Kim Clavel didn’t need the judges for her latest win.
It’s not often that the locally based unbeaten junior flyweight enjoys an early night in the ring, but that was what took place Friday evening at Casino de Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Clavel had her way with Bolivia’s Mariela Ribera Valverde (11-6, 8KOs), dominating the WBC Silver flyweight title fight en route to a stoppage victory after four rounds.
The fight was never competitive, as expected to be the case given the low level of opposition that Valverde has faced in her nine-year career. The fight was her second outside of South America and just her fifth against an opponent who’d previously won a fight. Valverde is now 0-5 on those occasions, having not won a second of this fight.
Clavel doesn’t normally enjoy an advantage as the bigger fighter at just 5’1” but was by far the far more physically imposing of the two. Clavel worked her jab, not taking any risks in the opening round where she measured up Valverde (11-7, 8KOs) before realizing she could hurt the Bolivian at will.
Valverde attempted to establish her jab in round two, though overshooting and catching a clean left hook in return. Clavel opened up her attack, landing a left-right and then following with a flurry of punches to force Valverde to go into a defensive shell.
Clavel continued to move forward in round three, walking through Valverde’s punches to land her own power shots. A straight right hand drove back Valverde, whose defense opened up just enough for Clavel to slam home a left hook in the closing seconds.
Things grew increasingly worse for Valverde in round four. Clavel connected at will, with Valverde not offering anything in return. As much was detected by her corner, who informed the referee and ringside physician that Valverde was done for the night.
Clavel advances to 15-0 (3KOs) with the win, her first stoppage since January 2019. She had gone the distance in eight straight fights since that night, including an eight-round decision victory over unbeaten Natalie Gonzalez in her July 2020 U.S. debut. The bout came on the heels of Clavel receiving the Pat Tillman Award for Courage during the 2020 ESPY Awards, honoring her work as a nurse on the frontline during the height of the pandemic.
The bout headlined a seven-fight show that aired live on Probellum’s website and YouTube channel.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox