Turkish boxer to fight Tanzanian opponent for world belt

TRABZON

Turkish boxer Dilara Yücel will get in the ring on Oct. 7 in a boxing night event organized by the Universal Boxing Organization (UBO) to compete with her Tanzanian rival, Grace Mwakameleye, for the world championship belt in the middleweight (69-kilo) category.

Born in Vienna, the capital of Austria, in 2003, Yücel started boxing at the age of 14 after moving to the Turkish province of Eskişehir.

Performing the first professional match in her career in October 2020, the 19-year-old boxer is undefeated in the last nine matches.

Bagging the European championship belt in an UBO event on Sept. 3, she is now eyeing the world championship on Oct. 7 at the boxing night which will be held in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.

“My biggest supporter is my mother,” said Yücel in a recent interview published on her website, adding that she started the sport to “avoid abuse and gain weight.”

Apart from Yücel’s match, five Turkish male boxers will also take to the ring at the Oct. 7 event.

Turkish athletes, WBO European champ, Fatih Keleş, national boxers Abdülsamet Salih, Yakup Şener and Mustafa Çolak, another European champion Kerem Özmen, will sweat blood in different categories.