(NOV 5) “A tie,” as Duffy Daugherty (or was it Eddie Erdelatz?) once remarked, “is like kissing your sister” – and provoked much the same indignation among non-partisan observers of the fight last night in the Salle des Etoiles, Monaco, between Italy’s Stéfani Bianchini (35 years of age, 15 wins, 2 defeats and 1 draw) and Xi Yang Zhang of China (26 years of age, 2-0-1), when the result (which means Bianchini retains her WBC flyweight title) was announced. In fact, according to Yoann Cousin of Netboxe, the decision was met with so much whistling that the author Jean-Philippe Lustyk, who is also a producer and the editor-in-chief of Eurosport, was forced to take the microphone and appeal for spectators to remain calm “out of respect for the fighters”. The scorecards that provoked the furore read: Robin Dolpierre 94-96; Daniel Van de Wiele 95-95; Fabian Guggenheim 97-92.

According to the same author, it was an all out war (“une guerre sans partage”) with the Chinese girl seeking throughout to land the big one and the Italian clinching constantly and trying to exploit her greater experience. The endless holding, which apparently exhausted the patience of neutrals in the crowd, led to a point being deducted from the Italian in the seventh round after a clash of heads.
 

(Sources: Netboxe, Ovaciones, BoxRec)