At a ceremony a few days ago in Santo Domingo at
which Euri González was crowned
Dominican Male (and Katty Penélope
Hernández, Dominican Female)
Boxer of the Year, the fight last April between Ana María Torres of
Mexico and the Republic’s own Dahiana Santana for the WBC super
flyweight title was voted – unanimously, it would appear – “Fight of
the Year 2007” and the card it headed “Card of the Year 2007” by
members of Republic’s Association of Boxing Journalists.
In Torres’s
absence, Dahiana Santana, who lost on points on that occasion, was
presented with the award on behalf of both fighters.
“We’re hoping Ana María will return to
fight again in the Dominican Republic before the year is out,” said
Boxing Commissioner Genaro Franjul. “She’ll always be welcome here,
and, provided she isn’t fighting a Dominican but a Colombian or a
Panamanian, we’ll support her as though she were one of our own.”
Although “grateful for the
interest” being shown in her in the Dominican Republic, Torres told
Notifight that her first priority was to recover the belt taken from
her
in Gaeseong City (North
Korea) last October. Currently, she’s preparing flat-out for the
rescheduled return fight with Myung Ok Ryu, which it is
expected will now take place in Querétaro
in April, the Korean having received permission, according to WBC
President José Sulaimán, to travel to Mexico to defend her
title.
In an interview with
Jorge Sepúlveda Marín of
La Jornada back in December, Torres described what those
preparations involved: She asks her male sparring partners to employ
“the whole repertoire of dirty tricks” she claims Ryu resorted to
during their last encounter – (butting, shoving, holding…) – so that
she’ll make a better job of countering them next time. In Querétaro,
she says, she’ll be seeking to defeat the Korean “comprehensively”
and inside the distance, adding: “I’ve studied her, and I know now
how to do it.”
Having recently opened her own boxing school, Ana María has a full
timetable these days: In the morning, she trains in the Nuevo Jordán
gymnasium; at midday, she runs in the El Ocotal woods in La Marquesa
near Toluca, before repairing in the evening to the “Escuela de
Boxeo Ana La Guerrera", where she already has 60 pupils.
If, as has been claimed, the judges in North Korea were intimidated
by the soldiers in uniform packing the hall, (though that doesn’t
seem to have bothered the New York Philharmonic), with several
busloads of Torres supporters already pledged to follow her to
Querétaro in April, the psychological pressure on the judges there
is likely to be just as great.
Hopefully no one will ask them for their opinion.
