Dina Thorslund easily repels Terumi Nuki’s challenge, retains titles

WBC and WBO bantamweight champion Dina Thorslund had no problems retaining the titles against Japanese challenger Terumi Nuki. Thorslund moved to 23-0 (9 KOs) while Nuki fell to 15-6 (10 KOs). It was scored 99-91 on all cards. 

Nuki was robotically persistent in her performance, coming forward no matter what, but also ineffective. She walked into some heavy counters early in the fight and while her face looked swollen and beaten she kept coming. Thorslund picked her punches well and outboxed the challenger most of the fight. Only in the fifth did Nuki seem to outwork the champion.

The event, staged by TK Promotions. was billed as “The Last Dance.” Ahead of Thorslund now is retirement or lucrative fights abroad. There have been talks of a Super Six tournament promoted by Lou DiBella but nothing is set.

The undercard lasted about 16 minutes in total, spilled out over a nearly three-hour time frame. 

Super middleweight Oliver Zaren, 14-0 (5 KOs), is not known for his punching power but he had no problems with the Spain-based Nicaraguan Roberto Arriaza, who is 19-13 (14 KOs). Zaren mixed his punches well in the first round and then floored his opponent with a right uppercut early in the second. Three more knockdowns followed before it was stopped at 2:13 of the same round. It was scheduled for eight.

Junior middleweight Victor Hoveling, perfect at 6-0 (6 KOs) stopped the 2-5 (0 KOs) Dmitri Blinov at 2:38 of the second round in a scheduled six-rounder. Blinov was shaken by a right hand earlier in the round but was fighting back when the referee stepped in and stopped it.. The Dane was in trouble late in the first round and was caught again early in the second.

Lightweight Francis Fordjour opened the show and stopped Mihail Zubenco (2-8) at 2:33 of the first round. The 3-0 (3 KOs) Fordjour put pressure on his opponent from the first bell to last and Zubenco, 2-8 (1 KOs) was shaken twice. The writing was on the wall when the bout was stopped.

Featherweight Melissa Mortensen moved to 2-0 (1 KO) knocked out Nino Mgebrishvili (0-3) at 0:19 of the second in a gross mismatch. Mgebrishvili, 0-3, was a late substitute for Gabriella Mezei.