Amena Hadaya has earned a split-decision victory over Mona Ftouhi at the pair’s bout at UAE Warriors 41 last night in Abu Dhabi.
The Lebanese-Australian got the nod from two of the judges, earning herself the win in her promotional debut, and raising her professional record to 3-1.
Although Hadaya typically fights as a flyweight and bantamweight, she faced Ftouhi at a catchweight of 120 pounds.
The first round saw Ftouhi push the pace on the Aussie, throwing a barrage of strikes both to the body and the head, while blitzing in to close the distance, keeping Hadaya on the backfoot, utilising her counter striking. As the round continued, Hadaya was able to keep Ftouhi against the cage, ending the round attempting to take the French fighter’s back.
Round two saw Hadaya again using her counter striking, however she seemed to be more in control of the pace of the fight, being able to stay at a kickboxing range to land strikes. Hadaya ended the round with a double leg takedown, finishing the round in top half-guard.
In the third round Hadaya continued to use counter striking, as well as initiated more striking exchanges than the previous rounds. Although she was taken down in the last seconds of the round, she had done enough to earn a 29-28 scoring from two of the judges, the other judge scoring the bout 29-28 in favour of Ftouhi.
After the bout, Hadaya said that although she knew it was a close fight, she felt she had done enough to get the victory.
‘I thought it was going to be close, but I knew I had it in the end.’
Looking ahead, Hadaya said she would be interested in another fight for UAE Warriors.
‘I feel so privileged to be here. Its been an amazing experience from start to finish…hopefully I can come back here again soon and put on another show.’
