Ivana Habazin is a world champion once more after more than a decade of attempts in failing to capture a world title. The Croatian netted a unanimous decision win over Hungarian welterweight contender Kinga Magyar on April 20th. to win both of the vacant WBA interim and WBC 147 lbs titles, putting her firmly in the position to be involved against any of the other three champions currently in the division.
Ivana Habazin (23-5, 7 KO’s) and Kinga Magyar (14-5, 6 KO’s) fought at the KC Drazen Petrovic Arena in Zagreb in Habazin’s home country of Croatia. Aside from having a hometown advantage, Habazin further enjoyed more experience than Magyar―having competed in at least six world title fights as opposed to Magyar whose only world title fight was against Habazin.
Habazin last title victory was in 2014 when she defeated Sabrina Giuliani to win the vacant IBF 147 lbs title. Roughly half a year later, Giuliani lost her title in September of that same year to Cecilia Brækhus (37-2-1, 9 KO’s), who would go on to become undisputed at welterweight.
While both women came to win, Habazin adopted a better overall strategy, delving between boxing at range and swarming Magyar on the inside to win most of the rounds. After the ten-scheduled rounds, Habazin was announced by unanimous decision (UD) through scorecards of 97-93, 99-92 and 98-92, culminating in her becoming the WBA interim and WBC welterweight champion.
The win showed a firm resoluteness by Ivana Habazin to become a world champion after five failed attempts the years prior through which she lost to a number of renowned fighters, including the current middleweight undisputed champion Claressa Shields (14-0, 2 KO’s).
WBA champion Jessica McCaskill (12-3-1, 5 KO’s), WBO champion Sandy Ryan (7-1-1, 3 KO’s) and IBF champion Natasha Jonas (15-2-1, 9 KO’s) now present themselves as options for Ivana Habazin to embellish her career with the achievement of becoming a unified world champion, or even a undisputed champion.
Habazin’s WBA interim title might lead her to fighting the winner between Jessica McCaskill and Lauren Price (6-0, 1 KO’s) who are set to battle on May 11th and will see McCaskill either lose her WBA title or retain it. A collision course with either Sandy Ryan or Natasha Jonas is considered less likely as Habazin’s WBA interim title gives her more leverage to entreat upon a fight with the McCaskill-Price winner.
While Ryan and Jonas are also viable options as both appear to be ranked on the WBC’s female welterweight rankings as #2 and #3 respectively―despite them both regarded as world champions. While the reason on their listing on the WBC’s rankings is unknown, and there is some uncertainty about whether the WBC can mandate a champion from another sanctioning body to fight their own champion, Habazin fighting either of them would still be a logical next course of action for her career.
Either way, it appears Ivana Habazin has plenty of options moving forward following her victory over Kinga Magyar, allowing her to further pile up new achievements and accolades in the future.
