Femke Hermans defeats Mary Spencer in rematch
It was repeat for Belgian Femke Hermans (17-4, 7KO) on Wednesday, October 11, despite Canadian Mary Spencer's (7-2, 5KO) best efforts for revenge at the Montreal Casino in Canada.
The 33-year-old European retained her IBO World super-welterweight strap with scores of 96-94, 97-93, 95-95, whilst adding the vacant IBF belt in the process.
BBN's Canadian reporter, Dave Darling, was ringside to report on all the action:
WILKENS VS ROMO
Mathieu Wilkens put on a very pretty display of boxing in a super middleweight 4 rounder against Mexican Cesar Lopez Romo. Much taller and infinitely more skilled than his opponent Wilkins controlled the action from the outset and (objectively speaking) was hardly touched in this one. Boxing at a distance the local boy simply piled up the points with a well balanced attack to both body and head en route to a 4th round TKO. Obviously a "defence-first" kind of fighter Wilkins presented a very elusive target for his overmatched opponent while picking him off at long range and making it look all too easy. The fight was so one sided in fact that it almost looked like a sparring session for Wilkins who barely broke a sweat.
At only 18 years of age and sporting a relatively short amateur career consisting of only 32 fights this young talent recently decided to make the jump to the pro ranks and set his sights on conquering the world. Now sporting a perfect fledgling record of 4-0 Wilkins has nothing but time to hone his skills, perfect his craft and advance his career.
OROBIO VS REYES
Jhon Orobio also pounded out a fourth round stoppage against another tough but overmatched Mexican warrior in Jesus Solis Reyes. Obviously on the short end of the "yard-stick" Orobio had to work his way in against a taller rangier opponent in order to land his shots and score points. An aggressive start, effective head movement and excellent timing allowed the local favourite to drop Reyes in the first round with a perfectly timed left hook to the tip of the chin. From that moment onward the Mexican was basically on his bike and in survival mode. To his credit Reyes did manage to land a few decent shots of his own while moving around the outside of the ring and effectively blocking or fading away from many of Orobio’s power shots. Despite utilizing this "elusive survival strategy" the final outcome was never really in doubt as Orobio eventually landed one of those power shots and seriously rocked Reyes who was forced to take a knee. By that point the referee had seen enough and almost mercifully called a halt to the action.
While clearly lacking some of the necessary elements for "elite boxing" Reyes showed some skills on the night. He moved well, demonstrated the ability to roll with power punches and showed off a pretty good chin.
BAZINYAN VS ELLIS
Local favourite Erik Bazinyan (aka Bzo) took another step towards a title shot with a 7th round TKO against Ronald Ellis, A tough and durable journeyman, Ellis had only lost 3 times in 24 outings and all to top level guys (David Benevidez, DeAndre Ware and EOTTM stablemate Christian Mbilli). So this one was definitely going to be a significant test for Bazinyan that could help propel him to the upper echelons of the division. The fight was competitive from the outset with Baazinyan clearly carrying an edge in power while Ellis appeared to have the advantage in both fluid combinations and punch selection. The action went back and forth with many rounds being "too close to call" as both men took turns dictating the pace, dominating the action and imposing their will. Round 7, however, changed everything in a hurry. The stanza began just like the previous 6 until the midpoint when Byzinyan landed 2 hard rights in succession that sent his opponent to the canvas. Despite beating the count and willing to continue, the referee stopped the contest and handed the Byzinian the 30th victory of his professional career.
While obviously very promising, Bayzinyan still needs to improve his defence moving forward. Not blessed with good "reactive-defence" (the cat-like reflexes of a Floyd Mayweather) Erik would often employ a more "passive-defence" by simply putting his gloves up and employing a "peekaboo" style in an attempt to block punches. Now against a relatively light puncher like Ellis he can get away with it, but against someone with heavier hands and better "threading" he may run into problems. In addition he’s also kind of stiff and doesn’t show a natural talent for rolling with or fading away from punches.
Not seeing punches coming compounded by an inability to effectively roll with them when they land means that when he gets hit he’s going to get hit hard.
He should start working on a more "non-reactive" style of defense. An off-beat rhythm with lots of different looks utilizing head and upper body movements in conjunction with foot work for subtle changes in both posture and position … in other words present an "ever changing canvas" that will keep his opponents guessing and make it harder for them to get set. I realize that it may be a little "late in the day" for such fundamental changes, but without improving this part of his game I don't see him getting to the promised land
SPENCER VS HERMANS
"As much as things change they often stay the same" and this rematch was no different. Coming off the first loss of her professional career (Dec 2022) Canadian born Mary Spencer was looking to make amends in the rematch and get back into the win column. You see, despite a long and celebrated amateur career spanning a couple of decades, Spencer didn’t turn pro until 2021. Now 38 years of age she has to move fast if she wants to add "professional world champ" to her resume, In fact with only a handful of pro-fights under her belt it's basically "now or never".
Defending the IBO title that she won last December against Spencer, Belgian's own Femke Hermans was hoping to make it 2 for 2 against her Canadian counterpart. And to make things even more interesting the IBF strap was also up for grabs with the winner taking all the "candy" home. The first encounter was a rather one sided affair with Hermans dominating most of the action, picking Spencer apart and at times making her look ordinary.
For her part Mary went back to the "drawing-board" on this one and made some serious adjustments in search of a better performance the second time around. The rematch started in similar fashion as the "first go around" with the bigger, stronger Spencer attacking with hard punches and pushing Hermans up against the ropes. Not surprisingly the champ stayed cool and composed while slipping away from Spencer's power, touching her up and slowly reestablishing her role as the boxer.
To her credit, Spencer did perform better in this one and showed some overall improvement over the first fight (in fact after 6 rounds the contest was basically dead even). She managed distance better, didn’t rush in as recklessly as last time and showed more patience on the outside. In addition she tried to establish a strong jab, dictate the pace of the action and the nature of the exchanges . . . hell, she even threw in some feints for good measure. And while certainly impressive at "days end" it simply wasn’t enough against a more experienced and complete fighter in Hermans. I mean, how much change can you really make (in a little over 10 months) to "stylistic-habits" that are literally decades in the making.
So predictably as the fight war on Hermans took more and more control away from Spencer and slowly but surely began dominating the action . . . just like last time. In the end, it started to look more and more like the ole' "bull and the matador" as Spencer (realizing that things were slipping away again) began rushing in more and more recklessly, missing and getting countered by an increasingly confident champion.
FINAL ANALYSIS
In all my years covering "the sweet science" there are certain truths in rematches that are hard to escape – One of the most persistent being "the better boxer usually wins". And in this case that's definitely Femke Hermans. Going into this contest I was trying to at least give Mary "the puncher's chance", but even when she did catch Hermans in the first fight it did no immediate or even cumulative damage as "the champ" just shrugged it off and went back to work . . . and remember that the only knock-down in either contest was by Hermans who put Spencer on the canvas early in the second round of their first fight (maybe it wasn't counted as a knockdown, but it was).
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