Former women’s world champion Mayelli Flores reportedly suffered a broken jaw in her slugfest with new champion Melissa Mortensen and is receiving treatment at Southwest Healthcare Inland Valley Hospital in Wildomar, California.
Fighting on the first-ever boxing broadcast on TikTok LIVE from Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, California (headlined by current unified featherweight champion Amanda Serrano successfully defending her belts with a 10-round majority decision over Lucrecia Manzur), Mexico’s Flores lost a thin 10-round unanimous decision to Denmark’s Mortensen for the vacant WBA Women’s junior featherweight championship.
Throwing power shots behind a bob-and-weave defense, the squat 4’ 11” Flores, 13-3-1 (4 KOs), dropped a taller, off-balance Mortensen, 10-0 (5 KOs), in round two.
Abandoning caution after that pivotal moment, the two women went toe-to-toe for the rest of the fight, with both having their moments.
The judges’ scores of 95-94 Mortensen, 95-94 Flores and a deciding 95-94 Mortensen were read to heavy booing from a disapproving crowd.
Referring to her decision loss to London’s IBF, WBC and WBO World junior-featherweight champion Ellie Scotney of London in July of last year, in which two judges had the 10-round fight a shutout for Scotney, while the other scored it 96-94, and speaking from the hospital, Paco Damian, her promoter, voiced his frustration at what he perceived as a second consecutive injustice.
“She fought with a broken jaw from the fourth round, endured an incredible amount of pain, and still fought through it until the end. She did everything she could to win, only to be denied the victory.”