Nina Hughes Retains Her WBA Bantamweight Title

Nina Hughes Retains Her WBA Bantamweight Title

Katie Healy came in at short notice, and despite losing a wide unanimous points decision to Nina Hughes at the Wembley Arena on Saturday night, she can be extremely proud of her performance. It was a case of too much to soon for the Midlands fighter. She will come again.

Healy badly needed a good start, and when it didn’t come, any chance of the upset was all but gone.

Hughes impressively defended her WBA bauble for the first time and can now look forward to unification fights down the road. Ebanie Bridges, who holds the IBF version of the bantamweight title, was ringside and will make her ring return later this summer, and if time allows, Hughes and Bridges could square off in a Christmas Crackerjack of a unification fight.

Healy found Hughes too much for her, and she couldn’t keep her off. Hughes found her range against the much taller challenger a little quicker than I anticipated. Healy needed to put rounds in the bank early, but Hughes quickly closed the gap and landed big punches more or less from the get-go. Even from the opening round, the pattern was very quickly set. Healy didn’t have the power in her punches to change the direction of her night.

The challenger soaked up plenty to her credit, and I thought she nicked a couple of the closing rounds. Howard Foster and Luigi Boscarelli gave every round to Hughes. Bertrand Chagnoux scored it 99-91 for the reigning champion.

Bridges will likely make a voluntary defence of her title before any thoughts turn to a unification with her rival champion, and Hughes will likely have to take another fight before she gets the Australian. But make no mistake, a fight with Hughes won’t disappoint when they inevitably get to share a ring together.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing