BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Argentina’s Carolina Raquel “The Turk” Duer defended her World Boxing Organization super flyweight title for the sixth time.
Duer, 34, won a unanimous decision over countryman Marisa Portillo last Friday before more than 4,000 fans at an Argentina park — a record crowd for a Duer bout.
Showing the government’s increasing support for the fighter, the bout was announced in newspaper ads paid for by the government with the National Presidency logo and featuring the motto “Argentina, a country with good people.” National Public Television covered the fight live and broadcast it free to the country under a federal program designed to make satellite television more accessible.
Duer, the first Jewish woman to hold a WBO title, raised her professional record to 13-3.
“It was a very difficult fight. I dedicate this victory to Cristina [Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s president] and to the memory of Nestor Kirchner because tomorrow is the second anniversary of his death; I think that the government is continuing his way very well,” she said on National Public TV after the fight.
The president of the National System of Radio and TV, Tristan Bauer, said his agency will continue to support Duer.
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.
Also at the park on Friday was an exhibition about local technology and industries organized by the Argentina government called “Tecnopolis.”
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