Bia Ferreira won the first world title of her professional career last Saturday. With a record of five fights and five wins, two of them by knockout, the Brazilian won the International Boxing Federation belt. From now on, however, her focus will be fully directed towards the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. During Sem Limites, she and coach Mateus Alves revealed in detail what the strategy will be to not let the mother of them all escape in the French capital.
Beatriz Ferreira with belt
Photo: Matchroom Boxing / Olympiad Every Day
+ FOLLOW OTD ON , TWITTER, , AND FACEBOOK
“We are doing a detailed study of each one classified. Bia has practically fought with all of them, we are creating an advance strategic plan for each opponent. So, when the draw comes, against any athlete, we will know how it will be. So, We are really having support, a little more care because it is a target of rivals. We are trying to cover any type of edge that could harm us so as not to be surprised”, explained Mateus Alves.
Different fighting style
The coach also added that Bia Ferreira must change the way she fights to surprise her opponents. “We’ve already done this in the camps and it worked because, theoretically, they think that Bia will go forward to try to kill because Bia catches them, but we are putting together strategic plans that thwart this expectation. They will go with the right tactical plan to move to Bia. So we want to counterattack in this strategy, creating a period of doubt, that by the time the opponent realizes, we have already won the first round”, he explained. “It’s Bia 2.0”, joked the athlete, who also spoke about why she calls the Olympic gold medal the mother of them all.
“It was a joke with my mother. I said that I was collecting medals, which are my daughters. And once she asked me: ‘Which one is the most important?’. And I said: ‘the mother of them all’. Then I took this joke, I ended up taking it to an interview and everyone already knows”, he explained.
The competition in the French capital should mark Bia Ferreira’s farewell to Olympic boxing and the gold medal is the only achievement left in this discipline. At World Championships, she won two golds and one silver in four appearances, and was champion of the two Pan-American Games she competed in. In total, she has competed in almost four dozen international competitions since she became a member of the Brazilian team and has only been off the podium once. At the Olympic Games, she hit the beam in Tokyo-2020 and won the silver medal.
