Juarez defeats Japan's Nuki to retain bantamweight belt

Mexican Mariana Juarez retained her World Bantamweight Championship of the World Boxing Council by defeating Japan's Terumi Nuki in the Arena Mexico stadium.

The 38-year-old champion achieved the 50th victory of her professional career on Saturday as she completed her fifth successful defence in the 53.52 kilogram division, reports Efe.

Juarez (50-9-4, 18 KOs) for the second time in her career beat Nuki (10-4-0, 7 KOs), after the fight in July last year.

The 29-year-old challenger was looking for the rematch and from the first round gave her everything against Juarez.

In the third round, Juarez changed her strategy and began throwing punches with more aggressiveness, a situation that brought the audience to their feet in encouragement.

Juarez managed to survive Nuki's throws thanks to extensive training in the gym.

With a conservative plan, Juarez went ahead until the seventh of 10 rounds when the match result was unanimously agreed upon.

The world champion suffered a cut in the head in the 10th round and with a bloodied face endured the final onslaught of her opponent.

Judges marked 98-91, 98-91 and 97-92 in favour of Juarez.

--IANS

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