By Francisco Salazar
Mariana Juarez continues to win.
Juarez successfully defended her WBC bantamweight world title belt Saturday night, defeating Gabriela Bouvier by unanimous decision at the Arena Coliseo in Mexico City.
Less than three weeks after turning 38 years of age, Juarez (48-9-4, 18 knockouts) was able to outbox Bouvier, who is from Uruguay and is 11 years younger. The Mexico City gave the partisan crowd of over 6,000 much to cheer about during the first half of the fight, initiating and beating Bouvier to the punch.
Bouvier found success during the middle rounds by increasing her punch output and aggression, but Juarez swung momentum her way by effectively countering Bouvier from the outside.
Scores were 98-92, 98-92, and 97-93 for Juarez, who has now won her last five bouts.
Bouvier (13-8-1, 3 KOs) has lost four of her last five bouts.
The Juarez-Bouvier fight was reportedly the first female world title fight to take place at the famed 76-year-old venue.
Bantamweight and 2016 Mexican Olympian Elias Emigdio won a one-sided six round decision over Armando Terreros (2-3, 1 KO). Scores were 60-54, 60-54, and 58-56 for Emigdio, who improves to 6-0, 2 KOs.
In a battle between lightweights from Mexico City, hard-hitting Isaac Cruz (13-1-1, 11 KOs) stopped former fringe contender Juan Jose Martinez (26-6, 18 KOs) at the end of the fifth round. A punch opened a cut over the left eye of Martinez, which was deemed to deep by a ringside physician to allow the fight to continue.
In bantamweight action, Karim Arce (13-0, 5 KOs) stopped veteran Uriel Salinas. Arce, the nephew of former world titleholder Jorge 'Travieso' Arce, dropped Salinas near the end of the opening round and finished Salinas (9-6, 3 KOs) at 2:30 of the third round.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing
