Yokasta Valle couldn’t get enough of the incredible reception she received during her latest trip home.

The reward was a tour-de-force performance in winning the WBO strawweight belt while defending her IBF title in the first-ever unification bout to take place on Costa Rican soil. The feat was accomplished after her ten-round shutout of unbeaten WBO titleholder Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen atop a DAZN show Thursday evening in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,694 at Ciudad Deportiva Heiner Ugalde in Valle’s hometown of San Jose, Costa Rica.

With the win, Valle (26-2, 9KOs) moves halfway to her ultimate goal at strawweight.

“I knew it was going to be a hard fight. She was a really tough fighter,” Valle admitted after the historic win. There were hard moments in there but I knew I would get the victory. The belts stayed here.

“I’m after the next belt, whichever comes first. It’s a dream. I want to become the undisputed champ.”

Valle extended her current 13-fight win streak following her latest accomplishment. Seven of those victories have come in title fights dating back to her August 2019 split decision win over Joana Pastrana in Marbella, Spain.

It’s been more than four years since Valle tasted defeat, coming in back-to-back fights against championship level competition.

The 30-year-old—who is originally from Nicaragua but who has lived in Costa Rica since age seven—abandoned her women-exclusive atomweight title reign to challenge five-division and then-WBO junior flyweight champion Naoko Fujioka, dropping a ten-round decision on the road in Tokyo in December 2017. Valle also came up just short in a bitter defeat to unbeaten Tina Ruppercht in their June 2018 interim WBC strawweight title fight in Munich, Germany.

Germany’s Ruppercht (11-0-1, 3KOs) saw her title reign upgraded, as ‘Tiny Tina’ has defended the full WBC strawweight title four times. The division’s other title claimant is East Los Angeles’ Seniesa Estrada (22-0, 9KOs), who holds the WBA belt and is among the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters.

“I want all the belts,” insisted Valle. “I want the WBC and WBA belts next, no matter who has them.”

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