NM boxer Lindenmuth fights ex-sparring partner for title

By admin — In News — July 16, 2026

   ​SaturdayBoxing: Katherine Lindenmuth vs. Nayeli Rodriguez, Elija Martinez vs. Victor Aranda, several other fightsLocation: El Paso County ColiseumTickets: $50=$180, ticketmaster.com.TV/streaming: TV AztecaAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSparring sessions in boxing are a bit like “friendly” matches in soccer. More than winning, the object is getting better for the real tests to come.When Bosque Farms’ Katherine Lindenmuth sparred with El Paso’s Nayeli Rodriguez late last year, Lindenmuth was preparing for a fight against Angelina Lukas in Egypt. Rodriguez was getting ready to face Diana Laura Fernandez in the latter’s hometown of Juarez.“Sparring is work, and we’re very professional,” Lindenmuth said this week in a phone interview. “We’re friends outside of the sport.”Saturday night in El Paso, they’ll trade blows again.It won’t be a friendly.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementRodriguez (7-1-1, no knockouts) and Lindenmuth (8-5-1, three KOs) are scheduled for 10 rounds with the Women’s International Boxing Association flyweight title at stake.As has often been the case during Lindenmuth’s four-year, two-month pro career, she’ll be the visiting team on Saturday. Not only is Rodriguez from El Paso, she’s under contract to Marshall Kauffman, promoter of the card at the El Paso County Coliseum.Lindenmuth is coming off a majority draw in a fight waged under similar circumstances that she believed she’d won.Her opponent, Linn Sandstrom, was under contract to the promoter of the May 16 card in a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. Sandstrom is not from Denmark but is of Swedish heritage, right next door.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhat Lindenmuth believed was a hometown decision in Sandstrom’s favor, or at least a close cousin, cost her the most coveted prize of her career thus far: the World Boxing Association interim flyweight title.(Saturday’s WIBA title fight has no “interim” attached, but the WIBA is not among boxing’s four universally recognized sanctioning bodies. The WBA has that distinction.)Losing, or not winning, a close fight on the opponent’s home turf is nothing new for Lindenmuth, and she’s also won fights under such conditions. But she admits a certain amount of PTSD might have creeped in by this point.“I’ve gone through it too many times,” she said. “This has been a consistent thing lately.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhat’s new is a chance to drive to a fight venue after flights to Montreal, California, Bangkok, California again, Giza, Egypt and Brondby, Denmark for her last six bouts. She’s 2-3-1 in those bouts.Then again, she’d rather fly.“I love flying, I’m not gonna lie,” she said. “We did look into how to fly down (to El Paso). But the logistic are ridiculous.”Southwest Airlines at one time offered direct flights from Albuquerque to El Paso. It no longer does.Connecting through Phoenix, Houston, Dallas or Denver, she said, would   

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