In front of a packed and excited hometown crowd in San Jose, Costa Rica, IBF 105-pound champion Yokasta Valle extended her reign and added the WBO title with a dominant victory, winning all rounds. on all three cards. With the victory over Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen of Vietnam, Valle added the WBO strap in the division and made it his sixth defense of the IBF belt.
Valle was better from the start although Nguyen did the best he could. Nguyen threw a good jab at a few points and tried to drive the right hand home, but his skill gap was apparent. Valle was first most of the night, working combinations with her head and body, freezing a Nguyen who didn’t seem to know how to strike with her or stifle Valle’s offense.
Nguyen’s offense was reactive and Valle started and finished exchanges with greater speed and fluidity. It was, really, without competition. It doesn’t mean there aren’t any contests to come if Valle wants to collect the rest of the gold in his division.
Futures: Valle now has 13 in a row since a loss to Tina Rupprecht for the interim WBC belt in 2018. Rupprecht has since been elevated to the full WBC belt and remains its standard-bearer. The German is 3-0-1 since her win over Valle and inactive since July 2021. Could Valle’s experience from the first fight change the outcome in a lap?
The other belt in the class belongs to one of the elite talents in the game.
Undefeated WBA champion Seniesa Estrada, also a junior flyweight champion, recently signed a contract with Top Rank. Valle beat Nguyen on a DAZN card. In women’s boxing, the lane sides matter much less than they do on the men’s side. Valle has expressed interest in Estrada in the past. She said after the Nguyen fight that she wants whoever has the other belts. Estrada would be the hell of who she is.
Conflict in Cruiser?
A little under the radar this weekend, an exciting cruiserweight was in action in Florida.
Brandon Glanton made a name for himself with fans last year in an all-out war with Efetobor Apochi. On Saturday, he scored his third consecutive knockout since that decision win, outpointing Mario Aguilar in just two rounds. The result was not a surprise. Aguilar had been arrested four times before.
But in a cruiserweight division that has gone from red-hot to stagnant after a couple of successful World Boxing Super Series tournaments, a fighter like Glanton deserves more interest.
Futures: Glanton is currently ranked eighth by only one sanctioning body, the WBA. At thirty, he’ll need to make a few moves to get a shot at the title, but whether he can win a strap or not, he’s a fighter who can add some fire to the class. Lineal king Jai Opetaia, former king Mairis Briedis and WBO champion Lawrence Okolie probably represent the cream of the crop with a small gap from there. WBA champion Arsen Goulamirian hasn’t fought since 2019, seemingly forgotten by his own sanctioning body. Is there opportunity there? Time will tell, but if he keeps taking them down, Glanton should have some chances.
Cliff’s Notes…
Claressa Shields saying she was going to welterweight Jessica McCaskill? We are in a fun era with fighters moving all over the ladder to earn money. Consider that McCaskill is about to step down the ladder as the undisputed welterweight champion to take on junior welterweight champion Chantelle Cameron. Shields has business on October 15 to take care of first before worrying about how to diet… Christian Mbilli looks like the real deal at super middleweight. Between him and David Morrell, there is a lot of young blood. If someone took a bet that those two would be top of their class by the end of 2023, it might not be smart to bet against them.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Classification Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be contacted at [email protected]
