Africa’s undisputed bantamweight champion Widad Bertal (pictured) on Tuesday, July 30, faces her toughest ever opponent since she started representing Morocco’s national team.
After getting a bye to the round of 16, Bertal now takes on Thailand’s 2023 world bronze medallist Jutamas Jitpong in a pre-quarters bout on Tuesday.
Jitapong, who also won silver in the 2022 world championships in Turkey at flyweight, outpointed Serbia’s European champion and best boxer in this year’s Euros in Belgrade Sara Cirkovich on Saturday night.
It’s Bertal’s toughest fight in her career but the stylish Moroccan is up to the task and capable of causing an upset having established herself as the queen of female bantamweights in Africa.
In last year’s Africa Elite Championships in Yaounde, Bertal won gold outpointing Algeria’s Fatma Zohra in the finals, and in this year’s African Games finals in Accra, Bertal beat Nigeria’s Shukura Kareem. She went on to put issues beyond doubt with an immaculate show, beating Egypt’s Yomna Ayyad to become the first African boxer to book her ticket to the Paris Olympics in the continental qualifiers held last year in Dakar, Senegal.
Bertal’s round of 16 bout against the Thai boxer is therefore a golden opportunity to showcase her potential as a world class boxer.
Victory for the Moroccan beauty will see her within a heartbeat of entering the medal bracket as she will qualify for the quarters in which she will trade leather against either Uzbekistan’s Nigina Uktamova or North Korea’s 2018 world champion Pang Chol-mi both of whom will meet in Tuesday’s pre-quarters.
For the Casablanca-based Bertal, it’s now or never in her spirited quest to be counted among the world’s bantamweight giants.
Credit: AFBC Communications
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