In an odd but fortunate twist of fate for Evelyn Bermudez – who lost all her world titles after facing Yokaste Valle who had briefly moved from Minimumweight to get a taste of the division above her, Bermudez became a unified world champion again after her bout against former undefeated Mexican challenger, Tania Enriquez. Bermudez last fought in November where she stumbled upon an unfortunate loss against Yokasta Valle – the Minimumweight’s current unified champion, but she has since regained the same titles she just recently lost. The unification bout was held at the Estadio Luna Park in Buenos Aires of Argentina.
Scorecards widely favored Evelyn Bermudez (18-1-1, 6 KO’s) after the fight which she won by unanimous decision. The judges scored it 97-93 twice and 96-94 in Bermudez’ favor following a rather dominant display against someone that was still unbeaten. Tania Enriquez (20-1, 9 KO’s)seemed to lack the experience needed to face someone of Bermudez’ caliber who had already had eight world title bouts under her belt, while Enriquez fought in just her first.
Bermudez won most of the rounds as she outworked and outpointed Enriquez who didn’t lack in effort or intention, but just didn’t seem to have the right tools to defeat Bermudez. Enriquez still proved to be a worthwhile challenger despite her loss, pushing Bermudez to adjust her tactics or tempo several times until the championship rounds which Bermudez seemed to win by a close but decisive margin.
Though Bermudez took more of a counterattacking approach as Enriquez pressured her, she seemed to gradually change as the fight went on and allowed herself to land the bigger and more accurate punches, despite Enriquez continuing to pressure her as much as possible. In the end, it was Bermudez who seemed to have an extra gas tank ready as Enriquez slowed down slightly, allowing Bermudez to fight the openings and weaknesses to capitalize on and dominate the rest of the rounds.
With her victory over Enriquez, Bermudez became a unified world champion again approximately four months after losing the WBO and IBF Junior Flyweight titles to Yokasa Valle (27-2, 9 KO’s). Valle, who had moved up during her fight with Bermudez but has since moved down to Minimumweight again, was forced to vacate her titles as she announced her plans to unify at Minimumweight with the winner of the unification bout between Seniesa Estrada (23-0, 9 KO’s) and Tina Rupprecht (12-0-1, 3 KO’s), the latter to which Valle lost to in 2018. Estrada and Rupprecht – both world champions at 105 lbs – are currently set to face each other next week on Saturday, March 25.
With her latest victory, fans hope that Bermudez will soon unify with the only other unified champion in the division, Mexican WBA and WBC world champion Jessica Nery Plata (29-2, 3 KO’s), who has come off of a unification fight with Kim Clavel (16-1, 3 KO’s) herself as of recently.
