After world title, Bia Ferreira aims for unprecedented Olympic gold: “This possibility is real” | combat

After beating Argentine Yanina Lescano this past Saturday in Liverpool, England, with a technical knockout in the sixth round, the 31-year-old fighter from Bahia answered questions sent by Combat and admitted that she is looking forward to the Paris Games, between July and August, when she will say goodbye to amateur boxing, where she only failed to win gold at the Olympics.

– I’m really looking forward to this, we’ve been preparing for a long time. I know that this possibility is really real (of being an Olympic champion), and I hope that I can be gratified with this victory, with this gain, which is not just for me, but for the sport, for the whole team. So, let’s go for it, I’m training hard to bring that gold this time – said the fighter, owner of a silver medal won at Tokyo-2020.

When this Saturday’s fight was interrupted by the central referee due to a profuse bleeding cut on the Argentine’s face, the judges already scored the fight in favor of the Brazilian at that time: 59-55, 59-55 and 58-55.

While flying back to Brazil, Bia says that she still hasn’t fully realized the size of the achievement, which made her the country’s first Olympic medalist to be world champion in professional boxing.

– The penny is still sinking in, but I already knew this, this possibility, before accepting the challenge. And as I saw that it was something new, something that no one had done, I challenged myself to take that risk. I’m very happy it worked out.

Yanina Lescano, opponent for the vacant lightweight title, even faced some danger at the beginning of the fight, but soon became dominated by the Brazilian.

– We had trained to do much better, but that was it, the objective was achieved. We got the title, but I was ready to fight ten rounds, which I trained a lot for (…). I really like fighting against Argentines, there’s that healthy rivalry, but no matter what country was in front of me, I would go for it no matter what.

Bia Ferreira is world boxing champion