KOZIN, NERY PATA NEW WBF WORLD CHAMPS

In yet another busy weekend of World Boxing Federation (WBF) Championship boxing, new champions were crowned on Saturday night, October 14, in Slovenia, Mexico and Germany. And, also in Germany, a defending champion retained his title in what was the last fight of his career.

18-year-old undefeated “Wunderkind” Ema Kozin became the youngest ever WBF World Champion when she scored a hard-fought unanimous decision over tough and rugged Kenyan Florence Muthoni to lift the vacant Womens World Middleweight title at the Tivoli Arena in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The taller Kozin had the clearer shots, but Muthoni was always coming forward and often troubled the home-girl, who didn’t manage to maximize her height and reach advantage. Consequently, the fight was mostly at close quarters, which kept Muthoni in the running.

But after ten rounds, Kozin, now 11-0 (6), was deservedly declared the winner by scores of 96-94 (Bela Florian), 97-93 (Predrag Aleksic) and 99-91 (Ventsislav Nikolov). Muthoni drops to 11-6-2 (5). Referee in charge of the action was Jurgen Langos.

In Ocotlan, Mexico, another talented youngster in Jessica Nery Plata (23) had her crowning moment when she captured the vacant WBF Womens World Flyweight crown against streaking Argentinian Champion Maria Magdalena Rivera.

In a very fast-paced encounter, the first four rounds were nip and tuck with both boxers giving as good as they got. But from the fifth it started to turn in favour of Nery Plata, now 21-1 (3), who managed to push Rivera, 10-5-3 (3), back and was very effective with her body-shots.

It was competitive and entertaining through-out, but in the end Nery Plata had done enough to deserve a unanimous decision victory by scores of 96-94 (Max Zuniga), 97-93 (Raul Wilhelmy) and 97-93 (Carlos Ruiz). Referee was Tony Weeks.

German veteran Werner Kreiskott (39) had his farewell fight at the Unihalle in his home-town Wuppertal, and retained the WBF International Heavyweight title with a somewhat lacklustre unanimous decision over Georgian challenger Gogita Gorgiladze.

Judges Christophe Hembert and Roman Morawiec both scored the fight 115-113, while Judge Jens Uwe Baum saw it a lot wider at 119 – 109 for the local hero, who improved his professional record to 25-19-2 (17) and send Gorgiladze home with a 36-20 (30) ledger. Referee was Thomas Hackenberg.

In the semi main event, promising prospect Sherif Morina, born in Kosovo but now residing in nearby Dinslaken, won his first championship in the paid ranks when he stopped former Tanzanian Champion Saidi Mundi in round eight to take the vacant WBF International Welterweight title.

Mundi, 20-5-1 (12), gave the upstart some trouble in the first few rounds using an effective jab, but Morina came back strong and eventually took over. In round seven Mundi was floored by a perfect shot to the liver, and, while he beat the count of referee Christophe Hembert, the writing was on the wall.

In round eight Morina was relentless and scored two more knock-downs, both from punches to the liver, and at that point Hembert had seen enough and waved it off. The new WBF International Welterweight Champion is now 6-0 (4) since turning pro in June of 2016.