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5'6" featherweight/junior
lightweight Ina Menzer was born in Atbasar,
Khazakhstan on November 10 1980. She now lives in
Mönchengladbach, Germany, and is trained by Michael Timm and managed by
Klaus-Peter Kohl.
In the 60-kg division at the
first German Women's Amateur Championships in Meppen, Germany in
November 2003, Ina defeated Diana Meindl of BC Schwandorf by a 36-12
margin in the semifinal, then bested Carmen Falke of VfK Celle by 27-14
in the final.
Ina made her pro debut on
March 30, 2004 at Saaltheater Geulen in Aachen, Germany, weighing in at
126¾ lbs and defeating another debut fighter, Zsanett Erod (130 lbs) of
Dorog, Hungary by a third-round TKO in a scheduled four-rounder.
On May 29, 2004 at Ostseehalle
in Kiel, Germany, she won by a first-round TKO over debut fighter Laura
Stefanescu of Romania in a fight that had been scheduled for
four. According to
WBAN correspondent Ewan Whyte, "The Romanian walked into a
beautifully timed left from Ina Menzer that had her
thinking about a career change barely a minute into the fight. She
glared accusingly at her corner as if to say 'they're not paying me
enough for this!' Looking at it again, I'm not sure they're paying
Jennifer Lopez enough, and there was more to come. As the standing
eight count was completed, it was pretty obvious she didn't want to go
on, but they gave her the thumbs down (or up, depending upon which
historian you believe), and Menzer did what she had to do: another left
(again in the mouth as they closed) had the young Romanian going
backwards, and a few seconds later it was all over: Menzer lunged,
pulled back, Stefanescu did a kind of doggy paddle in the space the
German had just vacated, a range-finding left from Menzer, a right to
the liver, a left hook to the cheekbone turning her face nicely to the
side as she pawed blindly with the left and even as she was pulling her
hands back frantically to cover her face, Menzer's right, which she
threw without preparation to gain a tempo, caught her hard on the same
cheekbone, sending her pigtail flying in a high arc over her left
shoulder to slap against her bosom at just the same instant as she
landed heavily in the corner on her backside. She rose unsteadily at
the count of five, half-stumbling as she did so, fiddled with the
elastic of her shorts, hung her head, and looked away when the referee
asked whether she wanted to continue."
 On
June 22, 2004 at Sportzentrum in Telfs, Austria, Ina (129 lbs, at left
in picture) won a four round decision over Petra Jachmanova (5'2", 126¾
lbs) of Slovakia who fell to 1-6-1 (0 KO).
On September 21, 2004 at the
Universum Gym in Hamburg, Germany, Ina (129 lbs) won a four-round
unanimous (39-37) decision over Viktoria Olenik (130 lbs) of the
Ukraine. Olenik fell to 0-5-1 with the loss.
On February 15, 2005 at Alte
Reithalle in Stuttgart, Germany, Ina (127¾ lbs) TKO's Julia Kulikova of
Russia in the third round of a scheduled four-roounder. Kulikova fell
to 0-2 with the loss.
On March 29, 2005 at
Sporthalle in Hamburg, Wandsbek, Germany, Ina (129¾ lbs) won a
six-round decision over Viktoria Olenik (129 lbs) of the Ukraine, who
fell to 1-6-1.
On April 19, 2005 at
Hermann-Wielandner-Halle in Bischofshofen, Salzburg, Austria, Ina (129
lbs) won a six-round unanimous (60-54) decision over Jarka Blahova
(129¼ lbs) of Slovakia who fell to 2-1.
On May 10, 2005 at Pueblo
Español in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Ina (129½ lbs) knocked out Austria
Urbaez Urena (129 lbs, aka Judith Urbaez) of La Rmana, Dominican
Republic in the first round of a scheduled eight-round bout. Urbaez
fell to 5-5-1 (2 KO's) with the loss.
On July 9, 2005 at Life
Sportpark Herrenkrug in Magdeburg, Germany, Ina TKO'd Darya Voitko of
Minsk, Belarus in the second round of a scheduled 8-rounder. Voitko
fell to 2-2.
On September 10, 2005 at
DM-Arena in Karlsruhe, Germany, Ina (126 lbs) won the WIBF
Intercontinental Featherweight title with a ten-round unanimous
(99-91,100-90,99-91) decision over Damaris Muthoni (5'4", 124 lbs) of
Nairobi, Kenya. Muthoni fell to 5-3-1 (1 KO).
Winning the WIBF title from Weickenmeier
On October 22, 2005 at the Brandberge Arena in Halle,
Germany, Ina (125½ lbs) won a ten-round unanimous (97-93,98-92,98-92)
decision over Silke
Weickenmeier (124½ lbs) of Speyer, Germany for the WIBF
Featherweight title. Weickenmeier fell to 17-6-3 (1 KO) with
the loss.
On December 3, 2005 at
Bördelandhalle in Magdeburg, Germany, Ina (125½ lbs) defended her WIBF
Featherweight title with a TKO of Galina Giumliiska (123½ lbs) of
Sofia, Bulgaria at 1:39 in the sixth round. Giumliiska fell to 6-8 (1
KO) with the loss.
 On
April 8, 2006 at the Ostseehalle in Kiel, Germany, Ina (125¾ lbs) won
by a TKO when Maribel Santana (122¼ lbs) of La Romana in the Dominican
Republic elected not to come out of her corner for the fourth round.
Santana fell to 6-2-1 (3 KO's).
On May 27, 2006 at the
Zenith-Kulturhalle in Munich, Germany, Ina (126 lbs) won a ten-round
majority (97-94,98-93,97-97) decision over Zarika
Njeri (124 lbs) of Kenya. WBAN correspondent Ewan Whyte
described the match as "messy
and inconclusive: neither fighter was ever in any trouble: needless to
say, they gave it to the home fighter, who in this case happened to be
Menzer." Menzer admitted it was her hardest fight
so far and that she took a long time to get into it. Njeri
dropped to 10-3-1.
On September 9, 2006 in
Magdeburg, Germany, Ina (125¾ lbs) won a ten-round unanimous decision
over Luz Florez (125¼ lbs) of Colombia, who fell to 1-1-0 (0 KOs).
On December 2, 2006 at the Estrel
Convention Center in Berlin, Germany, Ina (125¾ lbs) defended the WIBF
Featherweight title with an eighth-round TKO of Kasha Chamblin (5'5", 123½
lbs) of
Lafayette, Louisiana. Menzer caught Chamblin with a straight
right hand with approximately 20 seconds left in the eighth round.
Chamblin, making her first title-bout appearance, went down for the
first time in her career. She quickly rose, but the referee stopped the
bout with approximately 10 seconds left in the round.
According
to WBAN correspondent Ewan Whyte, "Chamblin
was a worthy challenger – stylish, fit and full of heart – but she read
the exchanges less well than her opponent, missed widely with her best
shots, and did scant mischief with the rest.
An exchange
in the first round encapsulated the entire fight: a jab so anaemic from
Chamblin it may even have been a feint, followed by an uppercut that
did no damage, refuted by a right cross to the face that did; a furious
but ineffectual flurry of four shots in reply from Chamblin interrupted
by a clubbing left hook to the cheekbone that bent her neck; and then a
second – a punishment shot, almost – for good measure, that knocked her
sideways and left her blinking and covering up".
Chamblin
fell to 8-1-0 (4 KO's).
On 28 April, 2007 at König-Pilsener-Arena in Oberhausen, Germany. Ina
Menzer (126 lbs) retained the WIBF Featherweight title for
the sixth time with a one-sided ten-round unanimous
(100-90,99-92,99-91) decision over Maria Andrea Miranda (123 lbs) of
Moñitos, Colombia. Miranda fell to a claimed (but unverified)
10-2 (5 KO's).
 On
July 28, 2007 at the Burg-Wächter-Castello in Dusseldorf, Germany, Ina
(125¼ lbs) won a one-sided 10-round unanimous (100-90,99-92,99-91)
decision over Jazmin Rivas (124½ lbs) of Torreon, Mexico for the WIBF
Featherweight title. Rivas fell to 14-5-0 (7 KO's).
On November 17, 2007 in Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, Ina
retained her WIBF Featherweight belt with a 10-round unanimous
(97-93,97-93,98-92) decision over Laura
Serrano of Mexico.
According
to WBAN correspondent Torben L., "Although Menzer controlled
the ring throughout the bout, the smaller and more aggressive Mexican
kept her busy all the way, and was able to get through Menzer's defence
with more punches than usual for the technically well skilled German.
Southpaw Serrano occasionally succeeded in confusing Menzer by changing
stance, and occasionally succeeded with telling blows, but most of her
punches were lacking in precision to have a serious effect; while
Menzer had obviously problems getting through with her usually very
reliable left jabs. 40-year old Serrano had proclaimed before the
fight, that a defeat would mean the end of her career in the ring, and
she confirmed this after the fight. She also expressed her
disappointment at the verdict, and was of the opinion that she had won
the fight. Under all circumstances, she gave the fans a fight showing
all the best of Mexican virtues: relentless aggression, a big fighting
heart and giving it all until the last bell." Serrano
fell to 16-4-2 (6 KO's).
Sandy Tsagouris battles Ina Menzer in March 2008
On March 8, 2008 at
KoenigPALAST in Krefeld, Germany Ina (125¼ lbs) battled unbeaten
Canadian Sandy Tsagouris
(126 lbs) of Brampton, Ontario to a hard-fought unanimous
(96-94,97-33,97-93) decision for the WIBF Featherweight and the vacant
WBC Featherweight title. Menzer was badly cut over her right eye by a clash
of heads, but battled through the injury to edge a fired-up Tsagouris
in a hard-fought, even battle. Menzer improved to 20-0 (8 KO's) while
Tsagouris fell to 7-1.
On May
31, 2008 at Burg-Waechter Castello in Dusseldorf,
Germany, Ina
(126 lbs) easily retained her WBA and WIBF belts by stopping Stacey Reile (124 lbs) of Miami,
Florida at 1:39 in the fourth round of a scheduled ten-rounder. WBAN
correspondent Torben L.
wrote
"Round one was a typical feeling out round. Menzer
stayed on the outside, presumably bearing in mind the deep
cut she sustained in her last fight against Tsagouris. Rounds two and
three saw more action, and Menzer got past Reile's inadequate defences
with some telling punches. Reile was caught by a vicious right hook
right on the bell ending round three, which caused her to stagger. She
probably would have gone down, if the referee hadn't held on to her.
Reile tried to put more pressure on in round four, but she simply
didn't have the tools to trouble Menzer, while the champion found out,
that a combination of a left to the body which made Reile lower her
left hand, followed by a right hook to the head, worked every time.
Menzer threw that combination three times within the last 40 seconds,
and the third time it sent the over challenged Reile to the canvas. She
got up before the end of the count, but her corner made the decision
easy for the referee, by indicating they wanted the fight stopped."
Reile fell to 8-1 (3 KO's).
On November 22, 2008 at
Stadthalle in Rostock, Germany
Ina (125½ lbs) won a 10-round unanimous (98-92,100-90,99-91) over
Adriana Salles (5'7", 124½ lbs) of Brazil for the WIBF and WBC
Featherweight titles. Erik Schmidt of Boxingnews24.com
wrote
"The first round
proved to be very close, as Salles landed hard combinations and
pressured the shorter Menzer constantly ... backing her up with power
shots. Menzer, a slow starter, mainly jabbed and looked for openings.
In the second round, Salles held and hit early in the round nailing
Menzer with two hard right hands while holding on with her left. Salles
would follow with three big left hooks to the head of Menzer. However,
in the second half of the round, Menzer came on, landing powerful
combinations in the waning seconds of the round to steal the round. In
the third, Salles continued to give Menzer a lot of problems, staying
busy and landing a lot of hard shots to the head ... Menzer came back
well in the fourth round, landing hard right hands and stinging jabs.
However, Salles continued giving her a lot of problems, pounding Menzer
with combinations from long range and taking advantage over her longer
arms.Salles did well in the fifth, staying busy and nailing Menzer with
hard uppercuts to the head and hooks to the body ... Salles was doing
well in the sixth round until being staggered at the bell by a hard
right hand from Menzer. It appeared that Salles lost her concentration
in the last 10 second and when the bell sounded, she seemed to let off,
allowing Menzer to stagger her with a right hand-left jab combination.
In the seventh round, Menzer went right hand crazy, going back to the
well for what worked for her in the previous round but going way over
board with it. Nevertheless, despite being very predictable, Menzer
landed often ... with right hand shots and staggered Salles early on
with another big right. Menzer’s left cheek was beginning to show signs
of swelling in the round after eating a couple of big desperate right
hands from Salles. In the eighth round, Salles began to look
frustrated, seemingly unable to stop Menzer’s big right hand shots that
kept coming. The round, however, was very close mostly due to Menzer’s
nonexistent defense which allowed Salles to land pretty much everything
she threw in the round. In the 9th and 10th, Menzer dominated the
action with her hard right hand shots which made it tough on Salles,
who by this time was looking both tired and badly frustrated, as if she
knew she was way behind in the fight and couldn’t do anything about
it."
Salles fell to 11-4-1 (5 KO's).
On January 17, 2009 at
Burg-Waechter Castello in Düsseldorf, Germany,
Ina (125¾ lbs) retained her WIBF/WBC Featherweight titles by
defeating
Esther Schouten
(125¾ lbs) of Hoorn, Holland by a 10-round unanimous
(96-94,97-93,97-93) decision.
According
to WBAN’s Correspondent Torben L., "The two top class boxers made
the best possible advertising for women's boxing, showing very good
skills and determination in a close, high paced fight. The early rounds
in particular were very even and both women got through with some
telling right hands.
Schouten's
best round was the 2nd, but she received her payback in the 3rd, when
Menzer got her right hand going. The WBC rules stipulate that the score
must be announced after the 3rd and the 6th round. Menzer was ahead by
29-28 after the first three and she had doubled her lead to 58-56 after
the sixth. Schouten had increasing problems in finding her range and
catching her opponent in later rounds, while Ina Menzer's skills as a
counter puncher became more evident. The Dutch corner realised the
point deficit had grown too big, and told Schouten to go after a
knockout in the last two rounds, but this was easier said than done
against a both technical and tactical proficient boxer like Menzer.
Despite the defeat, Schouten was able to prove that she is back at the
top of women's boxing, after winning her far more important fight
against cancer."
Menzer improved to 23-0 (9 KO's) while Schouten fell to 22-5-1
(11 KO's).
WBAN named Ina Menzer its
Fighter of the Month for February 2009 on the strength of her win over
Esther Schouten.
On October 10, 2009 at Stadthalle in Rostock,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, Ina Menzer (125¾ lbs) won a 10-round
majority (96-94,95-95,96-94) decision in a rematch with
Esther Schouten (123½ lbs). According
to WBAN correspondent Torben L., "In the rematch, the fight
turned out to be a different story, with a confident challenger going
on the attack from the start of the first bell. Menzer began with her
guard much lower than usual, which an aggressive Schouten knew how to
capitalize on. The first three rounds were pretty even, but Schouten
seemed to have the upper hand in rounds 4 to 7 as well as the 10th,
while Menzer had her best in time in rounds 8 and 9. Both Menzer and
Schouten are technically well-rounded boxers, but Schouten's better
game plan very nearly cost Menzer her titles. However, Menzer did
manage to hang on to them by the skin of her teeth, with a majority
decision ... a draw or even a win for Schouten could also have been an
acceptable result of this close and well fought bout." Menzer
improved to 24-0 (9 KO's) while Schouten fell to
23-6-1 (11 KO's).
On January 9, 2010 at Bordelandhalle
in Magdeburg, Germany,
Ina Menzer defended her WBC, WIBF and WBO with a sixth round technical
knockout over previously unbeaten Ramona
Kühne of Berlin when a straight right from Menzer opened a
huge gash over Kühne’s left eye. Menzer had started well
pressing the action and
scoring with a variety of shots to Kühne's body and head. Kühne relied
on her left hand from the get-go, and produced serious swelling around
Menzer’s eye. Kühne worked herself into the fight around the fourth as
she connected with good combinations but Menzer turned the tide when
she landed the big right that ended the fight after 57 seconds of the
round. “It was really hard today”, Menzer
said. “Ramona did a great job. But it was my day today.”
Kühne fell to 15-1 (4 KOs). Kühne retains her WIBF Junior Lightweight
belt. [Video]
 On July 3, 2010 at the
Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart, Germany,
Jeannine Garside
(125 lbs) of Windsor, ON, Canada won a ten-round unanimous
(98-92,96-94,96-94) decision over Ina Menzer (126 lbs) for the WBC, WBO
and WIBF Featherweight titles. As Alexey Sukachev reported:
"Garside was a better fighter of two since the
starters. She often caught unpredictably rusty Menzer with her left
counters and hard overhand right hooks. Garside also did a great job
avoiding straight hands by the champion. Rounds two and three were huge
in favour of the Canadian, while the fourth was pretty even. Both
fighters were fighting inside with their heads dangerously close to one
another. Garside was warned by referee Daniel Van De Viele in the
fourth. Menzer mounted a slight comeback to take an edge in the fifth.
However, Jeannine delivered her best round in the sixth when she landed
numerous left hands and forced the titleholder to run at the end of the
stanza. Round seven was rather calm and Menzer found some success on
her way in rounds eight and nine. Feeling the victory can be illusional
on a hostile territory, Garside went in for kill in the last round. She
got the better of (Menzer) and even sent her in a legitimate knockdown
with a straight left hand, which was amazingly discarded by Van De
Viele. It hadn't reflected on finals scorecards though as all three
judges had (and rightfully so!) this contest in Jeannine Garside's
favour: 96-94 (twice) and 98-92. BoxingScene also scored it 98-92 - for
the brand new featherweight multichampion."
Garside
improved to 10-3-1 (3 KO's) with the win. The loss came at a bad time for Menzer, as she described in an interview with DerSpiegel: "The contract with our TV partner ran out, so I picked the worst time to lose.
You need a great partner for the big fights. When Regina Halmich
was boxing it was all a little different. She was practically a
boxing pioneer."
On
September 24, 2011 at the Dima-Sportcenter in
Hamburg,
Germany, Ina Menzer returned to the ring after a fourteen-month absence
from competition and won a clear eight-round unanimous
(80-72,79-73,79-73) decision over Ela Nunez of Jamestown, New York,
USA. Nunez fell to 9-11-1 (2 KO's). [Video]
On
January 28, 2012 at the Grand Elysée in Rotherbaum, Hamburg, Germany,
Ina Menzer (126¾ lbs) easily won an eight-round decision over Milena
Koleva (128¼ lbs) of Sliven, Bulkgaria who fell to 3-4-1 (0 KO's) with
the loss. Menzer improved her record to 28-1 (10 KO's) with
the
win. [Video]
On April 21 at the Sport and Congress Center in Schwerin,
Germany, Ina Menzer (126 lbs) won an eight-round unanimous decision
over Doris Koehler (124½ lbs) of Moenchengladbach, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, who fell to 8-11-1 (3 KO's) with the loss. [Video]
On October 12, 2012 at the Sporthalle in
Wandsbek, Hamburg, Germany, Ina Menzer (125½ lbs) won the WBO European
featherweight title with a late second-round TKO of Renáta Dömsödi (123¾
lbs) of Hungary in a scheduled 10-rounder. Menzer's speed and
straighter punching had allowed her to out-hit the slower and
less mobile Dömsödi by a wide margin. Domsodi did not appear
seriously hurt but the fight was stopped at 1:59 in the second round after Menzer drove Dömsödi along the ropes and into a corner. Dömsödi, who had stepped into the matchup as a late substitute for
Loly Muñoz of Spain, fell to 9-3 (4 KO's) while Menzer
improved to 30-1 (11 KO's).
To check out fight reports, complete up-to-date
boxing records, with huge digital photos you can go to the
WBAN Records Member Site
Page last updated:
Sunday, 05 November 2017
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