(FEB 15) On Friday night,
February 15, at the Galveston in Gent, Belgium, Elite Promotions
presented “Elite Boxing Superstar 2”, headlined by two World
Boxing Federation (WBF) championship fights.
In a clash between two
foreign-born but Belgium-based boxers, reigning WBF
International Welterweight Champion Meriton Karaxha, originally
from Albania, successfully defended his title by unanimous
decision over Rwandan Jean Pierre Habimana.
Most of the ten rounds were dominated by Karaxha, who forced the
tough Habimana on the back-foot and made it difficult for the
challenger to gain momentum. In the seventh round it even looked
as if the champion might have Habimana hurt, but “The African
Warrior” still came back and tried to retaliate.
Judges Hugues Hellebaut,
Christophe Hembert and Philippe Wouters all scored the fight
widely in favour of Karaxha: 99-91, 98-92 and 99-91.
Karaxha (27), who won the title last November with a first-round
demolition of Frenchman Jean Moraiti, takes his professional
record to 23-5-2 (8). Habimana (35), a much better fighter than
his misleading statistics suggests, drops to 9-16-3 (4).
In the co-feature of the show, former European title-challenger
Elfi Phillips (25) captured the vacant WBF Womens
Intercontinental Light Welterweight title, unanimously
out-scoring tough-as-nails Montenegrin Aleksandra Vujovic (27).
In a competitive fight, Phillips was the faster and more agile
of the two, and had success with combinations from the start.
But Vujovic fought back hard, and even hurt Phillips in round
seven with a big right hand and drove her to the ropes, but
couldn't capitalize.
The visitor finished the fight strongly, but it was too late and
in the end there was no doubt about the outcome as judges
Christophe Hembert, Hugues Hellebaut and Jean Pierre Van
Imschoot scored it 98-92, 98-91 and 100-89 for Phillips. Vujuvic
has one point deducted in round nine for holding.
The new WBF Intercontinental Champion improved to 10-5-3 (4),
while Vujovic, who lost a short-notice shot at the same title in
2017 to another Belgian, current WBF World Champion Oshin
Derieuw, falls to a deceiving 4-9-2 (2).
