2 hrs ago
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ORLANDO — The careers of Dina Thorslund and Cherneka Johnson have been intertwined, but they've never traded punches.
That will change when they fight for the undisputed bantamweight title on the MVPW 05 card Saturday at Caribe Royale on ESPN (10 p.m. ET/1 a.m. PT). Johnson holds the IBF, WBA, WBO and WBC titles, while Thorslund is The Ring champion.
Thorslund (24-0, 9 KOs) was originally scheduled to fight then-IBF champ Shurreta Metcalf in a unification bout in July of last year on the undercard of Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano III. However, the Dane was forced to withdraw after learning she was pregnant, after which she gave up her WBO title and was named the WBC champion in recess.
Johnson (19-2, 8 KOs), who held the WBA title at the time, replaced Thorslund and stopped Metcalf in the ninth round to win the IBF title and the vacant WBC and WBO belts.
Thorslund, 32, has had a tumultuous 13 months, as she ended up having a miscarriage and her sparring partner, Raven Chapman, suffered a brain injury during a sparring session – from which she's recovering – last month.
Everything leading to Saturday has added more fuel to the fire for Thorslund.
“There’s a lot of emotion in this fight for me,” Thorslund said at the final press conference on Thursday. “I’m too experienced [to let it] have a bad effect on me. It’s deeper motivation than before now.”
Thorslund, The Ring's No. 7-ranked fighter pound-for-pound, returned from a 15-month hiatus against Almudena Alvarez on January 31 and won all but one round on all three scorecards to become the interim WBC featherweight champion. Johnson, 31, defended her titles once, beating Amanda Galle by unanimous decision on December 19.
Given the nature of how the Australian acquired three of her four titles, she feels she has something to prove against Thorslund.
“A lot of people in here still look at Dina as the queen of the bantamweight division,” Johnson said. “She’s got something I want, and I’m going to take that and all of these belts back home.”
Thorslund plans on winning decisively and taking back the titles she never lost in the ring.
“My aim is to stop her,” Thorslund said. “That is the high aim for me, and I’m not going to stop until I get the win. If I win by decision, fine, but the aim is to stop her.”
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