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Regina Halmich
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Johanna Peña Alvarez
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Weights :
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110¾ lbs
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112 lbs
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Ages :
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27
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20
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Born :
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Germany
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Dominican Republic
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Regina Halmich of Karlsruhe,
Germany won a convincing 10-round decision over
challenger Johanna Peña Alvarez from the Dominican Republic for the WIBF
world flyweight title.
Halmich won by a wide margin.
Peña seemed intimidated, if not by Halmich, then by the magnitude of the
occasion. Normally she´s quick on her feet, she dances, but here she adopted a
wide, stiff-legged stance, backing away most of the time and looking only to
counter. It was Halmich that was doing all the dancing; at one point, her
trainer told her off for wasting energy. Peña's a southpaw; she holds her right
high; tonight she moved awkwardly, but ... this wasn't at all her natural style.
If this was some new strategy, it was ill-considered. She did hit quite hard,
cutting Halmich under the left eye, but never really cut loose until the last
round, by which time she was too tired to make it count. At the end, when she
ran out of steam mid-round, you had the feeling that Halmich could have stopped
her but hadn't the heart. The crowd were 100% behind Halmich, except at one
point, when Peña counter-attacked bravely after taking a few hard punches, and
you could hear a loud murmur of appreciation. |
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