By Erik Schmidt, Boxing News24.com: Undefeated WIBF / WBA female super middleweight champion Natascha Ragosina (19-0, 11 KOs) defeated Kenyan Conjestina Achieng (14-6-3, 7 KOs) by yet another controversial 10-round unanimous decision on Friday night in Germany. And like the last time, the final decision was booed loudly by the German crowd, many of who like myself, felt that Achieng had done enough to get the decision.
However, the judges saw it differently, giving Ragosina the victory by the lopsided scores of 97-93, 99-91 and 98-92. I’m not entirely sure which fight the judges’ were watching, because Ragosina looked awful for most of the fight, bouncing around, looking uncoordinated, constantly missing punches and throwing jabs that would stop a foot in front of Achieng, hitting air or the gloves of Achieng. It didn’t seem to matter to the large German crowd, because they screamed like mad no matter what Ragosina, the home town fighter, did in the ring. I personally scored the fight six rounds to four for Achieng, and I felt that I bent over backwards in giving Ragosina even those rounds, because she looked awful throughout and was never able to generate any power on her weak punches..
In rounds one through four, Achieng dominated the action, pressing the fight constantly and landing the much harder punches to the body and head of Ragosina. For her part, Ragosina moved around the ring, bouncing on her feet and flicking a defensive jab at Achieng, which seemed to have no real purpose.
I mean, it didn’t look to be meant as weapon but rather something to prevent Achieng from getting in range and landing her much bigger shots. Like in the last fight, Ragosina fought scared, leaning back constantly and holding her head as far away from the action as possible to avoid taking shots to the face. Although this was effective in keeping the shorter 5’7 Achieng from landing as many punches to the head as she might normally would have, it had the additional effect of taking away any ability that Ragosina might have of landing hard punches of her own.
The only time that Ragosina, it seemed, would try and land a hard punch was when Achieng would be caught off balance after lunging forward while trying to throw a big hook, at which point Ragosina would suddenly look brave and throw a short, swatting right hand.
Other than that, Ragosina largely waived her arms in front of her and throwing the weakest punches imaginable. In the 5th round, Ragosina seemed to get the better of the action as Achieng was limited to landing only a handful of big punches.
This enabled Ragosina to jab weakly, perhaps enough to win the round. Ordinarily I wouldn’t give a fighter a round like this, but the German crowd was making a lot of noise and I thought it was probably a round that the judges’ would give to Ragosina.
Personally, it wasn’t nearly enough to win the round, because she did nothing other than throw a few weak jabs in the round. Both fighters took turns missing punches in the 6th, and looked positively awful in the process. Achieng, like usual, landed the much harder punches in the round.
All in all, it was really terrible boxing to watch. Ragosina fought as if she were on a set of tall stilts, never bending her knees and walking stiff-legged around the ring. In rounds eight through ten, Achieng continued pressuring Ragosina constantly, landing the much harder shots and giving her a lot of problems.
Ragosina never changed her game during these rounds, continuing to jab weakly, bend backwards to prevent getting hit and clinching constantly. At some point, the referee should have taken points away from her because she looked to be trying to run out the clock in the fight. Because of that, I couldn’t give her any of the last three rounds and had Achieng easily winning in the end.
E. Schmidt – BoxingNews24.com
RESULTS FROM TWIN RIVER
HEAVYWEIGHTS Jason Estrada (15-1, 3 KOs), Providence, RI WDEC8 (80-72, 80-72, 79-73) Derek Bryant (20-5-1, 17 KOs), Philadelphia, PA
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT Joey McCreedy (9-2-1, 5 KOs), Lowell, MA WDEC6 (60-54, 60-54, 60-63) James Johnson (22-30-3, 13 KOs), Shreveport, LA
SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHTS Keith Kozlin (2-0, 1 KO), Warwick, RI WTKO1 (2:13) Vincent Robins (3-8-2, 3 KOs), York, SC
SUPER WELTERWEIGHTS Demetrius Andrade (2-0, 2 KOs), Providence, RI WTKO4 (0:50) Eric Marriott (0-2), Independence, MO
WELTERWEIGHTS Jason Pires (21-3, 9 KOs), New Bedford, MA WDEC6 (58-55, 58-55, 58-56) Frank Houghtaling (19-15-5, 4 KOs), Albany, NY
LIGHTWEIGHTS Eddie Soto (10-0, 4 KOs), Pawtucket, RI WDEC4 (40-36, 39-37, 39-37) Blake Franklin (1-2, 0 KOs), Shreveport, LA
POST FIGHT QUOTES
JASON ESTRADA: “It was a very exciting fight. I faced a little adversity when we banged heads and his head hit directly on my nose. My eyes had to clear and I was swallowing blood the rest of the fight. A good fighter has to fight through adversity. I whipped his ass. He cried like a little girl when I hit him with a jab and opened up a cut over his eye. He was talking a lot. I can’t take anything away from him. He came here, tried his best, and lost. I gave him one round, when I couldn’t see, but it was a good fight and a great experience for me.”
DEMETRIUS ANDRADE: “I’ve been fighting a long time but, fighting at home, I wanted to put on a show. He took some good shots. I established my jab and worked the body. I’ll tell you, he can really take a good shot. I don’t know how he didn’t go down with some of those shots. This was really big for me coming back home from the Olympics. It was important for me to be with my family for Thanksgiving (instead of fighting on a card tonight in California).”
JASON PIRES: “I’d been away five years, two years on the job (as a New Bedford police officer). I needed to get the rust off. I was surprised (when he was knocked down in the first round). I think I was off balance. One I got knocked down, I picked it up and became more aggressive. He’s a tough, strong fighter, exactly what I needed. He gave me a good fight.”
Manuel El Toro Quezada Moves Closer to Title Contention
Live from the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario California, WBC CABOFE heavyweight champion, Manuel “El Toro” Quezada (25-4, 13 KO’s) continued his winning ways by defeating Teke Oruh (14-2-1) via unanimous decision, making it 14-consecutive victories.
Quezada pressed the action from the opening round, forcing Oruh to fight going backwards. Oruh tried to establish his jab, but could not find his rhythm as Quezada found a spot for his occasional left hook. In the latter half of the bout, you saw Manuel go to the body while maintaining his lead. The scorecards read, 98-92 across the board all in favor for Quezada.
“This victory gets me one step closer to fighting an opponent in the top 20.” said Quezada. “I felt I fought a smart fight. I want to keep stepping up in competition. It’s time to get back in the gym and continue working hard.”
This bout was promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions in association with the Tachi Palace Casino. For more information please visit www.goossentutor.com or www.tachipalace.com.
Lyell Wins NABC Belt!
Professional boxing returned to New Castle, PA at the newly renovated Caravan II Albergo entertainment facility on Friday night. With middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik and heavyweight contender Brian Minto were on hand to watch the gBattle in the Ballroom,h Billy Lyell (18-6, 3 KOs) defeated Chris Archer (10-5, 6 KOs) to capture the vacant NABC middleweight title. Lyell pressed the action early and floored Archer in rounds one and four on his way to an eight round unanimous decision. All three judges scored the bout 80-72.
In the co-feature, light heavyweight prospect Tommy Karpency (15-1-1, 10 KOs) won a unanimous six-round decision over Willis “The Prophet” Lockett (10-7-5, 4 KOs). Judges scorecards read 57-55, 57-55, 58-54.
Female featherweight Lucia Larcinese (1-2, 0 KOs) won a four round unanimous decision over Valerie DeFreitas (1-2, 0 KOs). Scorecard read 39-37, 39-37, 40-36; Super middleweight prospect Jimmy Lubash (12-1, 6 KOs) scored a third round TKO over Greg Beerman (4-5, 1 KO); Welterweight Kristian Geraci (4-4-1, 3 KOs) scored a second round TKO over Clifford Gregory (0-5-3).