25.05.07 – By Fritz Drexel: The women’s WBA flyweight champion Susianna Kentikian (17-0, 13 KO’s) had a tough time on Friday night with French challenger Nadia Hockmi (9-5-1, 5 KO’s), in winning a grueling split decision victory at the ProSieben Fight Night in Cologne, Germany. The judges’ scores were 97-93, 98-92 Kentikian and 97-93 Hockmi. Kentikian, 19, originally from Yerevan, Armenia, now living and fighting in Hamburg, Germany, was making her second title defense of her WBA flyweight champion ship.
Having been accustomed to winning by early knockouts, Kentikian, 5’1,” struggled in the later rounds as Hockmi, both taller and more energetic, took the fight to her starting in the 6th round, punishing her combinations. In the first five rounds, Kentikian, nicknamed “The Killer Queen,” used foot movement and sharp combinations to keep Hockmi at bay. However, Hockmi was a virtual punching machine, always coming forward throwing left-right shots, though without much power behind them.
Early on, Kentikian did well to duck many of the punches. However, at the end of the 5th round, Kentikian appeared exhausted in her corner, her nose bleeding and looking worried. From rounds six through nine, Hockmi appeared to dominate the fight with her constant attacks, tagging Kentikian with multiple shots which she helpless to avoid due to the sheer number of punches being thrown at her. Kentikian, on the other hand, had lost all the power in her punches, and appeared to be just trying to make it to the end of the fight. In between the 9th and 10th rounds, Kentikian’s trainer urged her on, perhaps knowing that the fight was in the balance. Kentikian responded well to the advice, as she came out on the attack in the 10th, backing up Hockmi to the ropes and landing a number of fast combinations.
Hockimi, to her credit, responded well with some hard shots of her own. However, Kentikian came back with more three and four punch combinations to end out the round. With this round, I personally had Kentikian winning 6 rounds to 5. Hockmi proved to be a much tougher opponent than her ring record would indicate, mainly due to her non stop attacks and her habit of holding and hitting, which she was warned about often by the referee.