Jessica McCaskill Dominates and Stops Alma Ibarra in 3!
In her latest contest, undisputed welterweight champion Jessica “CasKilla” McCaskill (12-2, 2 KO’s) set out to make the third defense of her titles. In this bout, she was pit against the challenge of Alma “The Conqueror” Ibarra (10-2, 5 KO’s). Since her second professional loss at the hands of undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor, McCaskill has racked up six straight wins. Interestingly, four of those matches were against just two women, Erica Farias and Cecilia Braekhus.
CasKilla fought and beat Farias to take her WBC super lightweight title back on May 25, 2018 in a very competitive match. She defended the belt twice against Anahi Sanchez and then Farias again. Following her second conquest over Farias, McCaskill went up a division to dance with then undisputed champion Cecilia Braekhus who she beat by majority decision. The tough Chicago native then fought her again in an immediate rematch which she won by unanimous decision.
ROUGH ROAD
For this bout, McCaskill had to face an Ibarra who was extremely mentally and physically tough. To date, the only loss on her professional ledger came at the hands of undefeated super middleweight fighter Raquel Miller. On the one hand, Ibarra is enjoying a three-fight win streak which includes a win over common opponent Kandi Wyatt who she outpointed. McCaskill would stop her in Wyatt’s very next match.
On the other hand though, Ibarra has endured notable adversity. This is because following her loss to Miller, while preparing for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Ibarra was kidnapped, beaten and held for ransom. The hard-boiled fighter was released only to immediately resume her training. The match with McCaskill will be her fourth since that harrowing experience.
SHORT NIGHT
The champion opened the fight paying her opponent’s height and length zero heed. McCaskill went straight after Ibarra with her head-bobbing style and was rewarded for her naked aggression in the form of several clobbering overhand rights. About the halfway mark, The Conqueror appeared notably buzzed by one of those looping shots. Despite scoring, CasKilla was rather sloppy in her approach.
The wideness of her shots combined with the recklessness of her attack saw to it that she did eat her fair share of incoming fire. To her credit, McCaskill ate everything like Hershey Kisses and kept moving. In the closing thirty seconds of the second period, the champ hurt Ibarra with another looping overhand right. Due to the damage the challenger was absorbing, and lack of formulated answers, Ibarra found herself holding more effectively than striking in many spots. Unfortunately for her, after Ibarra connected with her best punch, a straight right flush on McCaskill’s chin, she received a nasty retaliation. For her troubles, an enraged CasKilla answered back with a volley of shots and wobbled her with her trusty right hand.
Surprisingly, rather than answer the bell for the fourth, Ibarra’s corner thought it a better idea to retire on the stool. While The Conqueror was more than likely well on her way to losing, she didn’t appear to be catching a fight-ending beating. Nevertheless, McCaskill officially defended her belts by way of third round TKO. In her post-fight interview, CasKilla indicated that she would be moving back down to super lightweight with intention of targeting IBF and WBC 140-pound champion Chantelle Cameron (16-0, 8 KO’s).
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By: Bakari Simpson
