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
