Yazmín Rivas's dad celebrates his birthday this week. Before setting
out for Argentina, she promised him that as a present she'd bring
him back the WBA belt. "And what I promise," she told journalists (with
all the smugness of youth), "I deliver."
Well, not this time. Last Friday, the young Mexican flew home from
Mendoza empty-handed. So the old man, I guess, will just have to
make do with braces (or "suspenders", as you Americans call them).
All the same, you have to love her. Not because she's attractive –
though she is, (extremely!); nor even because she's witty and sweet;
but because she's heroic. Perhaps, without at all being a braggart,
she has – or had – a slightly exaggerated opinion of her
skills as a boxer, and clearly she underestimated her opponent; but
there's a hint of gloating – of "Marcela soon showed her!"–
in some of the Argentinian reports that isn't called for.
The truth
is: women can't tell in this sport how they stack up against
fighters they've never seen, since there's so little data upon which
to base a judgement. Rivas flew three thousand miles, right into the
lion's – or, in this case, Tigress's – den, without any real idea
what awaited her. She got a shock. The fight was barely a minute old
when she sank to one knee, head bowed – it so looked so-o-o like a
curtsy – with Acuña's words from earlier in the week, one imagines,
ringing in her ears: "The only queen here is me!"
It wasn't, of course, what it looked like. Yazmín Rivas doesn't
surrender; she may even be the bravest woman in the world. "I was
just trying to clear my head,"she explained afterwards. "I was
getting steamrollered. " But by the time she rose on the count of
six, both women knew their roles; and the question was no longer who
would punish whom (and with what severity) but whether or not Acuña
would break her spirit; and in this, she was unsuccessful. Rivas
knows she was beaten by a better fighter; she admitted it; but, as
she pointed out: "I'm only nineteen. I've got a long road ahead of
me."
So we haven't heard the last of "La Rusita". There will be
other birthdays, and Señor Rivas may yet get that belt.
Since no one (in all Argentina!) has
been public-spirited enough to upload the telecast to You Tube,
we'll just have to piece together what we can from the published
reports, of which there are far too many (I've counted 30 already)
to look at in full. Instead, I've cherry-picked a few phrases but
without attempting to reconcile the occasional, and inevitable,
contradictions; we all see these things differently, and everything
in boxing happens so fast . Furthermore, just as some people
can't distinguish red from green (or Coke from Pepsi), there are
actually people in this world who don't know left from right. The
numbers in square brackets refer to the sources listed at the
bottom.
* *
* * *
"The years, her experience, her confidence and the relentless
efficiency of her work were the standards La Tigresa, Marcela
Eliana Acuña, unfurled on Friday evening as she administered a
thrashing to young Yazmín Rivas Hernández of Mexico."[5] "The
Tigress proved she's a legitimate champion."[7] "The Formosan not
only defended her title but also turned in one of the best
performances of her career."[4] "With the local spectators chanting
her name throughout the fight,"[7] "the world champion showed no
mercy whatsoever to her Aztec challenger, who at no stage was able
to contain or neutralize the relentless attacks of the
Argentinian."[5] "The virulent, sustained aggression we'd seen
before. What was new in the boxing of Acuña tonight was the quality
of her defence: the way she deflected and blocked punches, which was
all of the highest level."[4] "The Argentinian dominated
throughout."[6] Or, as the tabloid "Crónica" put it: "Acuña gave
Yazmín Rivas one hell of a hiding."
"The Tigress opened in awesome fashion – a real demolition job. The
initial seconds saw multiple blows impacting the face of the
Mexican."[1] "With the frenetic dynamism of her attacks and the
accuracy of her punching, the champion was repeatedly able to breach
the somewhat static defences of the challenger."[3] "Taken by
surprise, Rivas was simply overwhelmed. With barely a minute
elapsed, Acuña dropped her with a very interesting combination: two
hooks to the more tender regions (for Bertolotti: "the solar
plexus") followed by a fulminating right cross that she took full in
the face."[9] "Rivas sank to one knee, with the Tigress hovering
above her, eager to resume the punishment"[1] "but stood up as
referee Aníbal Andrade reached a count of six. "[6] "This first
round went 20 seconds over the regulation two minutes, but the girl
from Torreón held out."[11] "To all intents and purposes, her
challenge ended with this seismic first round."[8] "She managed the
ghost of a recovery thereafter, but her audacity was gone."[5]
"As the second round opened, Rivas's cheekbones were already
inflamed, revealing the punishment to which she was being subjected
by the Argentinian, who invariably had the last word in the
exchanges, dominating at close quarters as well as long range."[1]
"The knockout seemed to be imminent when a straight left followed by
a cross staggered the Mexican girl, but Acuña failed to accelerate
and gave the challenger time to recover."[9] "Acuña built solidly on
her early advantage with a sustained offensive – perhaps overly
concentrated on the head – encountering little resistance from
Rivas. The visitor, even though she had good technique, was totally
unable to cope with the speed and precision of the champion."[2] "By
now comfortably in charge, Acuña dropped the pace a little in the
third and fourth rounds to take a breather."[1] (Mendoza is in the
foothills of the Andes at an altitude of 760 metres). "The Tigress's
footwork was excellent and she was constantly looking for the body
of her opponent, exploiting every opening with which she was
presented."[3] "Defensively, Acuña deflected many of the incoming
blows and never allowed the powerful Mexican girl to complicate her
task. "[1] "As round succeeded round, the dominance of the champion
assumed gigantic proportions, and we were all waiting for her to
fulfil her oft-repeated promise to knock Rivas out."[5] "By the
halfway mark, the Tigress had established total supremacy, and was
waiting for the right moment to pounce and deliver the final
blow."[3]
"There were moments, though, when Acuña
seemed reluctant to take risks, mindful perhaps of the fact that she
was way ahead on points. In the sixth round, she connected with a
tremendous right cross to the cheekbone that wobbled the challenger,
before subjecting her to a sustained, intemperate assault, but the
Mexican neither yielded nor fell, and in the end, it was the
champion that relented."[9] "Marcela 'spared her life', letting her
escape when she could have finished her. Although hurt, Rivas even
managed a few counters."[1] "If the men in Mexico are tough, Mexican
women are no less so. This was without question the most difficult
opponent Acuña has faced in the last two years."[7] "It was pure
heart – that and her youth – that allowed her to survive."[11]
"The woman from Formosa won every round except
perhaps the seventh, in which
La Rusita – by
now recovered – responded magnificently, but in the eighth and
ninth, she was just getting pulverized. The Argentinian did
everything well, maintaining the right distance, controlling the
tempo and displaying real speed. Rivas, on the other hand, relied
too heavily on her right uppercut, though she was invariably too far
from Acuña to make it tell."[7] "The Mexican was never able to close
the distance or neutralize the powerful right cross of the
Argentinian."[8] "Furthermore, the pressure from the champion was
such as to leave her little opportunity to counter."[7]
"With rights and lefts, to both the head and the body, and fleet,
ravaging combinations, the world champion pitilessly enfeebled and
bled the challenger of resolve."[5] "The Argentinian found the range
with her jab, leaving Rivas a sitting duck for crosses and straight
lefts to the face. She also moved intelligently, frustrating all
attempts by the challenger to close the distance and draw her into a
slugfest, this by now being her only remaining chance of turning the
fight around."[9] "It was obvious why Rivas fought earlier in
her career in a lower weight category: every time Acuña threw a
cross, it stopped her dead in her tracks, and when she hit her in
the belly, she buckled."[11] "By now, the Mexican girl was only half
in the fight: her morale had been so severely eroded that it wasn't
until the last round that she began to come forward, with a weary
desperation upon which Acuña swiftly capitalized. Fortunately for
Rivas, time ran out before the champion could render her hors de
combat."[3]
"For the Formosan, all that was missing was a knockout to bring her
night's work to a spectacular conclusion."[10]
* *
* * *
Sources
[1] A La Tigresa Acuña sólo le faltó
noquear ("…all that was missing was the knockout.") Jorge
Luciano Bertolotti [Diario Uno de Mendoza]
[2] Acuña le dio flor de paliza a
Yazmin Rivas ("Acuña gives Yazmin Rivas one hell of a hiding")
[Crónica]
[3]
La Tigresa Acuña conservó su título del mundo
("La Tigresa
Acuña retains her world title") [TyC Sports]
[4] Un hecho histórico y popular ("A historic and popular
event") Jorge Luciano Bertolotti [Diario Uno de Mendoza]
[5] Garras de Tigresa ("The paws of the Tigress") [Ciudadano
Diario]
[6] Rusita’ no puede quedarse con el título ("La Rusita
fails in her title bid") [El Siglo de Torreón]
[7] La Tigresa ratificó que es una campeona de ley ("The
Tigress proves that she's a legitimate champion") [Los Andes]
[8] Marcela Acuña dominó a Yazmín Rivas ("Marcel Acuña
subdues Yazmín Rivas") Juan E. Brignone [Notifight]
[9] Un trámite para La Tigresa ("A formality for the Tigress")
Uriel Ianovsky [Ring de Ideas]
[10]
Acuña retuvo su corona AMB
("Acuña retains her WBA crown") [Boxeo-boxing]
[11] Tigresa infernal ("Tigress from hell") Lucio Ortiz "[Olé]
* *
* * *
Comments of the fighters
"I lost to a great champion; but I'm
still only 19, so I've a long road ahead of me."[Rivas]
"This was, without a shadow of doubt, my
best performance to date. If some of the journalists in the capital
who enjoy denigrating my boxing had been here this evening, they
would have seen that I'm a complete boxer. I'm satisfied with the
work I did. Admittedly, I failed to knock her out – but that's only
because she took everything I could throw at her."[Acuña]
* *
* * *
For the WBA super bantamweight title
Champion: Marcela Eliana Acuña ("La Tigresa") (30) (55 kg)
(Formosa, Argentina)
Challenger: Yazmín Rivas Hernández ("La Rusita") (19) (55,3
kg) (Ejido Las Playitas, Durango, Mexico)
Date: 20th April 2007
Venue: Estadio Andes Talleres Sport Club, Godoy Cruz, Mendoza
(Argentina)
Gate: 4,000+ (a sell out)
Referee: Aníbal Andrade
Scores:
Héctor Primerazo (Argentina) :
99-90 for Acuña
Gustavo Estrella (Argentina) : 99-90 for Acuña
Héctor
de León (Uruguay) : 100-89 for Acuña
#
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