By Elisinio Castillo
Edith Soledad Matthysse (14-7-1, 1KOs), the sister of hard-punching junior welterweight Lucas Matthysse, won a ten round unanimous decision over Canada's Jelena Mrdjenovich (35-10-1, 19KOs) to unify the WBC and WBA featherweight titles at the Ce.De.M. N° 2 in Caseros, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Matthysse captured the title last December and was making her first defense of the belt. She got off to a difficult start with a lot of resistance from Mrdjenovich, a former WBC super featherweight world champion who was riding a seven fight win streak including a big decision over tough Melissa Hernandez.
Mrdjenovich was very strong and landing good punches in the first half of the contest, but she faded down the stretch as Matthysse came on with good punches connecting, especially to the body, but never had Mrdjenovich in serious trouble. Matthysse was gutsy and wasn't afraid to hang with her stronger opponent. Her fighting spirit generated a standing ovation when the contest was over.
The judges - Samuel Conde Lopez (Puerto Rico) 96-94, Gustavo Padilla (Panama) 98-92, and Stanley Christodoulou (South Africa) 97-93 - had it all in favor of Matthysse.