Rivas retains WBA female bantam belt

Report/Photos: Boxing Bob Newman

Alberto Agámez Producciones put on a rousing five-fight card at the Centro de Eventos La Macarena, a converted bullring outside Medellin, Colombia as part of the WBA 96th convention festivities. In the main event, WBA female bantamweight champ Mayerlin Rivas of Venezuela had all she could handle against Colombian challenger Dayana Cordero in retaining her title with a razor-thin majority draw.

WBA female bantamweight champion Mayerlin Rivas appeared lucky to retain her belt via a ten round majority draw against hometown girl Dayana Cordero. Cordero had the crowd behind her every move as she relentlessly pursued Rivas, who chose to counter off the back foot.

The Venezuelan champ seemed confident in her strategy to try and make Cordero miss and return pot shots. Cordero often hit the mark though and appeared the winner on this reporter’s card. No knockdowns or cuts, although Cordero seemed to be more marked up around the eyes. In the end, judge Frank Jackson tabbed it 96-94 for champion Rivas, while judges Carlos Ortiz and Luis Ruiz both saw it 95-95, allowing Rivas to escape with her title via a majority draw. Rivas improves to 15-3-1, 9 KOs, while Cordero dips to 16-6-2, 11 KOs. A rematch would seem a natural.

In the highly competitive and well fought semi-main event, former WBA champ Johan Perez and younger brother of Marcos, Fabian Maidana, battled for ten rounds. At times it was a cat-and-mouse affair, very tactical, and late in the fight, it was a toe-to-to war. Perez chose to mover to his left, looking for counter openings, in which he succeeded in connecting on more than one occasion. Maidana for his part, stalked and landed his fair share of blows. During a heated exchange in the ninth, heads collided and Maidana came away with an angry mouse under his left eye, blood trickling from a small cut above it. At the final bell, Perez was exuberantly leaping atop the corner ropes to the cheers of the crowd. Maidana’s corner lifted him atop their shoulders. It seemed to come down to which style the judges favored. With scores of 97-93 twice and 96-94, the favored fighter was Maidana, who now moves to 14-0, 10 KOs. Perez drops to 22-5-2, 15 KOs.

Opening the show, Ohio Super Lightweight Sonny Fredrickson broke down Colombian homeboy Placido Ramirez scoring a knockdown in each of the three rounds the fight lasted. A hook to the head in the first, an uppercut in the second and a body shot in the third did the job, the last time for the full ten count at 2:12 of the third. With the win, Fredrickson picks up the WBA Fedebol Super Lightweight strap and moves to 18-0, 12 KOs. Ramirez suffers his first loss at 10-1, 7 KOs.

Lightweight Yeis Solano won a sloppy 9 round decision over game Tony Gomez in defense of his WBA Fedebol title. It looked to be a roundhouse-haymaker affair with more misses than connects. A punch/push in round two cause Gomez to hit the deck and referee Celestino Ruiz ruled it a legit knockdown. Solano suffered a cut to his left temple in round three, but the bleeding didn’t hamper his vision. The two went toe-to-toe in the seventh, drawing cheers from the crowd. IN the end, Solano prevailed by scores of 88-82 twice and 89-81 for the unanimous win, moving him to 12-0, 8 KOs. Gomez falls to 6-5-1, 5 KOs.