Jessica Camara Victorious in Her First Championship Defense : Event Recap

By William Dumoulin
Photo credit: Andréanne Lambert – Canada Fighting

After hosting an event on December 14 at Bain Mathieu, Canada Fighting, led by Douggy Berneche, presented another gala last Saturday at the Tohu. This event featured several local bouts, professional debuts, and the first defense of the WBA Gold lightweight title by Montreal’s Jessica "La Cobra" Camara. Here’s a recap of the evening.

In the main event, Jessica Camara (14-4, 3 KOs) defended her WBA Gold title against Bonnie Hunter (4-4, 3 KOs) in a 10-round fight. Camara started strong, displaying a clear speed advantage. Despite a minor cut that bothered her slightly, the champion dominated the fight and secured a unanimous decision victory (100-90 X 3). At 36, Camara now eyes bigger fights against the likes of Beatriz Ferreira (IBF champion), Rhiannon Dixon (WBO champion), or Caroline Dubois (interim WBC champion).

In the co-main event, fan-favorite Mathieu “G-Time” Germain (25-2-1, 10 KOs) returned to the ring after his victory over Zsolt Osadan in March. He faced Chile’s Cristian Palma (33-16-2, 7 KOs) in a scheduled 10-rounder. Palma, on his third visit to Quebec this year after facing Artur Biyarslanov and Jhon Orobio, was forced to retire after the fifth round, overwhelmed by Germain’s technical prowess. Ranked #8 by the IBF, Germain is now hoping to secure a major international fight as soon as possible.

Another highly anticipated bout of the evening saw Canadian heavyweight champion Jaye Byard (8-4, 8 KOs) take on Shane Upshaw (3-3-4, 2 KOs). True to form, Byard wasted no time, sending his opponent to the canvas in the first round, maintaining his 100% knockout ratio.

Theo Owusu (5-0-1, 3 KOs) fought his fourth bout of the year against John Elroy Fruto (1-5, 0 KOs) in a 6-round contest. Despite Fruto’s resilience, his corner threw in the towel in the 6th round to protect him, granting Owusu another victory.

Another interesting matchup saw Reid Twohey (3-0, 0 KOs) take on Marcy Chery (0-1, 0 KOs). In their third encounter, after two amateur meetings, Twohey narrowly won by split decision (37-39, 39-37 X 2).

In a fight that energized the Tohu crowd, Alex Perron (1-0, 0 KOs) earned the judges’ favor against Blaze Sylvestre (1-1, 0 KOs) by split decision (37-37, 38-36 X 2), in a close battle that could have gone either way.

For his professional debut, Sammy Morisset (1-0, 1 KO) triumphed over Mexico’s Obed Sepulveda (0-3-1, 0 KOs) by TKO in the second round, showing great potential.

To kick off the night, Natali Fagan (1-0, 0 KOs) dominated Maxime Turcotte Novosedlik (1-1, 0 KOs). The judges awarded her a unanimous decision victory (40-36 X 2, 39-37).