By Erik Schmight: Former Women’s IBF European Super Bantamweight champion Esther Schouten (19-4-1, 9 KOs) defeated Zsofia Bedo (0-3-1) by a six-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Maritim Hotel, Magdeburg, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Schouten, who was coming off a year and a half layoff following an unsuccessful bid for the WBC featherweight title against Sharon Anyos, had an easy time against the inexperienced 22 year-old Bedo. Obviously, this was a step down in competition for Schouten, from the Netherlands, who appears to be in the rebuilding stage in her career after having experienced three losses out of her last four fights going into her bout with Bedo.
In the first round, Schouten had her way with Bedo, landing an assortment of jabs, right crosses an occasional shot to the midsection. I would have liked to have seen a few more combinations and punches to the midsection, though, because Schouten appeared to be mostly loading and landing one shot at a time. She looked good, using excellent form when throwing the punches, but she needed to add a couple of more to make her work more impressive. Bedo landed nothing in the round and only attempted a few punches.
Schouten continued her domination of Bedo in the 2nd and third rounds, blasting her with right and left hands. Each punch had knockout intentions, but Bedo appeared to take the punches well, showing no ill effects despite the fact that she was getting pounded on.
In the 4th and 5th rounds, Schouten looked especially impressive as she worked Bedo over on the ropes with single shots to the head. She still wasn’t throwing combinations or adding in any body shots, but it didn’t matter because Bedo was firing back nothing in retaliation.
In the sixth round, Schouten threw almost entirely right hands, not even hinting at adding lefts. I was thinking that she may have injured her left hand until she finally threw two lefts late in the round. It looks as if her form disappeared somewhat as she fatigued, causing her to regress to an earlier stage in her development. Whatever the case, it wasn’t an overly impressive performance from Schouten despite getting the win. She needs to work on her combinations, focus more on body work and remember to use both hands. Her endurance needs work as well, for she appeared a little lethargic in the final rounds.