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WIBA WORLD
FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Club Centenario,
Formosa (Argentina) - 01/22/05
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Name |
Marcela Eliana
Acuña |
María Andrea
Miranda |
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Date of Birth |
16
Oct 1976 |
4 Sep
1984 |
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Place of Birth |
Formosa
(Argentina) |
Moñitos (Colombia) |
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Weight |
56.4 kg |
55.85 kg |
Titles
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WIBA
Super Bantamweight Champion |
WIBA Latin
American Champion |
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Record |
16-4-0 (10KO) |
Unverified |
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Trainer |
Ramón Chaparro |
el Dagobert o
Periñan |
(JAN 23) It was a clash of the jungle cats in
the sweltering night of Formosa, Marcela ‘la Tigresa’ (the Jaguar) Acuña and
María ‘la Pantera’ (the Panther) Miranda; it was a war between the queens of
South American boxing, the WIBA World Super Bantamweight Champion (from the
southern part of the continent) and the Latin American champion in the
category above (from the extreme north); and it ended, as these things do,
with one queen at the feet of the other, the dark-skinned warrior from
Colombia in this case prostrate before the Argentinian, “… her eyes directed
towards her corner, beseeching them to throw in the towel’.
This was after the second knockdown in the third round, and although her ego
was palpably shattered — her ‘eyes were screaming for the towel’, la Mañana
tells us — no towel was forthcoming, and for the fifth time, she had to
brace herself for an assault that had begun “like a tsunami” and was ending
“like a simoom”.
All credit to her for being there in the first place, and for standing up
when she no longer believed.
She’d stopped believing, perhaps, long before 10:40. All week, Acuña had
been working the youngster’s psyche with a mixture of menace and sly charm:
“Take time off from training to enjoy the sights,” she told her on Thursday,
in a mock display of civic pride (Formosa is Acuña’s home town). “Because
when you climb into the ring on Saturday night, all you’re gonna see is me,
and that’s one sight, I can assure you, you’re not going to enjoy.”
Acuña only knows one way to fight, which is to go straight for the jugular.
“You’re going to see a tigress in action,” she told reporters at the press
conference. “It’ll be all over by the fifth.”
The psych worked. When the opening bell sounded and the Tigress came at her,
the Panther turned tail and ran.
Or perhaps this was the fight plan Miranda had been referring to at the
press conference when she told reporters she “wasn’t the least bit afraid”:
to keep out of range and work the jab. Height was her one advantage — they
both have speed — but Acuña’s a past master at making tall girls buckle and
fast girls slow to a crawl. She went after her “like a predator in search of
her prey”, working the midriff with merciless efficiency every time she got
in range. By the third round, winged and winded, the Colombian’s fragility
was evident, and the Tigress finished her ‘with a flourish’.
She fell for the first time in her own corner. The referee gave her an eight
count and waved the fight on. A sandstorm of punches and she fell again,
this time at Acuña’s feet. No towel, although the youngster’s despair was
obvious. Another flurry, and the referee stopped the contest as Miranda hit
the canvas for the third time.
This, according to most sources, was the first time the Colombian had ever
been defeated. The record they were claiming was 10-0-0 with 5 KOs, but some
reports had it at 14-0-1, and two, even, at 13-3-0. Perhaps the defeats, if
they happened at all, were at the hands of girls outside her weight
category, in which case, I agree, they shouldn’t count, but this time it was
a fair contest.
Physically.
The war was won and lost elsewhere.
“She’s seen the videos,” said Acuña in Miranda’s hearing on Thursday. “She
knows what she’s got coming.”
Miranda, a tall, shy twenty-year-old, who had told reporters she becomes a
‘wild animal’ when she climbs into the ring, replied quietly that it was ‘in
God’s hands’.
Ooops!
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