Perozzi punches Rivas down a class

Lorissa Rivas will not get the chance to avenge her recent split decision loss to Bermuda’s Teresa Perozzi at least not in the near future.

The American’s promoters had approached Perozzi about a potential rematch following last week’s World Boxing Association (WBA) middleweight world title bout in Trinidad and Tobago, which the latter readily accepted.

But following a post-fight evaluation Rivas’ manager Boxu Potts has decided best that his fighter step down to a lower division for the time being, thus ruling out any chance of a rematch with Perozzi early this year.

“After two tries at the middleweight crown, which resulted in a very close but unsuccessful decision, I have sat with my fighter, Lorissa Rivas, and evaluated her last two performances. I believe, and she has agreed, that she is more comfortable fighting in a lower weight class,” said Potts in a press release.

“What I have observed is that Lorissa normally wins her first five rounds very comfortably, but seems to flatten out a bit between eight to ten rounds. Therefore in the immediate future we will be pursuing our goals in the super welterweight division.”

Potts also recommended that Rivas spend more time under his direction in Trinidad to undergo additional strength training and conditioning.

“Whilst Lorissa’s boxing skills is very satisfactory to me, I need to be directly involved in her conditioning,” he said. “With my sport science team, my strength training team and my technical team, all hands on deck, I will leave no stone unturned. Lorissa has to be in Trinidad and Tobago for a minimum of six weeks if I am to get into any world title fights with her again.

“I will also be doing a total blood evaluation of Lorissa so that I can ensure that her metabolism functions well; we will leave no stones unturned. I do believe Lorissa has the potential to be great, but I clearly understand that I need to have more control of her training.

“We fully intend to utilise these expertise for her challenge for the WBC International fight in the 154 pounds division at the end of January 2012. Then, depending on how she comes out of that fight, we will look closely at contesting for the WBC and WBA world titles in the 154 pounds division at the end of February”.

Perozzi prevailed in last week’s WBA middleweight world title bout at the Woodbrook Youth Facility after judges Carlos Alberto Sucre (USA) and Rina Urbaze Availa (Venezuela) both had the Bermudian winning 97-94 and 96-95 respectively, while Guyanese judge Andrew Thorne had Rivas ahead 96-94.

Even after being asked about a potential rematch Perozzi had her doubts the fight would ever come off.

“Her promoters are talking about a rematch at the end of February or beginning of March and I said ‘anytime I will be there’,” she said. “I doubt she wants a rematch ... but I am prepared to go.”

With the win, Perozzi improved her overall pro record to 8-4-1.

Source: www.caribbeansportsnetwork.com/cms/boxing/11916-perozzi-punches-rivas-down-a-class-