her opponent. In my view, Amira has nothing to be ashamed of, she even decided to keep fighting when her corner asked her if she wanted to retire.

75 kg
Engy Saad defeated Karima Mohamed
One of best fights of the evening, each girl gave it all she had. A non-stop action bout, until the very last second, but in the end, the win went to the more experienced Engy.

81 kg
Nadia Abdel Hamid TKO of A El Safi
Another impressive TKO.

WBAN would like to thank Amr for taking the time to send in these results.