World title changes hands; Brampton fighter has big night at boxing card
Published April 29, 2024 at 1:42 pm
She may be the fastest Canadian boxer to ever win a world title but for Sara Haghighat-Joo, who became the WBA Super Flyweight world champion Saturday night at Woodbine Casino in Toronto in just her fourth professional fight, the journey has been hard, with plenty of pain along the way.
Haghighat-Joo told United Promotions, who put on Saturday’s fight card featuring seven matches, five unbeaten fighters and an IBF International championship, that she didn’t want to “waste any time” building up to big fights. “I know where I stand,” she said during her training camp. “I know my potential and this is the first of many history-making fights I hope to do.”
Saturday night she indeed made history, winning a ten-round war against reigning WBA champion Maria Bautista (23-12-2), who was relentless in attack and did not stop moving forward the entire fight. That Haghighat-Joo came out on top – she won 99-91, 98-92 and 96-94 on the judge’s scorecards – was a testament of her ability as a counterpuncher and her belief in the game plan put together by her team.
“I knew she was going to be relentless going in. I knew she was going to use her head and shoulders to try and bully me,” she said. “She is a veteran of the sport and I knew exactly what she was going to do. I was trying not to get frustrated and I was trusting my corner.”
In her corner was her coach, Steve Bailey, who also happened to be her husband of eight years, and the team from the West End Athletic Club of south Etobicoke, just a few clicks south of Saturday night’s venue. Bailey, known as a ‘Guru’ in local boxing circles, was the reason Haghighat-Joo moved to Ontario from North Vancouver, B.C. ten years ago.
The decade since have been filled with triumph – she is a three-time Canadian amateur champ, a two-time Irish champion and the 2022 Continental winner – but also tragedy.
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Her younger brother Sasan, who was also a boxer and fought for Canada at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, died last year and Haghighat-Joo said her brother was “looking over me” Saturday night. “Every time I go to the gym he is with me.”
Haghighat-Joo is also part of a new breed of boxers who have able to move between the professional and amateur ranks since the Olympic amateur rules were relaxed in 2016 and still has Olympic aspirations. She fights as an amateur for Sierra Leone in Africa and has one more shot to qualify for Paris at a tournament next month in Europe.
Whatever the outcome there, she will be setting her focus on unifying all the super flyweight professional belts. Being the quickest Canadian to win a world title is “pretty cool” but so is holding all three belts in boxing’s complicated alphabet soup. “I want to make another statement with unification.”
After soaking in Saturday’s history-making victory against the 35-year-old Mexican, of course. “It’s all been worth it,” she said in the ring with her new belt draped over her arm. “It was an absolutely incredible fight but it’s just the beginning.”
Josh Wagner earned a unanimous decision over Geronimo Vazquez of Argentina in the co-main event Saturday night. Photo Josh Schofield/Reel Demons.
The co-main event of the evening was also a ten-round slugfest that went to the scorecards but Orangeville’s Josh ‘The Boss’ Wagner made it easy for the judges, winning all ten rounds against Argentina’s Geronimo Vazquez (17-2) to capture the vacant IBF International Welterweight title.
Wagner, sporting his trademark neon green mohawk, is a good technical fighter and mixed an array of punches coming from all angles with some showmanship to make it difficult for Vazquez, who was cautioned several times (and penalized once) for low blows.
Wagner, who also fights for West End Athletic (and also sought out the club after hearing about Bailey’s work) is now 18-0 and poised for a world title fight of his own. He had Vazquez in trouble with some big shots several times but the Argentine showed some resiliency of his own to survive through ten rounds.
Jamaica’s Kemahl Russell (17-1) made short work of Croatian super middleweight Luka Lozo in their scheduled eight-round super middleweight bout, though the fight was mostly uneventful in the first two rounds, with Russell chasing Lozo around the ring and not landing many solid shots. All that changed late in the third round when the ‘Hitman’ caught Lozon on the ropes and sent him to the canvas.
After watching Lozo stagger to his feet and stumble to the wrong corner, the fight was halted.
One of the more entertaining fights on the card was Gisu ‘The Terminator’ Lee, a South Korean now fighting with United Promotions, who moved to 11-4 with a TKO win when Alexis De La Cruz’s corner threw in the towel at the end of the seventh round of the scheduled eight-round lightweight fight.
Both fighters showed strong technical abilities but Lee pressed the advantage with some big combinations after dropping the De La Cruz (9-4-2) for an eight count in the second. He had De La Cruz in trouble in the sixth as well when he caught him with a left and trapped the Mexican in the corner before finishing him in the seventh.
Brampton’s Josh Frazer TKO’ed Argentina’s Carlos Aquino at 2:49 of the third round. Photo Josh Schofield/Reel Demons.
Brampton’s Josh Frazer made a triumphant return to the ring after a nearly six-month absence with an emphatic knockout of Carlos Aquino of Argentina (21-17-2) at 2:49 of the second round.
Frazer, who trains out of his father’s Dewith Frazer gym in Mississauga, rocked Aquino near the end of the first and then put on a clinic in the second before the fight was stopped.
Frazer, who moves to a perfect 10-0 with the victory, was clear with his intentions for the rest of the year after he had his hand hoisted in the ring after the win. “Let’s go after those belts!”
Hamilton’s Bradley ‘The Truth’ Wilcox (part of the ‘Fighting Wilcox Brothers’ who train out of the Steeltown Boxing Club founded by father Bob Wilcox in 2003) made his United Promotions debut a memorable one with a fifth round TKO of Jorge Rodriguez, a 42-year-old journeyman Argentinian who took the fight on short notice after Wilcox’s original opponent was forced to pull out.
Wilcox (12-0) knocked Rodriguez (23-21-2) down with a huge overhand right in the fourth and put the Argentine on his knees with another big shot in the fifth. Rodriguez managed to get to his feet just before the count of ten but the super lightweight bout was immediately called.
Wilcox fought with a stylized Los Angeles Kings jersey emblazoned with the words “in memory of Robbie,” the oldest brother of the clan who died in 1995 from brain cancer when he was just seven years old.
The opening bout of the night was four rounds of infighting as light heavyweight Daniel Almeida (2-0) of Wasaga Beach won a unanimous decision over Drake Olchowecki of Hamilton.
Sara Haghighat-Joo and her West End Athletic coach Steve Bailey after winning the WBA Light Flyweight belt Saturday night
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