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A couple of minutes ago I finished watching a ten round fight between
Regina Halmich (picture at right) of Germany and
Miyoki Nojima of Japan on DSF, the German Sports television station which
we can receive by satellite here in England.
The ten two-minute round fight was the last match on a programme of live
boxing and was undoubtably the best match of the evening.
The 27 year old Japanese girl at 47.8 Kg and 1.5 meters is seven years older
than Regina, almost a kilogram lighter and 10 centimeters shorter. But like
Regina she is an attractive young lady who can do only good for the cause
of women's boxing. Miyoki came to the ring with 6 previous fights, 6 wins
(4 by knock out) compared to Regina's 19 fights, 18 wins (7 by knock out).
So at first it looked as though Regina would not have too hard a task.
In round one the Japanese girl spent most of the time backing away from Regina's
attack and Regina did not seem to have too much trouble getting through Miyoki's
guard.
The pattern was repeated in round two with the slightly stockier looking
Miyoki backing round the ring. But in the middle of the round she started
coming forward and catching Regina with some good punches.
In rounds three and four Regina kept coming forward, landing many good head
and body punches, most of which Miyoki seemed well able to absorb though
at times she was reduced to swinging wildly compared to Regina's more accurate
combination punching.
In the middle of round five Miyoki started catching Regina with some good
punches.
After a slow start in round six the Japanese girl started coming forward
and putting the pressure on the German, who had to take a lot of blows
both to the head and body.
Rounds seven and eight were both fast and furious with Miyoki scoring on
her counter-punching but only at about half the rate of Halmich though towards
the end of round eight she seemed to step up a gear and had Halmich retreating.
In round nine Regina gained the upper hand again with plenty of crisp accurate
punches causing Miyoki to swing wildly and miss.
Then in the latter part of round ten, after a continuous attack by Halmich,
Miyoki started catching her with some superb punches to the head.
The decision went to Halmich but the real winner in my opinion was women's
boxing. We had witnessed a fast hard and brilliant match with none of the
holding and slow "rest" periods witnessed in the men's matches earlier. The
women's match was all action from start to finish. And when it was
over, despite the hard and accurate punching you felt that both girls could
have continued for several more rounds without appearing at all tired. Indeed
when interviewed immediately after the decision was announced Regina was
not the slightest bit out of breath.
Any one who has any doubts about women boxing would certainly have had them
allayed by this match which clearly demonstrated that women can and should
box and give far better action than the men. |
