Posted by simguy on 3/16/2007, 7:00 am.

Thanks to FightFan for this repost

Before: "Neve's hungrier than I've ever seen her," Eliza acknowledges in prefight - continuing the respectful tone of the media tour between these two. "This thing with Rachel's lit a fire under Campbell. To be honest, I always used to think she wasn't getting the most out of herself in fights, but this is a serious, serious test for me now. If she brings her best game, and I bring mine? We're both going to hurt." Campbell accepting Dushku-risk as the best possible fight for her at this time: a win means everything to Neve here. "I've got a lot of respect for Eliza," Neve admits at the podium, "but she's in my way. I need to get into the top 3 at bantam, and Eliza's my ticket. With a fighter like Dushku, you can't get around her - she forces you to go right through her, so that's where I'm headed. It's nothing personal, but I'm going to trample Eliza in this fight. I don't see her finishing, to be honest with you." Neve in black lace push up, smart yellow bikini bottoms, short freshly showered tousle, yellow mitts. Eliza in red leather bikini, red gloves.

During R1: Eliza into Neve with right hands dragged thick to paunch - series of gutbusting blows drives Campbell to ropes. Hard-working Eliza from there - shoulders rotating, arms thrashing rhythmically as fists pump to belly and breasts. Neve scowling, breathing through pursed lips - trying to push her way forward from the apron but taking terrible thump amidships. Middle minute, Campbell stricken - bit of a jailbreak here and Eliza's intensifying her efforts. Campbell crossing arms against her midsection, turning her left side to Eliza as Dushku lashes a shivering series of rights to the ribs - NEVE TAKES A KNEE! Campbell exhaling hard - going down of her own volition before Eliza could SEND her down: orderly 8 as Campbell gets up in good shape. Dushku pouncing in - extending her left hand under Campbell's right, stabilizing Neve, then beating her vicious right hands flank and ear to bell. Dushku with woman-on-a-mission scowl, leaves Neve rattled after thudding shutout first.

R2: Neve hot to Eliza's body - big banging rights and lefts plowed underhand to ribs and tummy: Dushku hunching forward to absorb, then banging back in kind. Thudding, methodical intensity - both girls leaning forward, hands stacked relaxed right atop left amidships while the opponent pounds away: nothing wild, nothing wasted. Both getting off in robust, bashing 3s, shaking the other even when blows are blocked. Bright, spanking contact against arms, chests, tummies - girls just splashing away downstairs. Both reaching in on occasion to walk the other back, trying to mess with each other's balance - good veteran stuff, lots of subtle little strategems. Neve will push Eliza behind her elbow to nudge her off balance; Eliza will double up on the hook, catching Neve ear/ribcage to spice up the otherwise trudging rhythm. Beefy hammer and tongs - Eliza a little busier, a little more aggressive adds to her slender points lead.

R3: Fight drifts to a neutral corner - bitter mouth on shoulder two-way erupts as girls fight to secure that particular patch of canvas. Girls take turns reversing the other into the corner and beating her - each mops the other with sweaty brows while shifting heads from one shoulder to the other. They reach in on each other underneath, pushing back the innerelbows, cramming in short shots to trembling tummies. Muscular upperbody grappling as each takes turns being stronger, twisting her foe into the turnbuckles the better to batter her. Down the stretch, it's Neve in control, thrashing her arms with rising, rhythmic strokes, beating Eliza numb about her breasts and ribs at the bell.

R4: Girls in constant bumping/nudging/pushing contact - fight drifts into the same neutral corner claimed by Neve last round. Eliza fighting as if that particular corner holds some sort of mystical significance: she's pushing Neve into those turnbuckles, hammering away two-fisted at straining ribs and tummy, tidying up until Neve's inevitable receipts flow back. Again - beauties take turns muscling each other into the corner - bumping each other the left shoulder, then hooking heartlessly to waistlines or jaws in tight. Dani Fishel perking up, nostrils flaring; Elisha Cuthbert, Allison Mack and other hard-banging bantams taking particular interest as this thing's starting to become very, very brutal. Laying in mouth-on-shoulder, the girls will lash and pump underneath, pounding at thighs, trunks, tummies: both lasses gasping with effort and pain, but neither complaining. Heads are very rough in there - tousles rubbing across tender faces - punches sounding out like a road crew working with baseball bats on wet clay. Bell: Neve's hunched up, hands stacked at her body - Eliza pushes off all seething, taking back the corner in a bitterly contested fourth.

R5: Neve won't have it: back to that neutral corner, back to the hellish mouth-on-shoulder pounding - grim trench warfare sees Neve wrest control of that territory back from Eliza toe-to-toe. Pumping, thick, chugging work underneath - neither girl losing control or ever allowing herself to punch without conviction: it's one lass soaking up punishment, then responding in brutal kind. faces press wet against each other - lips pursed - hands push and shoulders bump - but neither girl tieing up for breaks: any grabbing is to earn some slender positional advantage. Bodies glow pink under the constant hammering touch - faces starting to bust up from infrequent, but clouting blows close in. Bell: Eliza's in that loose crouch, her hands stacked at her body while Neve mops up - Campbell stomping away, eyes flashing as Eliza sits hurting on turnbuckle.

R6: Eliza concedes the first neutral corner - it belongs to Neve - Dushku steers Campbell to the far neutral corner to open negotiations there. Oh, they bang away - one girl with her buttocks on turnbuckle, stooped forward all parted lips and fluttering eyelashes - the other churning away big and brawny as she can, for as long as she can. Muscular reversals - girls groaning as they strain to turn the other into the turnbuckles. On the receiving end, both hold hands low in that relaxed stack, blocking a lot of work - but arms are bruising up, numbing up, and faces are hanging out there for hooks and uppercuts to score. Crowd roaring - lapping up the non-stop back and forth as first one girl, then the other gets the upperhand...and uses it. Bell: Neve breathless, bent almost double from Eliza's relentless body attack. Dushku straightens, mouth open, eyes blazing as she looks Campbell over for signs of quit.
R7: No accident: girls deliberately brawl and push each other into the second neutral corner again - Neve refusing to accept the evidence of the last round, setting out to take it away from Eliza. Back at it - the face-on-face brutality - the canny little pushes and shoulder bumps - the hearty work ethic as thumping 3, 4, and 5 punch salvoes slam back and forth. Legs look firm, both girls holding strong flat footed stances, just pushing their weight into each other - but fight taking on a mindless, last-woman-standing tempo. Groggy Neve will straighten after pounding at her foe's midsection - clout sleepy Eliza a tidy little right hand in close - tossing Dushku's face aside. Dushku will dig repeated hooks at Neve's midsection, loosening her up, then suddenly uptempo hup-hup-hup to jug, beating Campbell into open-mouthed stupor. Still methodical pace: although bruising and disasterous for both women - these girls could fight all night this way. Bell: Neve looming over a cramped up Eliza - lugging lefts and rights up underneath to salt away the round and take back that corner as ref moves in.

R8: Eliza takes the fight back into that second neutral corner, determined not to concede this particular prize. Dushku particularly territorial this round - keeping Neve's back to turnbuckles with aggressive use of head, left shoulder, extended left elbow: Campbell soaking up a consistent pounding as Dushku successfuly foils the reversal attempts. Neve's face puffy, eyes bleak - Dushku's cracking her overhand rights and hooks up top, then going back downstairs with thudding gut-churn, belting away both dukes. Campbell obviously outworked, but slugging defiant uppercuts into Eliza's breasts at the bell - ref has to move in to physically enforce the bell.

R9: Girls digging in midring - swapping harm: Neve's getting to Dushku with hooks. Not apparent early, but midway through - Campbell cuffs a short hook to Eliza's ear, then digs the money hook in behind Dushku's right elbow, thumping liver. Wince from Eliza - her receipt waves at Neve, all the power taken out of it: Campbell steps forward strong to take canvas from her foe. Neve working in tight - short right hands to Eliza's jaw setting up vicious, shivering, liver-seeking hooks: Dushku crumpling now, retreating to the HISC corner as Neve hunts for the off switch. Big, banging beatdown: Eliza momentarily crippled, hunched forward crossed-arm: Neve lashing in her hook above Eliza's right hip, pushing up on Dushku to stack her. Bell: Eliza grimly willing herself not to go down - Neve stepping back, raising her flag in Eliza's home corner with a thudding beatdown issued on HISC territory.

R10: Crowd on its feet, applauding both women at the start of the round: eyes swollen to slits, legs threatening mutiny, tummies and ribs throbbing - both grimly close and seek decisive combat midring. Shoulder to shoulder, girls trade thick right hands to paunch, come back up top left hooks: Eliza steps back, face pinched. Neve hops forward hooking - left arm shivering as she bashes the liver region on Eliza: Dushku can't hold her ground. Back to the HISC corner - Neve very rough, very willful here - shoving and bumping at Eliza, opening up to pound at her wide right and left roundhouses. Wolfpackers nearby screaming for Eliza to "HANG ON, E!" as Dushku droops forward, slipping into stupor. Savage beating handed out - Neve has her girl hurt downstairs, has Eliza's legs numb - now Campbell pours it to Dushku's back, beats her breasts, looks to dig up that tummy in a thudding crescendo to the bell. Dushku won't go down - very mindful that Neve gave up an early knee: battered Eliza soaks up a withering beatdown to the bell. Comes back one point duke - Eliza Dushku!

After: Dushku a prophet: both girls taken to hospital for general repairs after this vicious confrontation. Neve's tactical knee comes back to haunt her like a missed convert: Dushku able to keep her feet despite suffering tremendous punishment in this fight - has the presence of mind to manage the cards even when under considerable duress. In the immediate aftermath - rare sight of usually heartless Dushku hugging Neve, then holding her behind the head as girls touch foreheads. Heartbroken Campbell breaks down into tears - Eliza almost protective of Neve, talking quietly with her, frowning at encroaching press to give Campbell some private space during her little melt-down.



simguy

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