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KISSIMMEE, Fla. – In a women’s junior featherweight title fight that was limited to 10 two-minute rounds, as opposed to the men’s 12 three-minute rounds in championship bouts, Mayelli Flores Rosquero fought as if she had no choice but to make up the difference.
Rosquero went at WBA titleholder Nazarena Romero on Saturday at Silver Spurs Arena like a wrecking ball – but with the kind of accuracy, skill and stamina not often seen from such an aggressive fighter, man or woman – to eke out a split decision win and capture her first world belt.
The scores were 96-94 (twice) for Rosquero, and 98-92 for Romero.
Coming out of the gate, Argentina’s Romero, now 14-1-2 (8 KOs), may have been the aggressor, and she at least matched the energy and activity of Mexico City’s Rosquero, 13-1-1 (4 KOs). Both fighters treated the jab as if it were off-limits, leading with right hands and power punches over and over, pouring them on one another.
By the third, Rosquero had Romero in retreat, smacking her with a pair of left hooks and a jarring right hand. In the fourth, Rosquero had settled into a rhythm, chasing, ducking, countering and landing with increasing ease. Rosquero was still getting through with frequent punches, and even combinations, but keeping up with the impossibly aggressive Romero was futile. At times, it was all Rosquero could do to literally just hang on.
Slowly, the action began to even out as Rosquero began timing Romero more effectively. Chants of “Mexico! Mexico!” rang through the arena in support of Romero, and feet stomped endlessly on the metal seating platforms, the decibels of noise increasing with the pace of the machine-gun-fire exchanges of the fighters.
The ninth may have been the best round for Romero, who landed a nasty counter as Rosquero was hauling off on an uppercut. Romero tagged her opponent again with a straight right as Rosquero charged forward.
Romero began the 10th with a bit of shoeshine, peppering Rosquero’s midsection. But Rosquero – sensing either the momentum slipping away, the urgency of the final round or just her final chance to get off a few more shots – let fly with a stream of roundhouses, some of which connected and all of which sent Romero reeling backwards.
Whether it made the difference in the round or the fight, it sent the Kissimmee crowd into a frenzy and was a fitting way to end the affair.
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
