Inside Women's Boxing:

“Baby Doll” wins biggest toy!
Reid defeats Ortega for WIBA flyweight title

by Lee Bates
Photos by Kurtis Rix

After coming up short twice in her bid to win a world championship at 112 pounds, Elena "Baby Doll" Reid (18-3-5, 5 KOs), Thursday night, finally achieved her goal by defeating the very game Mary Ortega (28-3-1, 7 KOs) in Lake Tahoe, Nevada for the WIBA flyweight title. The card was promoted by Rock & Sock Productions’ “A Ring of Their Own,” and held in a ballroom inside of Harvey’s, Lake Tahoe. The card was competitive and entertaining from beginning to end, which would explain the sellout crowd that packed the room.

From the opening round, Reid flashed her superior hand speed by boxing beautifully from her southpaw stance, and countering the on-rushing Ortega with head-snapping combinations.

This trend continued on until the middle of the fight, when Ortega's consistent pressure finally paid off and she was able to back Reid into the ropes where she landed head shots of her own, winning a few rounds in the process.

Having been on the bad end of decisions in her two previous attempts at a world title, Reid was not going to leave any doubt to the judges. She began to use Ortega's pressure against her in the home stretch of the fight, beating her to the punch and fighting of the ropes.

The two fighters had the entire crowd on their feet as they slugged it out toe-to-toe in the final 30 seconds of the fight. In the end, the judges had it rightfully scored for the new champion Reid, 98-92 twice and 97-93.

Ramsey avenges loss

In a middleweight rematch from January, Laura Ramsey (6-2, 2 KOs) avenged her loss in spectacular fashion by knocking out Erin Toughill (7-2-1, 3 KOs) in one round.

It was obvious that Ramsey had learned from her decision loss to Toughill, for she closed the distance of her much taller opponent and in amidst an exchange, Toughill was hurt badly and out on her feet before she was knockedcompletely out of the ring where she was counted out.

Undercard

Rounding out the action, Jill Emery (7-0, 3 KOs) remained unbeaten with an impressive 6 round decision over Daria Hill (3-4, 3 KOs) in a welterweight bout.

Puerto Rican sensation Melissa Hernandez (5-0-1, 2 KOs) wowed the crowd as she thoroughly dominated debuter Stacey Rogers, stopping her in the third.