San Jose's McMorrow Upsets Kentikian in Germany for Unified Flyweight Title

By Ryan Maquiñana

Norcalboxing.net

A jubilant McMorrow and Croft were triumphant in Germany. (B Street Boxing)

There's a new unified women's flyweight champion of the world, and she resides in San Jose.

Melissa “Mighty” McMorrow pulled off women’s boxing’s upset of the year Wednesday with a majority decision win over previously unbeaten WBA/WBO/WIBF flyweight boss Susi “Killer Queen” Kentikian in Hamburg, Germany.

Judges Ingo Barrabas and Lahcen Oumghar turned in 96-94 tallies in favor of McMorrow (7-3-3), while Frank Michael Maass saw it 95-95.

“Mighty went into a foreign country in February, beat up the champion, and got robbed,” said McMorrow’s trainer Eddie Croft, himself a former three-time world title challenger at 122 and 126 pounds.  “She went into a foreign country again, beat up the undefeated champion, and became the new flyweight champion of the world.”

Kentikian (29-1, 16 KOs), a Hamburg resident via Yerevan, Armenia, shut out Teeraporn Pannimit last October in her 16^th straight title fight, while McMorrow had been unlucky in her previous bout, a split decision defeat to Arely Mucino for the interim WBA 112-pound crown in February. 

Now McMorrow will bring three belts back home to San Jose as she becomes the second reigning flyweight champ in the Northern California region.  IBF titleholder Ava Knight of Chico fights out of San Francisco, and the local fans have already begun to talk about unification.

Norcalboxing.net's Ryan Maquiñana is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his weekly column for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, his archive for BoxingScene.com, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.


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