By George M. Phillips

History was made in Cleveland, Ohio as Vonda “The All American Girl” Ward became the first WBC Women’s Heavyweight Champion of the World.  Vonda, rated #1 by the WBC took on Martha Salazar rated #2 by the WBC.  The fight was a test of will, heart and a true battle of 1 vs. 2. 

Ward earned a majority decision to win the title as judge Ellen Jones saw the contest 95-95 and judges Earl Jewell and Mike Wick both had it at 97-93.

This was Vonda Ward's third victory against the San Francisco fighter, and it was by far the most difficult. Ward (22-1, 17 KOs) defeated Salazar (11-4, 3 KOs) twice in 2003. The first victory came March 1, 2003 with Vonda barley squeezing out a 4 round split decision in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The second came on July 11, 2003 as Vonda won a 10 round unanimous decision in Canton, Ohio.

Vonda came into the fight at a trim 182 ½ and Martha Salazar came in at 234 ½.  The over 50 pound weight difference could have been costly to either fighter. 

Early on, Salazar attacked Ward with fury and landed some devastating blows that at times rocked her opponent.  Ward made numerous attempts to keep Salazar in the middle of the ring to allow her reach to take effect and keep the aggressive Salazar at bay and not allow her to use her weight to her advantage by cutting off the ring and forcing Ward into a corner that could have proved costly.  Salazar kept throwing her right hand and at times appeared to get the better of Ward.  Staying busy down the stretch paid off for Ward. 

As the fight progressed the ever conditioned Ward appeared to get stronger as Salazar began to fight at a much slower pace.  The fifth round saw both Ward and Salazar going toe-to-toe on more than one occasion and the crowd made it known their appreciation of such an evenly matched fight.  Although Ward landed to what appeared to be some hurtful bombs, Salazar never relented.  Ward was able to fight her fight in the latter rounds and emerged victorious much to the cheers of her hometown fans.

After the fight, Ward’s manager Ed King formally called out Laila Ali.  This is not the first time the Ward camp called out Ali, but King stated that “now we have the title that Laila’s father once held.  Let’s see is she has the guts to come get it.”  Time will tell if that match occurs.

The undercard saw, Akron heavyweight Nikolai Firtha win a 6 round split decision  against late substitute Ed Perry (10-4-1) of Frankfort, Ind. Perry, stunned Firtha (10-3-1) on more than one occasion during the fight but the Stone Man kept to his fight plan and was able to weather Perry’s blows.

Earl Jewell and Ellen Jones scored it for Firtha, 58-56, with Mike Wick also scored the contest 58-56 but for Perry.   Both fighters showed class, guts and heart in this contest and both agreed that they would like a rematch.

Mujaheed Moore (3-1) won a 2nd round knockout over Dee Parish (1-1)

Omari Braxton took 47 seconds to win his long anticipated professional debut over Dustin Seabaugh of Indianapolis.

Aaron Harris began his career with a third found knockout over Cesar Balditt.

Over all, the crowd of approximately 1,400 at Cleveland State's Wolstein Center was treated to an action packed fight night and also witnessed history in the making.