As women's boxing continue to progress, the WBO can now say it has a light heavyweight world champion.
Geovana Peres won the inaugural WBO title on March 30 with a unanimous decision win over Lani Daniels at the Sky City Convention Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Peres won the title with scores of 98-92, 96-94 and 98-92.
Peres wasted little time in being the aggressor, pressuring Daniels throughout the fight, but Daniels did manage to get opportunities to counter-punch. Daniels may have landed some solid shots at certain points in the title bout, but rarely did any of her punches actually hurt Peres while the new champion was relentless in her attack.
After the fight, Peres said she would be open to anything in regards to her first title defense, adding that she wouldn't be opposed to traveling out of New Zealand for bigger fights.
"I'm open to anything," Peres said. "I will let [Promoter Bruce Glozier] decide. He is the promoter and without him this would have never happened. So he and my manager will decide what's best for me."
The fight is a rematch from their March 2018 fight, which saw Peres walk away with the New Zealand Professional Boxing Commission Female light heavyweight title by split decision. Two judges had Peres winning 97-93 and 98-94 while the third judge scored the bout for Daniels 96-94.
Peres now becomes the only active world champion at 175 pounds among the four major alphabet organizations given that the WBA, WBC and IBF do not have women's champions at that weight class. Peres also becomes the second-ever WBO world champion from New Zealand after Joseph Parker won the organization's heavyweight title in 2016.
