It’s “The Fight of the Year” (DERF); it’s “The Most Eagerly Anticipated Female Fight Argentinian History” (Deporte Auquen); it’s ‘The Fight Between Women Most Men Want To See’ (La Capital); and it’s tonight.
“One thing is certain,” runs the leader in Ring Side magazine. “The pair have unlimited courage, professional pride in its most extreme form, and they know very well that they’re staking everything on this fight : their prestige, their futures, their credibility (in view of all that´s been said…). Clearly, the one with the least to lose is Alejandra, because the cognoscenti—I mean the people who regale us with their wisdom on programmes like ‘Fuera de Combate’ on Saturday evenings on Radio Belgrano or ‘Ringside en el Aire’ on the web on Sunday nights—are generally agreed that Acuña will win. The weight of expectations, in other words, bears more heavily upon Acuña, the WBA champion, than upon Oliveras, who holds the WBC belt. Be that as it may, one thing is certain: it’s going to be a hard fight, a fierce fight, and a bitterly contested fight in every sense. Not to be missed!”
The analysis proposed on the site Boxeo Amateur Argentino is that the pressure will prove too much for Acuña. Of the two, the writer argues, Oliveras is the only one to have fought the other fighter in the top three, Jackie Nava, whom she knocked out on the first occasion and held to a draw on the second, so she’s been through it all before. The Tigress is also likely to find herself in the unfamiliar position of being the hunted rather than the hunter, with the younger, stronger Oliveras crowding her the whole time and trying to lure her into a brawl. Everything will turn on how well the WBA champion is able to adjust and whether or not she is able to find and stick to a viable strategy. “If I were betting,” concludes the author, “I’d take 2:1 on Oliveras.”
“The fight is already more or less transparent from a strategic point of view,” according to Ring Side. “It has to be supposed that Oliveras, playing to her temperament and her strengths, will be seeking to force the issue, looking for an open confrontation, a donnybrook. She’ll won’t let Marcela use her best weapons. Acuña has a very good left jab, much more effective than Alejandra’s, she is capable of boxing better—in a more orderly fashion. Getting in and out, working from a distance, and seeking to drive home her counters with the right hand, are likely to feature in her plans. And I say ‘plans’ advisedly, because the Tigress has admitted that she has a Plan A, a Plan B, and a Plan C.”
Whether this is sophistication or a sign of uncertainty time will tell. In the past, it has to be said that—as far as tactics are concerned—the Acuña camp has been known to get things badly wrong. Marcela has preferred, always, to keep it in the family. Her husband was her coach before he was her husband. Before, in fact, she was even in her teens, but his speciality was kick-boxing. Oliveras’s trainer, on the other hand, is Carlos Tello, the coach of Omar Narváez, perhaps Argentina’s best ever technician. According to WIBA bantamweight champion Carolina Gutiérrez, who trains with Oliveras, the three share “the best trainer in the world”.
But, surprisingly, Gutiérrez, when asked recently, tipped Acuña to win. (“She’s more skilful”). But, unless she and Oliveras have fallen out, I suspect this may be part of a strategy in the Oliveras camp to lower expectations and increase the pressure on the WBA champion in the hope that she’ll crack.
It has to be said, though: if there’s any danger of this happening, Acuña seems blissfully unaware of it. These last few weeks, she’s done and said nothing calculated to undermine her status as the favourite, and if she ends up having to eat her words tomorrow evening, it’s going to be a sumptuous feast: “I haven’t the slightest doubt that I’m the better fighter,” she told the world back in October. “I’m the queen of the super bantamweight division and I’m going to prove it. There’s no one in the world at this weight that can beat me. Not Oliveras. Not Jackie Nava of Mexico. No one. I say this with conviction. I don’t like to have people treading on my heels. I want there to be no shadows. Oliveras is a shadow. I want things crystal-clear.”
Oliveras, who was rumoured to be having weight problems, has been vacillating between “I’ll do my talking in the ring” and “I’m going to knock her out”. She’s in no doubt, though, that it’s going to be a hard fight. “It’s going to be a historic fight, a unique one, in which you’re going to see two wild animals fighting for their lives,” she told an interviewer after the press conference.
At the conference itself, she was surprisingly subdued. It was left to the Tigress to light the blue touchpaper. (“In the past, I’ve always been the good girl,” she joked afterwards. “She’s been the one talking trash!”).
“You’re very quiet over there,” she told Oliveras. “What’s the matter, mamita? You wouldn’t be scared now would you?”
“Of course I’m not scared,” shot back ‘La Locomotora’ angrily. “No fighter is ever scared. I love boxing. It’s in my soul. I’ll do my talking, though, after I’ve beaten you.”
“But why so diffident now all of a sudden?” wondered Acuña. “All you’ve been assailing me with these last two years have been words. And I haven’t liked them. Not one bit. It’s all very well trying to turn down the heat now. But I’m not going to forget just like that all that’s happened and all the things you’ve said. For you, mamita, the day of reckoning is at hand.”
“She seems in good shape,” commented Marcela afterwards, “and I want her that way. I want her in the best shape of her life, so she’ll have no excuses when I thrash her… I’m looking forward to this. I’m going to relish beating up Alejandra Oliveras!”
The funniest moment came back in October when the pair signed the contract, which incidentally stipulates for a return match, regardless of who wins, within 90 days. With around 100 journalists in attendance, it was a real circus.
Acuña signed first, and stood up, ceding her place to her rival. As Alejandra sat down, Marcela grabbed the microphone and began goading her.
“Alejandra, wait. Are you sure you want to go through with this? Have you really thought things through?”
Oliveras said nothing.
Marcela watched her, with a spider´s avid eyes, with the cruel, impatient glee of the fisherman at the twitching float, saw her reach for the pen and watched, the way Lucrezia Borgia must have watched her victims reach unknowing for the poisoned cup…
She signed. And laid the pen down. And looked up.
“It’s too late to back out now, mamita. You know that, don’t you?” asked Acuña. “I do hope you’re not going to regret this!”
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