By Erik Schmidt: World Boxing Association/WIBF female flyweight champion Susi Kentikian (25-0, 16 KO’s) easily defended her titles on Saturday night beating yet another over-matched opponent in Argentinean opponent Carolina Marcela Gutierrez Gaite (15-2, 11 KO’s) by a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision at the Color Line Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 199-90 and 100-90.
Although Kentikian totally dominated the 32-year-old Gaite, it wasn’t as a complete one-sided fight as many of Kentikian’s other fights. The reason for this was a couple of reasons starting with Gaite’s good jab and right hands. She had a significant height advantage of five inches over the 5’1” Kentikian and often leaned backwards to avoid getting hit with Kentikian’s big shots.
Kentikian compensated for this by throwing flurries to the body. However, this left Kentikian open much of the time for Gaite’s right hands to the head. Kentikian was much less aggressive offensively than she usually is and seemed more reserved and focused on picking per spots to land one big shot.
In each round, Kentikian would unload with a flurry of shots when she would trap Gaite against the ropes. The crowd really got into this, especially since the last fight before this between German Alesia Graf and Terri Lynn Cruz had given the crowd very little to cheer because Graf was getting handled for most of the fight.
Kentikian dominated the 1st round, stalking Gaite around the ring and pounding her with one-two combinations to the head. Kentikian used a lot of head and shoulder movement to stay out of the way of Gaite’s jabs and right hands.
A lot of the movement was wasted, however, because Gaite wasn’t throwing all that many punches in the round. She showed little power for the punches that she did throw and it wouldn’t have mattered had she landed the occasional shots.
As it was, Gaite only landed one punch during the entire round, a right hand. Kentikian had her way with Gaite for the entire round and looked sharp. In the 2nd round, Gaite started off well, nailing Kentikian with several right hands to the head. Kentikian then caught up to her later in the round and pounded her with a flurry of punches as Gaite stood with her back to the ropes.
In the middle of the ring, Kentikian wasn’t able to do much because of her limited reach. However, when she was able to pressure Gaite against the ropes, Kentikian was able to land a lot of good shots before Gaite could escape.
Early in the 4th round, Gaite hit Kentikian with a hard jab as she was coming in and almost knocked Susi down. Kentikian responded by using a lot of head movement and was more cautious for awhile. Near the end of the round, Kentikian unloaded with a flurry of shots against Gaite as she stood near the ropes.
Rounds five and six were totally one-sided with Kentikian doing all the punching and landing, and Gaite circling the ring trying to avoid getting hit. Kentikian threw virtually no combinations in the 5th round, putting her concentration in landing one punch at a time. In the 6th, Kentikian opened up with a salvo of head shots in the middle of the round that got the crowd into the fight. Kentikian had target practice in the 7th and 8th rounds, loading up with her shots and hitting Gaite hard with single shots.
Kentikian unloaded with a flurry of shots in the 8th near the end of the round. Gaite was doing very little in these rounds, just pawing with her jab and taking a great deal of punishment. Gaite’s height advantage saved her from taking a worse beating.
In the 9th round, Gaite landed one big right hand to the jaw of Kentikian, timing the punch just as Kentikian was rushing forward. Kentikian, however, dominated the round with her big shots and increased her punch output slightly.
The 10th round was the most competitive of the fight with both fighters trading shots. Gaite connected with a number of right hands in the round and took advantage of Kentikian’s aggressive attacks by catching her with shots as she was coming forward. However, Kentikian landed the better shots and a lot more of them than Gaite was able to muster up.
Comments are closed.