Alicia Ashley

Jamaica's most successful female boxer Alicia Ashley, scored a unanimous decision over Christina Ruiz from San Antonio, Texas last Saturday night at Hunts Point in the Bronx New York, to win the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) super bantamweight title.

The 43-year old Ashley gave away 18 years to her opponent, but walked away with a convincing unanimous decision. The judges scored it 100-90, 99-91 and 98-91 for Ashley.

"I am the Bernard Hopkins of female boxing" said the elated, Brooklyn, New York-based champion yesterday, as she savoured her victory. "I was constantly reminded how much younger she is, and that she has a reputation as a power-puncher. I took it to her however, and she was not the serious threat that I expected. I was able to take care of business convincingly."

Ashley used her superior boxing skills and accurate punching to overwhelm her opponent, and apart from a few close, hard-fought rounds in the early stages of the fight, had things going her way for most of the night.

Ashley, entered the ring the favourite, and because of her superior 16-9-1 record, her experience and her known speed, the consensus was that her opponent would have to use power punching to subdue her. The 25-year old Ruiz had a 6-3-1 record with four knockouts going into the fight, and the feeling was that if she could catch Ashley early, she could turn the tables on her. In her last fight, she knocked out Emily Kleinfeller, who had to be taken to hospital after the fight.

Ashley did not make this happen to her however. Known as 'Slick', she made herself an elusive target and nullified the attempts by her opponent to lure her into a slugfest. She also used the ring to good advantage, and after dominating the early rounds, she occasionally engaged her opponent in minor skirmishes that pleased the crowd, late in the fight.

Ashley was very pleased with her night's work and her only plans now she said, are " to have a holiday in Jamaica soon, and then get back to work defending my title. I want to keep busy."