WBA 122-pound champion Mayerlin Rivas is preparing for another defense of her world title. On June 10th at the Casino Buenos Aires in Argentina. The Venezuelan Rivas (17-4-2) will face the local Nazarena Romero in the main event of the WBA's KO Drugs festival. After an arduous camp in Colombia and Mexico, Rivas is still working on the final touches on her preparation, with the objective of retaining her title. “I’ve been preparing for almost five months,” she said. “First, we spent a month and a half in Colombia, doing a camp in Barranquilla. Then we came to Mexico. We have been working hard, correcting any mistakes I had. After almost a year of inactivity, today I feel very well prepared, focused, and looking forward to June 10th.
Her opponent, Romero, age 28, is the WBA mandatory challenger and is undefeated in thirteen fights with seven knockou. “Nazarena is a great fighter,” Rivas acknowledges. “I’ve seen her in some of her fights, and I know she’s a great boxer. We have been preparing to face her. We’ve wanted this fight for a long time. I know she’s a very strong fighter and I like to face fighters like that.” I know we will both put on a very good show. That night will be unforgettable, there will be a war and in the name of God we will come out with our hands up,” she said.
Speaking about the KO Drugs of Buenos Aires, Rivas recalls her time in that city a few years ago. “I was in Argentina for a while doing a camp. I trained with [former 108-pound champion] Yessica Bopp, I sparred with her, with Erika Faría, Ceci Román. To tell the truth, the Argentine boxer is very good. We fought there, we were hurt by the local [officiating], but this time we are going with the support of the WBA and we are very well prepared both physically and mentally and we will do very well. I don’t think the locality will affect us now, although I’m going to her house. There will be a lot of people who know me and will be supporting me, both Venezuelans and Argentines, and the truth is, I’m very focused”.
Rivas, age 34, is a veteran with a long championship career. She has held WBA titles since 2014, when she won an interim bantamweight title. In 2015, she won the conquered the WBA bantamweight crown, and in 2020 she captured the super bantamweight super championship. Then came two years of inactivity.
“I’m not the same Mayerlin I was before,” she warns. “I’ve done a lot of camps and I’ve improved a lot. Today I am a more mature boxer. For me, it is an honor to be the protagonist of the KO Drugs, one of the most important events of the WBA. I will enjoy it, I will give a great show and you will see a very different Mayerlin”.
The WBA KO Drugs International Boxing Festival will turn Buenos Aires into the world capital of boxing this June 9 and 10.
The fight between Mayerlin Rivas and Nazarena Romero will headline the card, which a day earlier, on Friday, June 9, will also feature the world flyweight eliminator between Venezuela’s Carlos Cañizales and Cuba’s Daniel Matellón.
Both fights will be broadcasted by TyC Sports, through its channels TyC Sports and TyC Sports Play, in its “Boxeo de Primera” series, while the worldwide subscription platform DAZN will rebroadcast the Rivas-Romero fight.
