Kaliesha West successfully defends her WBO title against veteran Claudia Andrea Lopez – Boxing News
Kaliesha West, the current WBO female bantamweight champion, defied all odds and collected an impressive majority decision in her favour against the veteran Claudia Andrea Lopez, the former WBA female featherweight champion, hence defending her WBO title
for the third consecutive time, in a 10-round bout held on April 14, 2012.
The duo headlined the pay-per-view organised and promoted by Erik Morales of Box Latino and the ring for the event was stretched at Auditorio Ernesto Rufo situated in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico.
The event was televised live on Fox TV and Televisa and was co-headlined by the skirmish between Pedro Guevara and Patricio Camacho. West, 24, was seriously outclassed by Lopez’s experience.
The American orthodox pugilist, Kaliesha, was entering in her career’s 19th bout and boasted 14 wins, just four via knockout. On the other hand, Lopez, 32, was in her 24th bout and exhibited 18 wins with four of them via knockout.
As far as the knockout proficiency is concerned, both women were equal. The aspect that differentiated and was somewhat considered as a decision making factor, was Lopez’s experience and the fact that she has fought brawlers with much more experience as
compared to West’s recent opponents.
Kaliesha grabbed the prestigious WBO gold from Angel Gladney and since then has successfully defended it against Ava Knight and Jessica Villafranca, both pugilists with decent experience in their resume.
The bout started and from the very first second it was West who set the pace by dragging Lopez here and there in the ring giving her not even a bit leverage to leash her powerful jabs.
The Argentinean southpaw who is feared by most in the female boxing division and is mostly evaded because of her difficult left-hand stance, was facing serious difficulty against West who practiced hard specially for the odd southpaw stance.
It is this reason why Claudia was unable to connect her powerful left jabs and just kept on defending herself from the wave of attack unleashed by Kaliesha. In the later rounds, the American ‘Kay’ started to lose her stamina and got fatigued which eventually
gave ample advantage to Claudia who started battering her with great force.
The 10-round showdown ended and the three designated judges awarded 98-92, 98-92 and 95-95 in favour of West. After the bout West, the proud champion praised her opponent and said, “Lopez was a crafty veteran who was aggressive during the entire fight. Other
boxers avoid her because she is a tough lefty, who has experience fighting good competition. She was what we expected and then some.”
With this bout the young surging American pugilist Kaliesha has collected 15 wins in her account and Claudia, unfortunately, has received her sixth career defeat.
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