The IBO title was not awarded to Maria Lindbergh – Fimke Hermans

Maria Lindbergh and Fimke Hermans took to the ring after midnight.

After two minutes of boxing, it was a good night for Maria’s IBO title hopes.

Right injury in the left ear area. Maria collapsed to the floor. The bell rang and Maria seemed to have succeeded. Then her coach broke the match.

– Oh, my God. What an anti-climax, Mariah says right after the loss.

Femky Hermann’s knockdown came suddenly without looking too seriously. Neither Maria nor anyone on her team understood what was really going on.

I’m sitting here in the dressing room with 15 people from Hamburg. No one knows what kind of blows were struck. We had a mourning moment where we caught a drop, says Maria when Sportbladet reached her on the phone.

The title match was not confirmed in advance. Both boxers performed roughly evenly in their careers, and Maria was given time to prepare.

– What a dirty piece. It’s the first time I’ve been to a title match so close to Hamburg and it’s two damn minutes. It was really, really, really boring. I have to think about this and try to digest it and then see what I will do with this incident.

She was very disappointed when her coach stopped the match.

– The coaches were a bit at odds. One of them directly said stop, stop, stop, while the other swayed slightly. I said let me rest and feel what I feel, then I said let me try, let me try. But then they said no.

– It might have been the right thing anyway. Maybe I was unsteady on my feet. Perhaps the heart wanted to try harder than the brain. Trapped for two minutes, what is that? On the other hand, it is better to get out in the first round. Otherwise, says Maria, you will play completely unnecessarily.

She’s 46, and in the days leading up to her title bout in Brussels, she didn’t feel quite done with her 20-year professional career as a boxer.

– what is happening now? Actually I have no idea at all. You can’t go on like this. Maybe it’s because I’ve become more sensitive to blows as I’ve gotten older. I should go home, lick my wounds, and think about what will happen, says Maria Lindbergh.

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