Boxer Sarah Achieng' faces US opponent for world title
Commonwealth Boxing Council Champion Sarah Achieng' (right) of Kenya fights Argentina's Edith Soledad on June 10, 2023 for the , World Boxing Foundation women's superlight weight title at Nairobi, Charter Hall.
World Boxing Foundation (WBF) and Commonwealth Boxing Council (CBC) super lightweight champion, Sarah Achieng’ of Kenya, will take a shot at the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) silver super lightweight title in April next year.
Achieng’ will face experienced Universal Boxing Organisation World super lightweight champion, Samantha Worthington from America, at a yet-to-be-disclosed venue. The fight will take place in the United States of America.
WBC Women’s Championship chairman, Malte Muller-Michaelis, on Saturday, said that the contest will be an eliminator for the WBC World super lightweight belt.
Muller-Michaelis disclosed that WBC has ordered world number one Sandy Ryan from Great Britain and third-ranked Mexican Karia Zamora to face off for the vacant WBC World super lightweight title.
Commonwealth Boxing Council super lightweight champion Sarah Achieng on July 22, 2023 at Box Girls Kenya Community Sports Centre Kariobangi, Nairobi.
The new world champion will then stage a mandatory defence against the winner of the bout between the 38-year-old Achieng’, and Worthington, 30, who was born in Alabama but resides in Lexington, Kentucky, USA.
“Angel of War” Achieng' boasts a professional record of 18 wins, two losses and no draw (18-2-0). Worthington, alias “The Heat,” has a 24-8-0 record.
Achieng' successfully defended her WBF super lightweight belt via a unanimous decision against Tanzania’s Feriche Mashauri on November 2, this year in Nairobi.
It was Achieng’s first defence of the WBF title that she won after outclassing Edith Soledad of Argentina on June 10, 2023, in Nairobi. Achieng' claimed the CBC title for the first time when she beat Anisha Basheel of Malawi in 2021. She successfully defended it against Chiedza Homakoma from Zimbabwe at Charter Hall, Nairobi, in 2022.
Worthington’s last victory was on July 26, this year, when she beat Licia Boudersa of France in a non-title contest at the Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
It was one of the undercard bouts to the unified WBC, IBF, WBF and WBO World heavyweight titles bout between American Claressa Shields and Lani Daniels of New Zealand. Shields claimed a unanimous victory.
Sarah Achieng' of Kenya (right) in action against Malawi's Anisha Basheel during their Commonwealth Super Light Weight 10-round bout on October 20, 2021 at Charter Hall, Nairobi.
“This is the breakthrough we have been waiting for and praying for. We thank God. We pray that it succeeds, and that Achieng’ will win all the way,” Achieng’s coach, Alfred “Priest” Analo, said yesterday.
Should she win the world title, Achieng’ will become the second Kenyan boxer to claim the prestigious WBC World belt after Fatuma Zarika. Zarika became the first African woman to win a WBC super bantamweight title, beating Jamaican Alicia Ashley in a split decision on October 1, 2016. Zarika then staged a successful defence of her title, beating Zambia’s Catherine Phiri twice - on December 2, 2017, and March 23, 2019 - on unanimous points.
Sarah Achieng, a member of the Box Girls Kenya, in action during a training session at the Kariobangi Social Hall on February 26, 2019. Sarah Achieng will take a stab at the vacant Commonwealth Boxing Council (CBC) women’s world super lightweight title on September 1 at Pirates Beach, Mombasa. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU |
She then won by a split decision against Yamileth Mercado from Mexico on September 8, 2018, in Nairobi.
Other Kenyan women to have taken a shot at WBC World titles are Conjestina “Hands of Stone” Achieng’ in middleweight in 2008 and in 2006, and Jane Kavulani in super lightweight in 2015.
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