Stoppage win sends Meksen forward to New York title shot

History repeated itself in the GLORY 47 SUPERFIGHT SERIES women’s super-bantamweight fight as Anissa Meksen (93-3, 30 KO’s) took a third-round stoppage win over Funda Alkayis (32-5, 13 KO’s).   The two first met back in 2014, in Meksen’s native France. That fight ended in the third round when Alkayis - then fighting under her maiden name of Diken - suffered an injury and was unable to continue.    Stakes were high in this rematch: not only was Alkayis looking for revenge, the winner would be going forward to challenge Tiffany van Soest for her championship title on the GLORY 48 NEW YORK card next month.   During her pre-fight interview, Meksen expressed the opinion that Alkayis had “broken mentally and then quit” in that first fight and said that she felt Alkayis would be lacking confidence coming in to the ring.   Well, If Alkayis was suffering any psychological ill-effects from the result of the first fight, it was not apparent: she came to fight and landed numerous good shots during the first two rounds of the bout.   Meksen met fire with fire and the two got into numerous heated exchanges with both landing good clean shots throughout, although it must be noted that Meksen did appear to have the upper hand in both rounds.   Late in the second, Alkayis suddenly turned away from Meksen and doubled over, indicating some distress. The referee gave her a count as she stared down at her left foot, inspecting it for damage.    Alkayis beat the count and returned to the fight for the remaining seconds of the round, then hobbled back to her corner where her team attended to her with an ice-pack. She answered the bell for the third round but didn’t get far into it: seventeen seconds, to be precise.    While the two were exchanging, Alkayis flowed into a combination which ended on a left kick, throwing on auto-pilot. It was a fatal mistake. Her injured left foot met Meksen’s right elbow and that was the end of the fight: Alkayis howled in pain and turned away, the referee waving the fight off as Alkayis hobbled to the ring ropes to support herself.   That is now two third-round TKO wins over Alkayis from two fights for Meksen and this second one is all the sweeter as it brings with it a world title shot.   “I’m really happy to be going for the belt. I want that belt,” Meksen said in her post-fight interview; “Tiffany van Soest I will see you soon!”   Anissa Meksen def. Funda Alkayis, TKO, R3 0:17