BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Argentina’s Carolina Raquel Duer defended her World Boxing Organization’s super flyweight champion title.
Making the fifth defense of her title, Duer, 33, of Buenos Aires, defeated European champion Corina Carlescu by a technical knockout in the fifth round when the referee stopped the bout. Duer had knocked down her Romanian opponent with a left cross a round earlier.
A crowd of 1,000, including Mayor Pablo Bruera and former world light welterweight champion Juan Coggi, stayed until early Saturday morning to watch the match held on the university campus of La Plata City.
“It was the hardest fight of my career — for the first time I have pain in my body," Duer told National Public Television, which aired the fight live. "This helps me to learn.”
Duer, the first Jewish woman to hold a WBO title, raised her professional record to 12-3. She turned pro in 2007 after compiling a 19-1 record as an amateur and won the crown three years later.
Known as "The Turk," Duer is the daughter of Syrian immigrants to Argentina. She attended the capital’s Jaim Najman Bialik Primary School, celebrated her bat mitzvah at a Conservative synagogue, and spent more than a month in Israel working on a kibbutz and touring the country. On weekends she went to the local Maccabi club and attended Jewish summer camp.
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