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It had been announced then postponed more often than the Second Coming. Now
it was here. (The fight, I mean. The other thing’s some time next week.)
Depending upon which report you read, there were three thousand, four
thousand or five thousand plus people in attendance — pushing six as it
turned out — which surprised a good many observers since it was a freezing
night (a Wednesday to boot!), there was nothing else of note on the card and
the fight was in any case being shown live on TV. What made it even more
surprising in soccer mad Buenos Aires is that River (Plate), one of the two
local football teams, were also playing that night and their match, too, was
being shown live on TV. Acuña had been asked to revive what in the days when
Tito Lectoure owned Luna Park had been a great tradition. The Wednesday
bills were used then to promote young talent. “Those Wednesday evenings with
Tito may be gone,” wrote Carlos Irusta, “but the spirit lives on — the
attendance here proves it. In view of the response on Wednesday, we can see
there being many more nights like this at the Luna.” The Director General of
Luna Park, Esteban Livera, gave all the credit to Acuña: “People just love
her! ‘The Tigress’ is a phenomenon.” Eduardo Bejuk of the sports daily Olé
was of the same mind: “She packed 5,000 into the Luna on a Wednesday! It’s
incredible the charisma she has.”
The
men’s matches, apparently, weren’t up to much — there was even some booing —
but there were boos and whistles of a different kind when Padilla appeared.
Acuña believes this may have disturbed her opponent’s concentration —
certainly that she was disconcerted.
Luis
Blanco paints a different picture: “Beneath the now customary shower of
silver paper, the protagonists in the main event made their way to the ring.
The first to enter was the Colombian, who installed herself in the blue
corner, just in front of where we were sitting — serious, with an absent
expression; like someone just emerging from the depths of some profound
contemplation, she moved in a slow dance across the canvas, as though in
weary response to a habanera only she heard, her expression never
changing.
“Next it
was the turn of the Tigress, who padded resolutely up the steps beside us to
an ecstatic reception in the ring, which she acknowledged by walking to each
of four corners in turn with her arms in the air.
“During
the anthems, the contrast between the demeanour of the two fighters was
marked, with Acuña jumping up and down and Padilla continuing as before,
eerily absent, as though she looked with unseeing eyes.”
Acuña’s
trainer and husband had noticed it as well, and told Acuña that Padilla
seemed nervous. She decided to attack on the bell in the hope of taking her
opponent by surprise.
When the
bell rang, Acuña fell on Padilla with a suddenness and a savagery that —
whatever their reluctance to resort to the obvious metaphor — journalists
could only liken to a tiger attack. Crossing the ring swiftly “as though the
cage door had suddenly swung open” [Ole] “the Tigress surprised the
challenger with a short right that exploded in her face when the fight was
barely two seconds old.” [ESPN]. A ‘huge’ [Gac], ‘infernal’ [CD] ‘bombshell’
[Voz] of a right, ‘a mixture of a cross and a hook’ [IB] that according to
most observers (and Acuña herself) caught Padilla directly on the chin,
though one or two maintain it was the cheek. “Consistent with her previous
attitude of looking but not looking, Padilla didn’t see (but certainly
felt) the punch that hit her.” [ABDR] What may have thrown Padilla is that
it came without the customary escort; there was no jab, no range-finding
left; no hark, no herald, no harbinger. It came unannounced, the paradigm
of a pre-emptive strike. “People who think they know about these things say
you should never lead with the right,” wrote Luis Blanco of Al Borde del
Ring. “I wonder what they’ll say now.”
There
was no doubt in the minds of observers that that one punch, which
‘paralysed’ [PAB] and ‘staggered’ [ABDR] the Colombian, determined the
outcome of the fight.”The Colombian was rocked by a right and never
recovered from the impact [SY]” “She ate it. And that was that,” commented
Bisbal. “It was like the punch with which Acuña nailed Quirico.” “From that
moment onwards, the Colombian lost her line and defensive movements were her
only recourse, but the barrage unleashed by the Formosan left her no chance
of surviving the round” [ESPN]. “In an opening reminiscent of her triumph
over Patricia Quirico in the Federación Argentina de Box” (KO in 15
seconds), Marcela Acuña made the power of her right hand pay.” [LNL]. Two
seconds into the fight and already “Padilla’s challenge was derailed. With
that one punch, Acuña stunned the challenger and was able to tear up
whatever game plan the other had brought to the fight.” [UOL]
“Since
the recipient neither fell nor made much of a fist of defending herself,
Acuña threw the same punch again with much the same result.” [BB].“I
realised that Daysi was really feeling the effects of that punch,” commented
Acuña afterwards “and I went all out for the finish.”
“Now it
turned into a hunt. The Argentinian pursued Padilla all round the ring
harrying her relentlessly. Straight rights, jabs, hooks, crosses and all the
other missiles in the Tigress’s armory impacted sickeningly upon the other
woman’s anatomy. Under this hailstorm of blows, ‘The Demolition Expert’
could do nothing more than flail ineffectually.” [BB] “For the next 47
seconds, the Colombian, Daysi Padilla, stumbled round the ring on unsteady
legs with her eyes popping out of her head, throwing punches of hopeless
irrelevance as though through habit, while Marcela Acuña pursued her without
pity, picking her off with powerful rights — every one of which hurt.” [LNL]
Padilla tried a last throw of the dice, thrashing wildly like a drowning
man, (‘even dazed she hit hard’ commented Acuña) ”but the Tigress shrugged
off the blows, cuffing her with rights and lefts to steer her into a neutral
corner.” [ABDR]
Padilla’s trainer was quoted variously as saying his charge had been ‘too
inexperienced’ or else ‘too addled by the effects of the first punch’ to
clinch or take a count, and “even though,” according to Crónica Digital,
“she missed more times than she hit, Acuña was nonetheless handing out a
fearful thrashing to the visitor”. Terra saw things differently: “Padilla
tried desperately to defend herself but her fate seemed preordained. ‘The
Tigress’ stepped up the pressure, firing off her varied weaponry with deadly
precision.” Finally “a right similar to the opening punch of the fight
opened Padilla up for three more rights and a left that took her to the
verge of the knockout, with the referee now hovering attentively.”
Acuña
was astonished that she didn’t go down. Contrary to what she had said the
previous day, she knew now that Daysi Padilla was every bit as tough as the
Colombians had been saying. But this time she found the finish: “A pair of
thudding hooks to the body elicited a last ditch attempt at a clinch, which
Acuña evaded, settling the argument with a right that brooked no response.”
[ABDR] “As it exploded in the face of the challenger, she staggered and
clutched at the ropes, all but out on her feet.” [Ter]. “Seeing the c....
girl’s one metre seventy frame teetering between the ropes, the referee,
Raúl Ilvento, had no choice but to stop the fight.” [Ter]
[… and it’s over. “The
challenger
clutched at the ropes, all
but out on her feet”]
In that
one frenetic assault, which La Nación Line compared to a burst of machine
gun fire drawn out for 45 seconds, the Colombian had taken “at least seven
perfect rights to the head and a few other good shots to the softer parts of
her anatomy.”[Lit] To the Argentinian spectators, who had never doubted that
the fight would end with one of the two women (but which?) being knocked out
or requiring to be rescued from knock-out, this was the result they had
hoped for and they gave their champion a standing ovation. “Exultant to the
point that she would have liked to remain forever in the ring of the
mythical stadium, Acuña celebrated her lightning triumph over the
Colombian”. [CD]
The
press, too, acclaimed Acuña’s “spectacular annihilation” of the challenger.
“Today more than ever, Marcela Acuña did justice to her sobriquet” [LNL].
“The Tigress is consolidating her position at the highest level of
international boxing,” [Gac]. “A champion through and through.” [Olé]
‘The Argentinian demonstrated all her authority and the potency of her
fists” [SY]. “A devastating performance. The Formosan fought tooth and nail
to defend her title, as we knew she would. She never gave her opponent a
chance to settle, following her initial attack with rat-a-tat combinations
that had the Colombian reeling.” [Cla] “The Formosan, showing determination
worthy of a champion, destroyed her opponent in barely 43 seconds” [Ova]
“Whether the c... girl had a talent to match the 13-1 (13 KOs) record with
which she was credited (categorically) in the introductions — both to the
crowd in the stadium and to TV viewers nationwide — is something we’ll never
know. Marcela hit her like a tornado and she had no time for anything – not
even the most elementary evasive action” [Lit]. “The real ‘Demolition
Expert’ here was Acuña” [Ova].
As for
the ‘non-existent challenger’ as El Litoral cruelly called her, she was “an
opponent whose record and abilities could not be verified – and who, if
anything, was even more of an enigma after the fight than before it.” [LNL]
Claudio Coronel took the same line on the Boxeo Boxing page: “The Colombian
Daysi ‘the Demolition Expert’ Padilla (supposedly 14-2-0, 14 KOs; 53.850 kg)
came to us as an unknown quantity and is destined to remain such”. The
résumé on the Sports Ya page read almost like an epitaph: “She arrived with
very strong credentials: 12 wins in 12 fights — all by way of knock-out —
and Acuña wasted her in forty-three seconds.”
The only
positive aspect of Padilla’s performance was her bravery, for which she was
praised by her opponent and warmly applauded by the crowd; but how, when
even the most cursory examination of her opponent’s record should have told
her what to expect, she could let herself get surprised like that remains a
mystery. Was it stage fright? Did Acuña psych her? Or was it the reverse:
was she so confident she just didn’t bother to do her homework?
Whatever
the explanation, she paid dearly for her mistake. Indeed such was the
severity of the beating she had endured that even several minutes after the
announcement of the result, she was still shaking.
She left
Luna Park in a wheelchair bound for Argerich hospital where she spent the
night under observation. Acuña wanted to see her but was refused permission
by the doctors. The next morning, when she phoned the hotel to see whether
they had any news, she was told that the Colombians had left and were on
their way to the airport. That was the first indication she had that the
doctors had given Padilla the ‘all clear’.
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