On a night that featured five female fights and three world title bouts, IFBA welterweight champion Holly Holm grinded out a hard fought unanimous decision over Belinda Laracuente on Thursday night from the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California. It was a very exciting card, a definite positive for women's boxing.

     Albuquerque's Holly Holm is one of the most recognizable faces in women's boxing today, and she took on another big name boxer in Belinda Laracuente of the Bronx, New York. It was a contrasting fight, with Holm's charging style against the crafty counter punching Laracuente. Holm dominated the early half of the fight. She was able to get close on Laracuente and do good damage. In the first two rounds, Laracuente seemed content to just taunt Holm with smiles and gawking. The problem was she was doing much offensively, and she was getting hit. Laracuente was more active in round three, but Holm continued to dominate pounding away, upstairs and down.

     Holm, who has a kickboxing background, could be constantly heard hollering "chop, chop" as she stalked and punched Laracuente. She discouraged any offense by Laracuente with jabs and body shots. She seemed to thwart Laracuente's offense before it would ever get started. The action remained like this through the fifth round. Laracuente started to turn the fight around a little bit in round six. She was able to keep Holm at bay with her crafty jab and footwork. The 7th round was also good for Belinda, who found herself stalking Holm. Laracuente landed two hard right hands to Holm's head to close the round. Laracuente got back to her clowning in rounds 8 and 9, and probably gave the rounds to Holm.

     Laracuente did close the fight well with a solid tenth round, it was probably her best round. Belinda was very active, and was able to land some good combinations to Holm's head. Midway in the round, Laracuente even landed a hard straight left hand which seemed to stun Holm. But, Holm had built too big of a lead and as the fight went to the cards, Holm won unanimously by the scores of 97-93, 99-91,and 98-92. BRC had the fight 97-93 for Holm. Holm defends her IFBA welterweight title with the win and improves to 21-1-2, while Laracuente falls to 23-18-3.

     The fight of the night occurred in the co-feature, as Chevelle 'Fist of Steel' Hallback and Melissa 'Huracan' Hernandez fought to a controversial draw for the vacant IFBA Lightweight championship. Hallback, known as one of the toughest women in the sport, was fighting a young but talented Hernandez.

     The fight opened up and was all Hallback. Early on it looked as if Hallback was going to dominate the younger Hernandez. Hernandez looked overmatched in the first round as Hallback beat her to the punch and put her power on display. Midway in the round Hallback landed a huge overhand right which staggered Hernandez, and sent her backpedaling. Hernandez hung in there in rounds 2 and 3, but Hallback continued to dominate, using her speed, power and reach over Hernandez.

     The fourth round was more of the same as Hallback opened up a good cut over Hernandez's left eye. Hallback continued to pick Hernandez apart with combos, but Hernandez finally found something, as she closed the round strong with a good flurry. Hernandez continued her momentum into round 5 and started to spin the fight into her direction. The fight turned into a war with back and forth action as the spirited Hernandez fought with fire against the bigger and stronger Hallback.

     The second half of the fight was toe to toe action with both landing hard shots. Hernandez was able to finally utilize her speed and win most of the final rounds. The crowd came to their feet in each of the final four rounds as furious exchanges dominated the action. The fight then went to the cards with a less than satisfying decision. The scores read 97-93 for Hallback, 97-93 for Hernandez, and 95-95 all. It wasn't the first time that the judges got booed. BRC scored the fight 96-94 for Hallback. A tremendous fight with no verdict and a title still vacant. Look for a rematch, very soon. Hallback of Tampa, Florida, moves her record to 25-5-2, while Hernandez of the Bronx, New York, moves to 7-1-2.

     In the third title fight of the night, Lisa 'Bad News' Brown defended her IFBA Junior Featherweight title with a very, very controversial unanimous decision victory over Jeri 'Fists of Fury' Sitzes. The match was a good, competitive one, ruined by ludicrous judging. Sitzes controlled the first three rounds and even opened up a nasty mouse under Brown's left eye. Basically, Sitzes was landing to the head, while Brown was landing to the body in the first 3 rounds. Sitzes was usually landing more shots, and the cleaner, crisper shots. The fourth round was one of Brown's better rounds, she was able to put together more shots and closed the round well with two hard haymakers to the head of Sitzes. The fifth and sixth rounds were good rounds for Sitzes. Jeri was able to land some solid straight rights, along with some great left hooks to the head. The seventh round was another good round for Sitzes as it appeared like Brown was starting to slow down and wear down.

    The eighth round was one of the few slower rounds, with both doing little and could have gone either way. The ninth round was one of the big rounds of the fight. Sitzes was dominating the early action. Jeri even stopped Brown in her tracks with three consecutive hard overhand rights. Brown looked to be having trouble seeing out of her closing left eye, and was consistently getting pounded by Sitzes' right hands. But, towards the end of the round Brown landed a grazing overhand right that dropped Sitzes. The knockdown was more of a push, and probably could have been called just that, but nonetheless it was a knockdown, which totally changed the round for Sitzes. Sitzes recovered well in the final round as she continued pounding Brown with rights, but evidently the judges didn't see it that way as the fight went to the cards.

     Boos rained down as the scores were announced, and they read 97-92, 96-93, and 98-91 for Brown. As the scores were read no one was shocked; the shock came when the announcer said, "and still champion." BRC scored the fight 96-93 for Sitzes, and how a judge could score it 98-91 for Brown is sad and ridiculous. That's the equivalent of saying Sitzes only won 1 round, this was a farce of epic proportions. A good fight marred by horrendous scoring. With the controversial win, Brown of Toronto improves to 14-3-3, while Sitzes of Springfield, Missouri falls to 14-6-1.

     There were two other off TV fights on the card from the Pechanga Resort & Casino. Young Jennifer 'The Razor' Barber looked very impressive in scoring a 3rd round TKO over Hondi Hernandez in a junior lightweight bout. Barber dominated the first two rounds with aggression and combinations. Hernandez tried to counter at times, but Barber was just too overwhelming. Finally in round 3, Barber got Hernandez into a corner and pummeled away on her foe with lefts and rights until referee Tony Krebs stepped in and called a halt to the bout. Barber wins by TKO at 0:50 seconds of the 3rd round. Barber's bread and butter throughout the short fight was her overhand right, which she landed in high frequency. With the impressive win, Barber of Northridge, California improves to 5-0 3 KOs, while Hernandez of Phoenix falls to 5-3, 3 KOs.

     The opening fight of the evening was an exciting six-round slugfest between Carly Batey and Ana Julaton in a jr featherweight bout. Julaton scored a tight split decision victory. With Freddie Roach in her corner, Julaton had her hands full with the former US Marine Batey. The whole fight was a toe to toe war fought at close range. It was dominated by inside rugged exchanges, that really could have gone either way. Julaton appeared to get a little better of the exchanges, especially in the final two rounds. As the fight went to the cards, Julaton won by scores of 59-55, 56-58 and 58-56. With the win, the Filipino who fights out of San Francisco, Julaton improved to 2-0, while Batey of San Diego falls to 3-3-2.

     This bout concluded a very entertaining night of female boxing from the Pechanga Resort & Casino that was promoted by Roy Englebrecht Events in association with Hollybrook Regency.