Jessica Camara overcomes knockdown, defeats Heather Hardy by decision

If this was Heather Hardy’s last combat, Jessica Camara despatched her into retirement.

Montreal’s Camara (8-2) overcame a first-round knockdown to dominate the previous featherweight titlist over eight rounds to attain a unanimous resolution victory.

The judges scored it 79-73, 78-73, and 77-74, all for Camara, who scored her first win since October 2019.

Hardy (22-2, 4 KOs), 39, who stormed out of the ring along with her group after the scores have been introduced, has dropped two fights consecutively, relationship again to her lopsided unanimous resolution defeat to seven-division champion Amanda Serrano  in September 2019.

The 33-year-old, who was outpointed by Melissa St. Vil over 10 rounds in Indiana in February 2020, was overwhelmed with emotion.

“I can’t even attempt to describe this sense proper now,” Camara acknowledged. “I went up truly one in all my function fashions going up within the sport of boxing.

“This implies a lot for me. That is the largest spotlight of my profession.”

Hardy scored a knockdown simply 20 seconds into the bout as a brief left hand pressured Camara to sit.

Nevertheless, Camara rallied to land the higher mixtures within the opening spherical and subsequently dominated the rest of the bout.

By the halfway level of the combat, Camara had systematically damaged down Hardy and dictated the tempo behind her jab, mixtures, and ring generalship.

“[Our plan was] to come back into the primary spherical with a stiff jab, search for the openings,” she defined.

“I used to be simply listening to my nook to offer me directions, and I used to be simply doing precisely what they informed me to do, and we bought the job achieved.”

With roughly a minute remaining in spherical 5, Camara linked with a sequence of exhausting proper palms that knocked Hardy again. She additionally adopted up with a left hook to the physique that had the identical impact.

Camara began the eighth spherical with a bang as she clipped Hardy with a crisp proper cross. She then landed a textbook three-punch mixture earlier than the ultimate bell sounded.

Camara should quarantine for 14 days when she returns to Montreal as a result of COVID restrictions, however she is going to fly residence as a winner.

In undercard festivities, 147-pounder Kelsey Wickstrum (1-0) defeated Stevie Jane Coleman (0-1) by majority resolution to win in her six-round skilled debut. Light-weight Melissa St. Vil (14-4-4, 1 KO) outpointed Olivia Gerula (18-19-2, 3 KOs) in an eight-round bout.