Mariana Juarez?s long reign as the WBC bantamweight world champion continues as she gets another title defense under her belt.
Juarez successfully defended her title with a narrow decision win against Diana Laura Fernandez on June 15, winning with scores of 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94. This was Juarez?s eighth successful bantamweight title defense.
The action was red hot almost from the beginning of the bout with both women swinging for the fences. Juarez focused a little more on her jab and tried to utilize it to set up for the bigger punches while Fernandez tried to throw wild hooks and uppercuts left and right. While Juarez was able to outbox Fernandez, the challenger was the aggressor starting in the middle rounds, still throwing the left hooks and forcing Juarez to engage in the middle of the ring.
The wild exchanges continued all the way to the end of the fight with Fernandez's aggressive boxing having little success as Juarez was able to step away from her opponent's punches at times and work behind the jab. Fernandez took the fight to the champion in the final round, starting off with a vicious exchange between the two before Juarez started throwing combinations to the body. Fernandez threw a flurry of punches in the final seconds of the fight as Juarez simply defended with her back up against the ropes.
The win extends Juarez?s record title reign as she has defended the WBC bantamweight title more times than any other woman in history. Juarez won the title in the summer of 2017 with a win over Terumi Nuki and has retained the belt against the likes of Susie Ramadan, Alesia Graf and Nuki in a rematch.
Now sporting a 53-9-4 record, Juarez has also held both the WBC?s interim and world title at flyweight between 2009 and 2012. Juarez is currently on a 10-fight win streak.