As I know that almost all Colombians are unaware of the Turkish Buse Naz Cakiroglu, Ingrit Valencia’s rival in the grand final of the 50-kilogram category of the Elite Women’s World Boxing Championship, this Friday (10 am, Colombian time). ) in Istanbul, I invite you to close your eyes and project the fighter from Cauca.
I go to help not to leave them lame. As many in Colombia itself do not know what Íngrit Valencia’s style is like, I tell you: she is a left-handed boxer, very technical, intelligent, who fights more with her mind than with her heart.
Who knows how to move, step back, avoid attacks from opponents and counterattack. That when he initiates an attack, usually with straight right punches, he doesn’t stay in one throw, and that he combines, with the left, preferably also with straights, although he also does it with hooks.
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The characteristics of Ingrit Valencia’s rival
Well, that’s how Buse Naz Cakiroglu fights too. But the Turkish is taller (three centimeters: 1.63 against 1.60 meters) and has reach. Note: she is also left-handed.
The final of the 50 kilograms, therefore, will be a fight between two women with the same technical cut, that of stylists. That guarantees that it will be a clean, fine, showy and elegant fight. Worthy of a golden dispute at the highest level of the science of the art of fistiana.
But it must be made clear, from now on, that the Colombian does not start as a favorite.
The reason? We’re going to her.
In those circumstances, height and reach play an important role.
(Remember the old saying that, in general, great good beats great little, that readers 50 or older or lovers of boxing history will remember that our Rodrigo Valdés suffered against the Argentine Carlos Monzón, in the 1976 ‘Fight of the Century’ for the unification of the world middleweight title in Monaco).
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Height and reach were decisive for Ingrit, in her last fight in Istanbul, to hit and step back, or turn to the side, leaving the blows of her rival, the Uzbek Aziza Yukubova, to remain in the void. That is the style and fight plan of the Turkish woman. And Cakiroglu has those physical advantages over the Colombian.
This does not include the fact of fighting at home. In addition to the plus of the encouragement of the public, it is that in any tight decision the balance is tilted by that of the land.
What are Ingrit’s real options?
So all is lost? Of course not. No one wins the day before or before entering the ring, unless there is a medical or other impediment. Under normal circumstances you can also win.
Valencia will have to focus on trying to get in at close range and unleash flurries of shots, varied and fast. And get off guard up. Not giving the Turkish woman a chance, who lowers her guard and takes her hands out from below, to keep her at bay.
The attack must be directed to the body, in a basic way, so it weakens and can later be combined with the head. The task, of course, is not an easy one. But what is easy in a world final? Almost nothing.
Do you remember that last August Ingrit lost at the gates of securing a medal at the Tokyo Olympics when she fell to the local Tsukimi Namiki? Had he won that fight and the semifinal he would have faced Buse Naz Cakiroglu. The Turkish woman reached the final and was defeated by the Bulgarian Stoyka Zhelyazkova, when the category had a limit of 51 kilograms, and not the 50 of today.
(In other news: Egan Bernal returns to the fray: he continues with his political trills)
Since November 2014, in Jeju (South Korea), we have claimed that due to her talent Íngrit Valencia should win a world medal and for this reason she was our main card in boxing at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games.
It took five world tournaments for him to climb to a podium of that level. You already have silver, now you can change to gold. The mission is hard, but not impossible. It’s fighting like she does: more with the mind than with the heart.
Estewil Quesada Fernandez
Regional editor of EL TIEMPO
Barranquilla
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