Ragosina Decisions Perozzi

By Boxing News - 03/18/2008 - Comments

ragosina5333.jpgBy Erik Schmight: Undefeated WIBF/WIBA/WBA/WBC Womans super middleweight champion Natascha Ragosina (17-0, 11 KOs) defeated Teresa Perozzi (6-3-1) by a 10-round lopsided unanimous decision at the Maritim Hotel, Magdeburg, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany on Saturday night. The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 99-90 and 99-91, for Ragosina. Originally from Russian and now living and fighting out of Germany, Ragosina, 31, towered over her 5’6″ opponent by 51/2 inches and used her height to easily pound out a one-sided decision. Though Perozzi, 34, gamely pressed the action for the entire bout, she simply wasn’t tall enough or highly skilled to compete with the 5’11 1/2 inch Ragosina, who stood tall all fight long, firing out mostly jabs at her shorter, rounder and slower opponent.

There was hardly any action in the first round whatsoever. In fact, there were only two punches that connected during the entire round, which has to be some kind of record. Ragosina mostly jabbed at the air with her left hand, not connecting, and not really trying to. I think she was mostly using her jab to ward off the short, squat Perozzi. Ragosina didn’t really have to do much, for Perozzi looked badly intimidated in the first round, as if she was afraid to get hit.

Not much changed in the second round, although Perozzi attacked Ragosina savagely, driving her to the ropes and throwing a flurry of punches, all of them incredibly missing. In fact, only one punch was landed and that was from Ragosina, who nailed Perrozi with a right hand as the referee was separating them because the round had ended.

In the third round, Ragosina finally began throwing right hands with conviction mostly out of necessity, for she was being attacked continuously in the round by Perozzi, and had to do something to keep her off of her. For her part, Perozzi was still finding it difficult to land any punches, but that seemed to be because of her poor boxing skills rather than Ragosina being hard to hit.

Ragosina resorted to wrestling in the fourth and fifth rounds, often grabbing Perozzi around the neck and wrenching her from side to side like a rag doll. It looked bad, like she was throttling her rather than boxing. The only punches that landed in the round were the ones thrown by Ragosina. Perozzi tried to land a few, but she was simply too short, and her punches would either be pick off or Ragosina would lean back, making the punches hit nothing but air.

Finally in the sixth, Perozzi connected with a series of left hands. Nothing special, mind you, but a big improvement over her previous work in the other rounds. Incredibly, she won the round, but only because Ragosina did next to nothing in the round other than flicking her jab at the air to try and keep Perozzi at a distance.

Ragosina came back with a vengeance in the 7th round, as if she was trying to make up for her lack of work in the previous round. She landed a whole bunch of swatting right hands, made easier by the fact that Perozzi was coming forward face first without any kind of defense.

In the 8th round, Perrozi was essentially fighting blind, as her hair had come undone from from the top of her head, where it had been tied down with a ribbon, leaving her hair hanging down in her face for the entire round. She could see nothing, and constantly attempted to move her hair back or to the side in an effort to see Ragosina. None of it worked, and she took a lot of punishment in the round. I was somewhat surprised that the referee didn’t stop the action and allow Perozzi to fix her hair, but I guess they don’t have rules like that in Woman’s boxing. I think they should, though, because it would save some some woman fighters from taking needless punishment.

In the 9th and 10th rounds, Ragosina completely dominated Perrozi, especially in the 10th when Ragosina went right hand crazy. For the last two minutes of the 10th round, Ragosina didn’t throw one left hand, as she focused entirely on nailing Perozzi with right hands. It wasn’t as if Ragosina needed to use her left, because Perozzi was nothing more than a punching bag in the round and wasn’t even attempting to fight back.

Overall, a case of terrible match making. I still can’t figure out how they would allow such a green fighter like Perozzi fight for a championship. I guess this is common in Woman’s boxing, but it certainly needs to change to avoid someone getting hurt.