▪️World champ Widad Bertal meets Serbian European champion and world bronze medallist Sara Cirkovic for the second time
April 25, 2026
Moroccans, world bantamweight champion Widad Bertal and Africa flyweight gold medallist, Issam Bensayar are the only two boxers from Africa in today’s semi-finals of the World Boxing Cup in Brazil.
Bertal shocked Poland’s world number 7 ranked Wiktoria Rogalinska whom she outpointed in the quarter-finals.
For the second time Bertal now meets tough Serbian European champion (senior and U23) Sara Cirkovic.
Bertal beat the Serbian 4-3 on bout review in the semi-finals of the 2025 Women’s World Championships in Serbia.
The Moroccan went on to claim Africa’s second gold by a female boxer in the World Championships, beating Turkey’s Hatice Akbas in the finals.
“Bertal and Bensayar are the ambassadors of Africa, I hope they’ll go all the way if the officiating is fair,” Moroccan Federation Vice-President Nabil Hilmi told boxersworld.co.ke.
Hilmi said his two boxers, Africa female light-flyweight champion Yasmine Mouttaki and middleweight Akram Masmoudi were denied victories by the judges.
“Yasmine lost unfairly to a Chinese boxer in the quarter-finals, and Akram the same lost to Brazilian,” said Hilmi.
Bensayar, who won flyweight gold in the 2024 Africa Elite Men’s and Women’s Championships in Kinshasa, will take on Spain’s 2023 World Championships bronze medallists and European champion in 2022 Martin Molina Salvador in the semi-finals.
Africa’s boxing fraternity has yet to forget Molina’s unpopular points win over Zambia’s Patrick “Baddo” Chinyemba in the World Championships three years ago in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Victory for Bensayar will cool the Africans for a revenge well earned.
