Seniesa Estrada Becomes a Two-Division Women’s World Champion
WBO women’s world light flyweight champion Tenkai Tsunami is the definition of a warrior. The 36-year-old from Okinawa, Japan has seen it all and is one of the more accomplished fighters in Japanese women’s boxing history. Her career path has been quite an amazing one. After ruling as WBA World super flyweight champion from 2009-2012, Tsunami lost five of her next six fights from 2012-2014. The thought was that her career was over.
However, she went on to prove the experts wrong. Picking herself up, she decided to move down to 108 pounds. Tsunami’s persistence paid off when she defeated Chaoz Minowa to capture the WBO belt in March 2018. She’s gone on to defend that title three times.
Defense number four could be the toughest test of her career. She’s defending the title against current WBA women’s World minimumweight champ Seniesa Estrada. The 29-year-old from Los Angeles won that title in her previous outing with a unanimous decision victory over Anabel Ortiz in March 2021. Nicknamed “Super Bad”, she’s been tabbed as a rising star by observers. Both ladies like to come forward. On paper, this should be an entertaining scrap.
A BATTLE OF WITS
With her amateur pedigree, Estrada (21-0, 8 KOs) has the reputation of being a dynamic craftswoman. Understanding she’s in with a relentless pressure fighter, she fought on the outside early in this contest, switching from orthodox to southpaw. However, Tenkai Tsunami (28-13-1, 16 KOs) is as experienced as any women’s fighter in the sport. Naturally bigger and stronger, she did an excellent job of stepping with the Californian. Whenever Estrada tried to step away, the champ would step with her in an attempt to connect with shots of her own. Through this observer’s eyes, this was a close fight at the halfway mark.
SENSING THE MOMENT
Sensing this may be a nip and tuck affair, Estrada raised her game. She did a better job of timing the champ, connecting beautiful combinations to Tsunami who began to slow down. The skill and class of the challenger started to show as she pulled away over the second half of the fight. What was also impressive was how Super Bad also tightened up her defense while getting off with shots of her own. She took control in the second half of the bout.
In the end, Estrada won by unanimous decision (99-91, 98-92, 98-92) to now become a two-division world champion. Afterward, Estrada said that her goal is to become an undisputed champion at 105 and 108 pounds.
By: Michael Wilson Jr.
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