Featherweight champion puts titles on the line
Local boxing champ will defend featherweight belts against Italian
Jelena Mrdjenovich apologized for being late to the party.
“Sorry, I left my belts at home and had to turn around and go back for them … kind of important for a press conference,” joked Mrdjenovich, who owns both the WBA and WBC featherweight crowns, and will put those titles up for grabs Saturday night at the Shaw Conference Centre on the KO Boxing card against Vissia Trovato, who is coming here from Italy for her 15th pro fight.
It will be Mrdjenovich’s 51st time in the ring, but who’s counting?
Certainly the champion, who turns 37 on Monday, isn’t.
When is enough enough for a fighter with a 38-10-2 record and not much more to prove?
“That’s probably a question for later,” said the local who has had 38 of her 50 career bouts in her hometown going back to the first one on Jan. 25, 2003, against Cathy Boyes.
“I still feel amazing in the ring and out. I feel better than I did at 25 and this will be my 37th birthday,” said Mrdjenovich, who shrugged off the idea of moving past the magical 50-fight number.
“Is anybody close to that? Maybe Layla McCarter, but she’s moved on (higher weight class). But I’m not big on stats. I’m so in the game (moment), maybe when I’m done and think back and say ‘Hey, that was cool,’ ” said Mrdjenovich.
Trovato, 36, may be out of her comfort zone against a much more experienced fighter, but she’s game.
“Jelena is a real champion and I’m really happy … it will be one of my happiest fights,” said Trovato, born in Milan. “I will give everything but I’m sure she knows that already.” Mrdjenovich does.
“I want to thank Vissia and her people for taking this fight. We put it out on the internet, saying we would fight anywhere against anyone and only two people got back to KO (her boxing promoter),” said Mrdjenovich. “We all know people come in phenomenal shape trying to get these two belts from me. I have seen a bit of footage of Vissia … she’s willing to brawl. I would describe her as a little tornado.”
Mel Lubovic, the KO Boxing promoter, said: “Vissia is top 10 … her only two losses were to girls in the top five, Nina Meinke and Erica Hernandez. She’s stepped it up, but it’s not easy going against somebody with 50 fights already ... Jelena is ranked, pound-forpound, No. 1 in the world.”
Mrdjenovich can certainly remember stepping up in calibre as Trovato is.
“The first experience I had with this was actually with Layla McCarter. It was my 10th professional fight and it was her 30th or something. I thought, oh, that’s a lot of fights, but at the same time I wasn’t overwhelmed by it. I ended up losing that fight, but I had someone on my team who basically was telling me I wasn’t good enough at the time. I don’t think Vissia is going through that,” she said.
Mrdjenovich can’t always get a fight. She hoped to fight boxer/ mixed martial arts scrapper Heather Hardy in New York last year but it never came to fruition. Jelena thought it might be revived here but no dice, which is why Trovato stepped in.
“It’s off and on been a challenge (getting bouts). I was fully expecting Heather (Hardy) to jump onto this and we’d have a unification fight but I’ve moved on and so has she. Maybe one day,” said Mrdjenovich.
“They (Hardy’s camp) said it was a money thing, that they had a better offer for Bellator (MMA) and we asked what the number was and we said ‘OK, done.’ Then they came back to us and said, actually, they were going to fight for Bellator. It was odd, it didn’t really work out for her because Heather lost in the first round (to Taylor Turner on June 14).
“I would rather stick to my trade but whatever … everybody makes choices in life.
“You just have to make the right ones.”
Undercard
Local welterweight Flavio Michel (8-4) headlines the sixbout undercard with a six-round fight against Juan Daniel Bedolla (19-9-2) of Vancouver.
“The guy I’m fighting is dangerous, but I’m better than I was in my last fight against Kane Heron when I lost (split decision) ... you can take that to the bank and deposit it,” said Flavio.
The other bouts: heavyweights Stan Surmacz, Edmonton (10-1) vs. Abraham Pascual (12-6) of Mexico City; middleweights Oleksandr Voytenko, Edmonton (3-0) vs. Jose Zain Palma (2-1) of Mexico City and Marzio Franscella of Switzerland (8-0) vs. Juan Sergio Torres of Mexico (6-7); lightweights Feysal Mohamed of Calgary in his pro debut against Cesar Cardena (4-4-2) of Guadalajara; and a women’s bantamweight fight with Edmonton’s Mikenna Tansley taking on her first pro opponent, Perla Esmeralda Roja of Mexico, who has one win in six bouts.