By Erik Schmidt: Making her 12th defense of her WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation featherweight title, Ina Menzer (23-0, 9 KOs) defeated challenger Esther Schouten (22-5-1, 11 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 97-93 and 97-93. Menzer, 28, had problems with the faster Schouten, 31, in the first five rounds of the bout, having difficulties in connecting against the shorter, faster Schouten.
However, from the 6th rounds on, Menzer began to have better luck in landing her right hand and dominate the remaining rounds with her jab-right hand combination. However, Menzer was unable to hurt Schouten with right hands, mainly because Menzer had to lesson up on the power of her shots in order to consistently land her shots against the elusive Schouten.
Schouten , from the Netherlands and a former WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion, fought surprisingly well in the 1st round, landing fast right hands and jabs to the head of Menzer and beating her to the punch.
A notorious slow starter, Menzer stood mostly like a statue on the outside, looking for openings and rarely letting her hands go in the round. Though only one inch taller than Schouten, at 5’6”, Menzer, looked quite a bit bigger than her – appearing to be at least 10-20 pounds heavier than her in size and much thicker in the torso.
However, the extra size didn’t equate to the ability to land, at least not at this stage in the fight.
Schouten would continue to fight well in the 2nd round, jabbing Menzer and darting forward and landing fast right hands.
Menzer, who excellent right hand power, held back with her right hand for much of the round, instead holding it back as if she was holding a loaded cannon. Schouten seemed fearless, again and again rushing forward and landing nice right hands to the head of Menzer.
In the 3rd round, Schouten dominated the first minute of the round, jabbing Menzer over and over. But in the last minute of the round, Menzer began to connect with big right hands to the head. She connected with several of them and each one would snap Schouten’s head back violently when they would connect.
The 4th round was very close, as Schouten landed a lot of jabs and right hands during the round. However, Menzer seemed to get the better of her, landing some huge right hands right on the button. At one point in the round, Menzer grabbed Schouten with her left hand and pulled her head down so she could nail her with a right. Most of the rest of the round was very close with both fighters trading shots.
Schouten came back well in the 5th, landing jabs and left hands to the body. Schouten was now looking cautious when she would come forward, no doubt fearful of getting nailed by Menzer’s big right hands on the way in. Menzer did little in the round was mostly limited to harmless jabs.
In rounds six through nine, Menzer took control over the fight, hitting Schouten with a lot of right hands and doing enough to win the rounds with her fight hand shots alone. The 8th round was very close and could have gone either way. Schouten landed well with jabs and left hands in the round and somehow avoided getting hit by Menzer’s big right hands.
The 9th was also close, mostly because Menzer was now moving a lot more than she had in the previous rounds and not throwing her right hands. This gave Schouten the opportunity to make the rounds very competitive with her jabs and occasional right hands.
In the 10th round, Menzer stayed on the move, circling the ring and looking as if she was just content to run out the clock on Schouten. Schouten landed most of the significant blows in the round, hitting Menzer with jabs and right hands as she would circle the ring.