Miyo Yoshida Shocks Ebanie Bridges in San Francisco

Miyo Yoshida Shocks Ebanie Bridges in San Francisco

The 1/7 odds on favourite Ebanie Bridges shockingly lost her IBF bantamweight title to the Japanese fighter Miyo Yoshida in San Francisco in a major upset on Saturday night.

The former two-time WBO super-flyweight champion was dominant for the vast majority of their ten-round contest at the Chase Center. Yoshida came in at 20 days’ notice and wasn’t expected to trouble the Australian in the second defence of her IBF bauble. But Bridges, coming off a year-long hiatus just never got going. Make no mistake, a lot of plans have been ruined by the upset victory. Talk of unification and more for Bridges, at least for now, is over.

The pattern was set from the early stages, and Yoshida landed her right hand all night long, especially in the 7th round. It was a very strong two minutes for the challenger. Any lingering hopes of a comeback win for Bridges ended in that round. By that stage, she needed a stoppage that never looked likely to come.

Bridges struggled to find any semblance of form, and while she may have been suffering the effects of that long layoff, Yoshida won with some degree of comfort and made a mockery of the pre-fight odds. She fought an almost perfect fight. Yoshida won by scores of 99-91, 99-91, and a too close 97-93. It was in truth, an easy fight to score.

Bridges under new trainer Dave Coldwell looked like a shadow of the fighter we have seen in recent times, but Yoshida deserves credit for what she served up. Bridges was poor by her standards. But Yoshida made her look that way. The former champion was classy and gracious in defeat and Bridges has already said that she won’t retire.

Yoshida was the fighter with the quicker hands and was just too good for the departing champion who struggled even from the early stages. The DAZN commentary referenced the lack of head movement from Bridges, but the lack of a jab was probably more pivotal. Yoshida even bullied the Australian at times in the exchanges. A surprise to many. Bridges is normally so physically strong, but Yoshida seemed by far the stronger fighter. A bad night at the office, in many ways for the now-former champion. Bridges didn’t look right to me, but that shouldn’t diminish the performance of Yoshida. She was excellent.

Bridges can never be written off, and she will likely be already plotting her revenge and she will know better than anyone what went wrong for her. Bridges is promising to come back better and stronger and to this observer it wasn’t the Ebanie Bridges that we have seen in recent times. But we shouldn’t forget what Yoshida did right. At 35, she is a world champion once again. A proper feel-good story and one that the sport does so well.

Bridges drops to 9-2, while the new champion improves her resume to 17-4.

Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom or Melina Pizano/Matchroom