06/18/2021 5:40 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 06/18/2021 5:40 PM
Located five miles south of Las Vegas, McCarran International Airport offers passing passengers an unmistakable sign that they are in
Sin City
: it is riddled with slot machines.
Erica Anabella Farías
landed there on Monday
to play a strong bet: on Saturday she will become
the first Argentine boxer to fight for a world title
in this Mecca of boxing.
The
Panther will
try to remove the super featherweight crown of the World Boxing Organization from the Californian
Mikaela Mayer
in a fight that will take place at Virgin Hotels and that will serve as support for the presentation of one of the best pound-for-pound boxers of the moment,
the Japanese Naoya Inoue
. The evening can be seen through Space from 11.30pm.
24 days after her 37th birthday, the Virreyes representative, who has a professional record of 26 victories (10 by knockout) and 4 defeats, will
try to adjust for the third time a world belt:
she was already lightweight champion of the World Boxing Council between May 2010 and April 2014, and also reigned in the superlight division (recognized by the same body) between November 2014 and October 2018.
Mikaela Mayer, Érica Farías and the World Boxing Organization belt they will fight for on Saturday.
(Photo: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)
That title was lost to one of the best female boxers of today, American
Jessica McCaskill
, who also defeated her in the rematch a year later.
That fight, 20 months ago, was the last for Farías, who in 2017 had been beaten by another out of series, the Norwegian
Cecilia Braekhus
, in her attempt to snatch the welterweight titles from the four main organizations.
The Buenos Aires native had been training in recent months with the Argentine national team with the aim of participating in the Tokyo Olympic Games (in the category up to 60 kilos), but the cancellation of the Buenos Aires Pre-Olympic and the decision of the Boxing Task Force Olympic to grant the corresponding places based on the world ranking deprived her of that possibility.
Then this chance arose in a slightly lower division (the limit is 58,967 kilos) and he decided to accept it.
“I have been working for seven months.
I made this commitment because I was close to the category, it was not going to cost me to give the weight.
It is an opportunity that I am not going to miss
”
, he warned.
Érica Farías will have to face the fight against Mayer without her coach, the Venezuelan Rafael Liendo.
(Photo: Juan Manuel Plana / Chino Maidana Promotions)
The fact of not being a favorite and being a visitor was added in recent days an extra complication:
Farías will have to face this fight without his coach
, Venezuelan Rafael Liendo, who could not enter the United States due to problems obtaining his visa. In his corner will be doctor Walter Quintero and former world kickboxing champion
Jorge
Acero
Cali
, CEO of Chino Maidana Promotions, the company that has managed his career since November last year.
While there is a history of an Argentine boxer fighting in Las Vegas (Yamila Reynoso lost to American Layla McCarter at the MGM Grand in January 2019),
the
Pantera
will be the first to do so with a crown at stake.
If imposed, it will be the second Argentine to establish itself on US soil. The only one who achieved it was
Brenda Karen Carabajal from
Jujuy
, who in April 2019 obtained the interim featherweight title of the International Boxing Federation by beating the Russian Elena Gradinar in Atlantic City.
To do this he will have to beat
Mayer, one of the stars of American boxing these days
, who was the bassist of a heavy metal band and model during his teens and dabbled in muay thai and kickboxing before landing in boxing when he was 17 years.
As a fan, she was the Olympic representative in Rio de Janeiro 2016.
Mikaela Mayer has won all 14 of her professional fights since she debuted in 2017.
Born in Woodland Hills, outside of Los Angeles, but based in Colorado Springs, Mayer, 30, has
won all 14 of her professional bouts
(5 before the limit) since her debut in August 2017. Her last appearance was on December 31. October of last year, when she took the title from Poland's Ewa Brodnicka, which she will expose on Saturday.
The duel between Farías and Mayer will be the prelude to the presentation of the electrifying
Japanese Naoya Inoue
, who will expose his bantamweight belts of the World Boxing Association and the International Boxing Federation against
the Filipino Michael Dasmariñas
.
Twenty rivals stood before the
Monster
and all 20 capitulated.
Seventeen were knocked out, including
Chubut Omar Narváez
, who withstood their power for less than two rounds.
The relentless Japanese was already a light fly and super fly champion, and has reigned at 118 pounds since May 2018.
ICYMI, this Monster is very, VERY real.
😱 @ naoyainoue_410 |
#InoueMoloney pic.twitter.com/BSSwz64FoM
- Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) November 1, 2020
On its horizon is sweeping this division before continuing to climb.
For this, they are already thinking of unification duels against the Filipinos
Nonito Donaire
(he defeated him in November 2019), WBC champion, and
John Riel Casimero
, WBO monarch.
Of course, when those projections are made it is discounted that Inoue will have no problems this Saturday to dispatch Dasmariñas.
Look also
Chino Maidana remains with the boxer with the greatest projection in Argentina and war breaks out with a historic promoter
Diego Corrales vs José Luis Castillo: one of the most vibrant fights of the 21st century that never had a worthy rematch