July, 2008 Female Middleweight Championship Result

July 19, 2008
DATE: 18 July, 2008
CITY: Houston, Texas, USA
VENUE: Reliant Arena
PROMOTER: South Coast Promotions
(John and Donna English)
CHALLENGER: Christy Martin, Orlando, Florida, 154.25#
CHALLENGER: Valerie Mahfood, Groves, Texas, 160#
RESULT: Majority Draw - 8 rounds
REFEREE: Ruben Carrion
(nice job by improving young referee)
JUDGES: Gale Van Hoy, 76-76 -- Ronnie Ralston, 76-76 -- Kelli Yoh. 78-74 Martin
SUPERVISOR: Claude Jackson (for what it may be worth, my score was 77-75 for Martin, but I have no problem with any of the judges' scores.)

COMMENTS: Excellent action fight, as those of you who know the styles of these two veteran boxers might expect. Martin was more skilled but Mahfood was simply the bigger and stronger woman. Martin had to rally in the last round to pull out the draw. Great crowd reaction and some talk about possibly rematch, but this does not seem likely. Martin told me after the fight that she will probably fight at welterweight in the future (barely made minimum weight limit for this fight, weighing in with a warmup suit on), and Mahfood begins study for her Ph. D next month.

Anyone with questions, please feel free to get in touch.

CLAUDE JACKSON

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