UNIFIED BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE

Posted by simguy on 7/10/2003, 7:30 am

(Thanks to FightFan for this repost)

Before: Fight has all the attraction of a showdown between schoolyard bullies - every name fighter south of 125 here to see it in person. Cold hearted rivalry this one - girls don't indulge in baiting, no grandstanding in pre-fight, both distinctly uncomfortable around each other - a lot of respect mixed in with the hate. "It's a special thrill for me any time I've got Hu coming up," admits Eliza to the press. "She's a threat. She's a danger to me. When I lost to Cuthbert or dumped to Fishel - everyone knew I never trained for those fights. Kelly beat me at my best though and I never dreamed that could happen. I'm never more alive than when I get in with Hu and it's going to be intense. It's the only time I fight when I know the other girl can and probably will hurt me and I'll just have to get through it to win." Hu similarly wary: "Eliza's my only real rival. This thing always comes down to the two of us - she knows she took the belt from a weak champion and I knew as soon as she won I'd be getting the call. I'd have done the same thing - I can't think of myself as champion if I haven't treated Eliza badly in the process." Kelly in black bra style leather bikini, Eliza in red - may the best woman win.

During R1: Hu: closed stance, chin tucked behind left shoulder, left hand low, right up around the chin, weight on back foot ready to slide out, lure Eliza into counter-rights. Eliza: weight on front foot, hands up, forward crouch, looking to hook-and-pivot left - both girls rotating gently clockwise. Lots of feints, exploratory jabs as the girls influence each other around - nobody rushing. Down the stretch - Dushku jabs head, body, drops a darting right cross and HU SPUTTERS HURT TO THE ROPES! Eliza hopping forward, slams a hard right across Hu's raised guard then GUTS HER THE HOOK! Kelly crying out from the tummy touch, sinks to one knee as the crowd roars to its feet! Dushku stepping back with pure satisfaction on hungry lips - Kelly stiffly beats the count. 10-8 champ just like that.

R2: Back to tactical - wounded look on Kelly's face as she circles, vindictively lifting her jab to worry Eliza's left eye. Dushku making the fight, stepping in with rigid sticks head and body, trying to confound Kelly's closed stance defence and sharpshoot the right hand. Kelly at the midway point: bending at the waist, rolling her left shoulder under Dushku's right, Kelly suddenly opens up, fits a cobra-tongue right hand flat to the solar plexus, retracting her fist to close back up. Eliza set back on her heels with a dismayed look - she did NOT like that body shot. Hu taking inititiative, scoring hard to the left eye the jab, jumping in a right hand clean on the eye and carrying herself into Dushku to topple champ to ropes. KELLY HU UNLEASHES! Dushku covered up, moving her upperbody side to side - Hu lets her hands go in a rousing slash of lefts and rights, clipping Dushku between the mitts, punishing Eliza's tidy rack at the bell. Blood from Eliza's nose as the two exchange glares - Hu flushed, chest heaving with righteous aggression.

R3: Kelly taking it to Eliza this round, circling her in either direction, slidestepping out on her, jabbing mercilessly to the left eye. Dushku coming forward but coming up short on her stick - Hu's crafty body lean, movement keeping her safe. Kelly able to slip and roll with her left shoulder, then dart back at Eliza's chin that sneaky screened right hand, luring Dushku to ropes, potshotting her, spinning away pretty. Down the stretch, Eliza reaching, trying to force the issue and Kelly sets her up for that devastating roll-and-counter right to the solar plexus - stabbing punch halts Dushku and cramps her up HURT! Kelly helping herself, slash-hooking at Eliza's right side, moving Dushku in a boozy little semicircle as the champ stiffens, then picking her up in the teeth at the bell the left uppercut. Shutout Hu - Eliza rarely undressed in a round the way she was in this one.

R4: Shutout Kelly Hu. Hu prettying it up on Eliza, luring her into traps, loosening up her footwork as she gets comfortable with her distance. Eliza inching forward, hands up, left eye closing from Kelly's insistent jab - Hu stabbing her left to the midsection, face, keeping Dushku off balance while seeking those heartless right hand licks. Kelly darting in behind screened rights, carrying into Eliza to smother the receipts, then jumping out to reset - all the movement and energy is with Hu - Dushku looking a little shopworn, harassed through 4.

R5: Eliza opens with a brace of shivering hooks on the hip and right side, buckling Kelly Hu's knees midring, setting her up for a clipping left uppercut on the chin that rocks the challenger back! Dushku hard eyed as she pursues - chopping in the straight right, hooking the ribcage again as Hu clatters backwards. Kelly shook up, but composed - she's pointing her left shoulder at Eliza, leaning away into the ropes, fencing with Dushku, slipping and countering. Eliza fierce as she plants, turns her shoulders into gruesome hookwork about the hip and ribs of her foe, bending low to get under Kelly's pinprick rights up top. Dushku keeps the pressure on, stepping with Hu as she tries to slide along the ropes, preventing the spin moves - she's beating the challenger ragged for the first time along the perimeter. Eliza's turn to make hard eye contact at the bell - this thing's even after 5.

R6: Slick boxing action midring - girls hunting each other down with jabs body and head, turning on sizzling right crosses that generally just miss - good defense both sides. Eliza having trouble getting that bread and butter hook to the body against Kelly's closed stance - Hu turning to her left, making Eliza depend on the right and it's setting up Kelly's debilitating solar plexus shot with some consistency. Dushku's taking it, but it stops her in her tracks, stops her from getting off and Kelly's banking some good work down there as she takes a methodical 6th.

R7: Eliza up tempoing, spearing into Kelly heartless jabs body and head, railroading Asian to ropes, then bodying up to bring this thing into the gutter. Eliza using her head to lever Kelly open, bludgeoning smooth Asian gut both mitts, coming off the body to clout the chin. Hu leaning back into the ropes wide eyed, struggling to find her feet - Eliza's got her completely off balance. End of the first minute, reckless assault settles into a numbing series of shock left hooks against the right side - Hu hunching forward in paralyzed stupor and KELLY TAKES A KNEE! Kelly blinking back tears as she gathers herself for 8 - Eliza grim in the neutral corner, nostrils flaring with finishing fury. On comes Eliza and it's WAR! Kelly slipping punches at the ropes and tagging Dushku REPEATEDLY on the chin those wicked little right pokes, making Eliza miss and DUSHKU COMES APART AT THE KNEES! Eliza reaching to clinch - Hu rolls inside it, stabs home that solar plexus shot - stoic Dushku cries out in pain and Kelly goes right at her! Hu marching brawny off the ropes, thumping away to Eliza's sternum left, right, left - backing the champ up until E can muster a breathy clinch. Dushku recovers well, shaking off the licks, gets back to her jab and manages to gut out the round - Kelly converting a big 10-8 against to 10-9 with her spirit off the canvas.

R8: Eliza hounding Kelly around the ring early - Hu skirting the perimeter, keeping her distance - Dushku the aggressor. Down the stretch, Kelly stops her flight, rolls low, eases into Eliza and once again, that flat, stabbing right hand direct to the solar plexus sends shockwaves through a stunned champion. Dushku folding up, elbows in and Kelly treats her to a blizzard of sexy, ripping punches. Hu bending left slashing Eliza's eye the right hand, bends right to get the left under Dushku's chin. E leaning forward, staring into punishment and Kelly's obliging. Slicing, lashing lefts and rights belt away, backing a stunned champion up - Eliza taking the shellacking like a trooper but she's not answering back. Hu gets all she wants at the bell, leaving Eliza jazzed with hurt: Dushku's left eye closed, blood streaming from her nose and she's achy-trembly downstairs.

R9: Kelly in charge - Eliza determined, but ramshackle. Hu circling left, keeping that up-jab on Eliza, pounding away on the ruined eye, reaching it into her gut. Hu jumping in opportunistic right hands, piling into Eliza, spoiling the receipts, then nimble to the outside to regroup. Sharpshooting performance dazzles the champ - she's not getting off, looking frazzled as Kelly's dark eyes flash taunts.

R10: Kelly makes a point. She rolls and counters early, getting that ill right hand to the plexus three times under half-hearted Dushku right hands - Eliza slowed to a crawl, ashen faced as she covers up, looking to crowd in. Hu fighting brilliantly in retreat, stepping back in good order as she touches her jab to Dushku's breasts, walking Eliza into slashing lefts and rights, turning Eliza, keeping this thing midring. E not shutout, but it's desultory punching - jabbing back at her tormentress as Hu slides, steps and pecks her way to victory. Comes back UD10 for the winner and NEW bantam weight champion - Kelly Hu!

After: Dushku fans in stunned silence, Claire Danes snapping her notebook shut with hard smile, gleaming eyes - ex champ had her moments, but that closed left eye, battered features and hobbled body language just don't look right on the sherriff. "She upped her game," winces a classy Eliza in postfight, "she upped her game big time tonight. You know, you never catch Kelly as flush as you do a Fishel or Campbell, but still, Hu took a great punch tonight - showed a lot of heart. And that body shot! I couldn't breathe when she stuck me with those things - she's never had a body shot before and it threw me. That's why Kelly's the threat she is - you just can't take her for granted." Hu glowing with triumph, serene smiles, getting patted down and fanned by her handlers - it's a shining moment. "We've all seen Eliza lose before," Kelly says charitably, "but we've never seen her exposed until tonight. I gave her the beating I dreamed of giving her - I took her apart, took her heart. Her eyes were so bleak in the last few rounds, it gave me so much strength to see her breaking down and giving up inside. She was reduced to being a puncher in there at the end, just winging. I hate to say it, but she looked just like Britney Spears - all teary-eyed, desperate, pleading - it was glorious!" Ouuuuuch.


sim guy

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