By Jim Dower: WBC female featherweight and WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation featherweight champion Ina Menzer (25-0, 9 KO’s) defeated challenger Esther Schouten (24-6-1, 13 KO’s) by a 10-round majority decision on Saturday night to capture the vacant World Boxing Organization female featherweight title at the Stadthalle, Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

This was a rematch of their January 17th bout, and it turned out to be even closer than the first fight due to speedy punches and the high work rate of the 31-year-old Schouten earlier in the bout.

The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 95-95 and 96-94. The scoring, however, seemed out of balance with the actual fight that took place. Schouten outworked Menzer on the vast majority of the rounds and did a great job of getting out of the way of Menzer’s big right hands. I had Schouten winning the bout eight rounds to two. It was that far that much of a dominating performance by Schouten.

The scores were really bad. After the fight Schouten, the visiting fighter from the Netherlands, cried when she saw the scores and I don’t blame her. She deserved to win the fight and it was hard to believe that she lost the fight given how dominant she looked throughout the fight.

I’m not taking anything away from the 28-year-old Menzer, because she had a couple of good rounds in which she landed some huge right hands. However, she was unable to accurately land her big bombs during most of the fight and didn’t throw nearly enough punches to get the win in my view. Schouten was very busy in the fight and seemed to have the perfect plan to beat Menzer this time.

Menzer started the fight well in the 1st round, dropping big right hand bombs from the outside and catching Schouten as she came shooting in trying to land her fast combos. However, in the 2nd round, Menzer’s punch output dried up as she stopped throwing almost altogether as Schouten started attacking her with lightning like speed and connecting with hard shots.

Menzer tried to land punches but because of the combination of head movement and quick darting attacks, Menzer missed with almost all of her attempts to land in the round. She looked confused for the most part unsure of what to do against Schouten.

In the 3rd round, Schouten was much busier, landing well with jabs and right hands to the head while Menzer threw few punches. The shots that Menzer did try to land, she missed with. There was nothing close about this round. It was clearly a round for Schouten. The action continued to be largely one-sided into the 4th round, as Menzer was doing zero, not punching and just eating a lot of combinations from Schouten.

In the 5th round, Menzer began to look angry and frustrated as she grabbed Schouten in a head lock at the start of the round and held her like that until the referee stepped in and gave Menzer a warning. The remainder of the round was all Schouten as she jabbed Menzer repeatedly with fast jabs and an occasional right hand to the head.

Menzer came back in the 6th round and landed some big right hands during the round. Schouten was again busier but Menzer’s powerful rights appeared to be enough for her to get the round.

Schouten dominated the 7th round with her jabs and right hands to the head. She was much more busier than Menzer, who threw very few punches during the round. By this point, the fight was getting way out of hand as Schouten appeared to have a five rounds to two lead and was almost assured of a draw unless Menzer was able to knock her down or stop her.

With the few punches that Menzer was throwing each round that seemed like an impossibility. The 8th round was all Schouten as she stalked Menzer around the ring, nailing her with one punch after another to the head. Menzer only attempted a few punches during the round and missed all of them.

The 9th round was almost as one-sided as the 8th, with Schouten throwing far more punches than Menzer and connecting often. Schouten used a lot of movement in the round to keep Menzer from landing her shots. Menzer now looked desperate as if she was knew she needed to do something special to get the win.

Schouten fought really well in the 10th and final round, landing a high number of her shots and bloodying Menzer’s nose and causing it to swell. It was a great round and there nothing close about it.

You have to feel sorry for Schouten because this was one a great fight for her and I had never seen Menzer get handled like that before. Schouten showed great boxing skills and in my view should have won the fight by a landslide decision. However, beating the German based champion is a lot easier said than done. It takes more than a dominating performance sometimes to get the win.