Marlen Esparza missed out on weight by 2 pounds on Friday, losing her WBC, WBO and WBA flyweight titles on the scales.
Esparza (14-1, 1 KO), of Houston, who can be found in at 114 pounds for the 112-pound bout, will still fight Saturday night at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California, against Gabriela Celeste Alaniz, who struck the scales at 111.2.
Alaniz (14-1, 6 KOs), of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is qualified to win the titles with a triumph. She was the WBO champ before losing the belt this past July in a unification fight with Esparza by bulk choice, with scorecards of 99-91, 95-95 and 97-93. Alaniz had actually won the belt with a seventh-round TKO over Tamara Elisabeth Demarco in June 2022 and made an effective defense in a ninth-round TKO against Debora Rengifo 3 months later on, before losing to Esparza.
Esparza received the 2012 Olympics, the very first year that females’s boxing became part of the video games and won a bronze medal representing the U.S. in the flyweight department. She turned expert in 2017 and won her very first 7 battles before losing to Seniesa “Super Bad” Estrada challenging for the WBA interim flyweight title. She recuperated to win her next 7 battles in a row. Esparza won the WBC title against Ibeth Zamora in June 2021, combined the WBA in April 2022 against Naoko Fujioka before including the WBO belt against Alaniz.
The fight will happen on the undercard of Jose Ramirez’s Golden Boy launching against Rances Barthelemy.
