(JUNE 20) After being taken the distance for the first time in her 18-month professional career on the 26th May, when she defended her NABF Bantamweight title against Fredee González, "Nurse by day / Boxer by night" Zulina "La Loba" Muñoz will be looking to recapture the form that has made her perhaps the most exciting young prospect in Mexican boxing, when she fights the veteran Leticia Arévalo on the 15th July in Toluca (Mexico State).

The women will be fighting in the open air in the Explanada del Mercado Juárez in the state capital; the fight is being sponsored by market traders.

Whilst her record [1-7-0 (1 KO)] is far from impressive, Arévalo has the reputation of being a tough nut to crack – crowds twice threw money into the ring to express their appreciation of her refusal to quit in the face of the far superior athleticism of Mexico's other teenage star, Jazmín Rivas – but she did succumb, eventually, in their third meeting; and the sixth round stoppage on that occasion, following on the heels of an eighth round TKO at the hands of recently dethroned WBC Junior Featherweight champion Jackie "The Aztec Princess" Nava, must raise questions about the continuing strength of her resolve.

Meanwhile Rivas, who will start training in San José (CA) when she leaves school in July, has been promised a crack at Nava's slayer, Alejandra "La Locomotora" Oliveras, as soon as the latter's right hand – which she broke against the Mexican's skull in the third round of their fight in Tijuana – has healed.

After soldiering on bravely for five rounds with her weaker hand, Oliveras became the hottest ticket in Latino boxing when she dropped Nava in the eighth with a left hook – the fight was televised throughout central and South America – and The Aztec Princess lay motionless on her back for several minutes being attended to by medics.

No shrinking violet, Oliveras has been basking in the limelight back in her native Argentina (she wants to go into acting when her boxing career is over), openly baiting the pioneer there of women's boxing, WIBA Featherweight champion Marcela "La Tigresa" Acuña, who has vowed to "bring her down a peg or two". Sure in the (endlessly repeated) conviction that her belt, the WBC one, carries the most prestige, Oliveras has taken impish pleasure in telling Acuña to "wait in line" as she has "bigger fish to fry".

Whether the talented but under muscled Rivas comes into that category is open to question. Rivas thinks she can repulse The Locomotive with intelligence; but I expect Anna Karenin thought that too.