Yokasta Valle continues to feel the love at home.

The raucous cheers of the partisan, sold-out crowd were enough to get the three-division and reigning IBF/WBO strawweight titlist through her latest title defense. Valle overcame a physically imposing—and blatantly dirty, at times—challenge from former WBA strawweight titlist Anabel Ortiz to turn in a lopsided points win this past Saturday at Polideportivo de Cartago in Cartago, Costa Rica.

“The fight was very difficult. Anabel Ortiz was a very dirty fighter, she used her head a lot, but despite that we were able to get the victory tonight,” Valle said after her ninth overall strawweight title defense. "It was loud, and the energy from the people from Cartago gave me the will to keep on going.”

Valle (30-2, 9KOs) had bruising under her right eye due to frequent headbutts from Mexico City’s Ortiz (33-6, 4KOs), whose main strategy appeared to be to make things as rough as possible for the local favorite. The more polished Valle was able to win nearly every round on all three scorecards—100-90, 99-91 and 99-92—though in one of her more taxing affairs in recent times.

The bout was her third of the year, two of which have taken place on home soil. The 31-year-old Nicaragua-born from San Jose, Costa Rica made her stateside debut last June but has rotated between U.S. and Costa Rica for each of her past six fight.

Included among the batch was a ten-round win over then-undefeated WBO strawweight titlist Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen in their unification bout last September in her San Jose hometown. Valle has been vocal about bringing home a full unification bout versus WBC/WBA champ and pound-for-pound entrant Seniesa Estrada (25-0, 9KOs). Her drawing power at home though the financial demands for such a fight would almost certainly place it in the U.S.

For now, the red-hot, unified titlist will soak in as much local support as possible before the need once again arises to hit the road.

“I love representing Costa Rica,” Valle has said of becoming the face of her nation’s boxing scene. “Pura vida!”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox