Graf Defeats Dahlen

By Erik Schmidt: WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation super flyweight and Global Boxing Union Female super flyweight champion Alesia Graf (23-1, 9 KOs) defeated Magdalena Dahlen (9-2, 3 KOs) by 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Freiberger Arena, in Dresden, Sachsen, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 96-94.

Graf, 28, was making her 3rd defense of her WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation super flyweight title. She previously fought Dahlen before in her last bout, winning a 10 round unanimous decision in November 2008. There was nothing controversial about the fight, which is why is seems a little odd that Graf decided to fight her again so soon.

Like last time out, Graf dominated the fight winning most of the rounds with ease using her jab and combinations. Dahlen, 24, started out slowly in the 1st round. However, after the 1st round she began to pressure Graf steadily using a powerful jab to catch Graf often.

Unfortunately, Dahlen didn’t have too many other weapons to use besides her jab. In fact, she only rarely threw shots other than a rare right hand, left hook. In the meantime, Graf unveiled an extraordinary variety of offensive tools, hitting Dahlen with uppercuts, hooks, right crosses, you name it.

It seemed like Graf was always changing the angles and the style of attack. Her only problem was that she had no power to speak of and could punch barely harder than Dahlen’s jabs. Nevertheless, her constant rain of punches piled up the points round after round and enabled her to easily beat Dahlen.

In the 4th round, Dahlen began to load up with her power shots more, throwing hard combinations as if she wanted to get Dahlen out of there. It didn’t work but it got Dahlen’s attention. She responded by throwing her steady jabs even harder.

In the 6th round, Dahlen began to back Graf up and started hitting her with some nice left hands to the head. Graf flurried in response but could do little to get Dahlen to take a backwards step. As the round came to a close, Graf began trying to match Dahlen jab for jab and doing a decent job of it.

In the 7th round, Graf bloodied Dahlen’s nose with some nice right hands. Graf was now throwing a tremendous amount of combinations and looking as if she wanted to end matters with every punch. Dahlen continued to be un-phased by Graf’s power shots.

Graf stepped up the heat in the 9th, letting both hands go and trying to take Dahlen out. However, this allowed Dahlen to take advantage of Graf’s over eagerness by catching her with some powerful jabs. In the 10th, both fighters went toe to toe, throwing every punch with knockout intentions. Graf, like in the other rounds, got the better of Dahlen and won the round.