BEFORE: Elisabetta Gregoraci made a noisy BBU debut last month pounding out both Berenice Marlohe and Micaela Schaefer which earned her a well-deserved invitation to the Grudge Sessions PPV. This is the first time she fights in the UK but she has a fan in Georgie Thompson already who predicts nothing but another ruthless win for the Italian showgirl. Meanwhile her opponent, former Miss Italia Miriam Leone, has recovered from the beating she took at the hands of Jessica Michibata five weeks ago and vows to derail her compatriot's fast approaching bandwagon allthough since losing her Latin Union management, she's failed to gain any sort of respectable results and losing to a newcomer like Michibata is a bad omen when you plan to take down one of the hardest punching women in the division.

Indeed, Gregoraci has made the pre-event headlines through her exceptional punching strenght - as the battered Marlohe and Schaefer could reluctantly confirm - and is already labelled as an improved version of Elisabetta Canalis - the current Latin Union lightweight star who ditched her BBU career to earn some money fighting over in the United States right now.

Elisabetta Gregoraci wears a black bikini set with white trim and turquoise gloves. Black hair tied in a sleek ponytail. Miriam Leone wears a red bikini set and black gloves. Medium lenght red hair in loose waves. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the lightweight division.

Round 1:
Little is expected from Leone but she makes a promising start and hooks up with the brunette's boobs to dominate the close range exchange in the early stages - perhaps a sign of the redhead exploring a weak spot in Gregoraci's impressive armour - but a lenghty clinch enables the model to survive the JMD approach and when she bumps Miriam off into mid distance she can finally enforce her aggressive tacitcs and beats her compatriot for a clubbig drive up the middle punishing the chin with a couple of well placed uppercuts. However Elisabetta is probably a bit overwhelmed by the BBU HQ atmosphere and doesn't push forward so frantically thereafter allowing Miriam to find some comfort in agile footwork escape.

Round 2:
Gregoraci sends single punch assault over the top but finds the redhead's guard too solid to break down which switches her targets and enables to harpoon the midsection to drop Miriam on her heels briefly. However a looping hook then crashes into the brunette's nose and forces her back as Leone triggers a punch-happy approach to connect with the face again. She misses a couple of hooks though and begins to cut thin air when Elisabetta displays some nifty footwork on her own and the round concludes with both women locked in a clinch and ripping single punches to the body which make little damage but promise more grudge beef to come later.

Round 3:
The rampant support among the Cardiff audience helps to fuel some grudge fire early in the third but surprisingly it's the redhead who hammers away at the brunette's guts and shuts her off in the center of the ring before cracking Gregoraci's jaw with a couple of uppercuts to gain immediate advantage. Elisabetta needs to up her tempo to match the Leone production but she allows a belting hook to nail her on the liver area and circles back instead as Miriam riffles an overhand series and connect with the cheeks leaving some visible marks on the brunette's face. There's more to come from the former pageant winner who resumes the jug muggin' drill and backs Gregoraci into the ropes where she cleans out her tummy as well to run away with a shockingly easy round - signed off by a ruthless uppercut on the jaw right at the death which half-turns Elisabetta against the ropes.

Round 4:
Gregoraci remains very subdued thus far and perhaps the UK debut has played on her mind too much after all. She weathers the early redhead storm by showing some solid defensive skills but the counterpunching approach doesn't seem to suit her style whatsoever and the hunt for a haymaker turnaround proves too far-fetched at this stage and Miriam maintains the promising performance by ripping into the brunette's midsection to keep her on the back foor for most of the round. She then tries to enforce another rack muggin' assault but gets clinched and wrestled into the turnbuckle yet Elisabetta's subsequent flurry of shots on the ribcage materialises too late to steal the round away from the fellow Italian.

Round 5:
Finally a big punch that catches Leone's attention as she gets clobbered up the middle and sags on her knees when the brunette blows past her guard and connects with the chin. A left-handed follow up finds the temple and spins Miriam back to trigger a hectic pursuit from Gregoraci who pummels the redhead to the body and backs her into the ropes down the stretch. Leone barks in her efforts to fight back but the classic war of attrition is always destined to favor the older woman and Elisabetta scythes the high guard come the final minute; she traps Miriam on the ropes and bursts into her jaw with more uppercut menace to swivel Leone's head back & forth and leave her gasping for air at the bell after a nasty hook drilled the exposed navel as the proverbial icing on the cake.

Round 6:
Miriam suddenly begins to feel the leather heat and Elisabetta dissects her guard in close range to secure more uppercut menace on the chin. Leone tries to find the jug muggin' response but gets belted across her ribcage and bends forward into a rack punishing series herself which roots her to the spot and allows the brunette to riffle a bulldozing series on the guts again. Miriam wobbles on her feet but can't escape the heat whatsoever and soaks up a jabbing drive up the middle before turning right into a brutal hook on the temple that sends her reeling into the ropes. She bounces off them and tries to duck underneath a looming assault but is just a fraction too slow to make it happen and gets blastes on the nose with a cruel right hand before Elisabetta adds another low hook on the liver... REDHEAD GOES DOWN... Miriam's gallant effort suffers a meltdown as she gets caught in the weak spot and just rolls down onto her side with a loud scream... Gregoraci shakes her glove in delight and struts back to her corner while the pageant winner fends off the knockdown at eight but looks slumped on her knees regardless and still eats a faceful of leather in the dying seconds with Elisabetta raining punches all over her to secure a much needed separation in the power balance of this bout.

Round 7:
Miriam breaths very heavily during the interval but fails to buy herself any time in the seventh as Elisabetta immediately pours leather on her in close range and hoofs the guard away before sticking some heavy punches on both cheeks. Leone winces and groans in pain but is left stranded in the center of the ring and slumps very deep on jelly knees so when Gregoraci harpoons her around the elbows Georgie Thompson can only giggle in delight as the redhead succumbs to the raw strenght of her opponent... LEONE SLIDES DOWN ON HER KNEES and hugs the aching liver area on the spot... she bends her head against the canvas but struggles to make a convincing recovery and when she's up at nine she looks all hurt in the eyes... "Gimme some grudge NOW or else you're finished", ref decides to give the aching redhead one last chance but her arms drop immediately after the command when Gregoraci jumps on top of her and pounds brutal hooks on the face to send the pageant winner spinning back to the ropes with more painful yelps... escape mode from Leone as she jumps to the turnbuckle but there's no place to hide anyway and the brunette sags her with a brutal right hook on the nose and whips over the ropes screaming for mercy with a follow up on the temples... AND THE REF STEPS IN to save Miriam from getting her face bashed in... she's in no shape to provide any grudge anymore and is hoisted away to safety... TKO7 Elisabetta Gregoraci!!!

AFTER: Elisabetta keeps shaking her glove in delight and that's no wonder given her third consecutive win but this time she found it slow going and didn't really fully engage her sheer punching wrath until the fifth round. Kate Abdo thinks that was all down to pressure as those wins over Marlohe and Schaefer surely send the cat among the divisional pigeons and it's never easy for a non-English fighter to make her Cardiff debut with so much expectations flying around. But Elisabetta survived the test and looks poised to make more lightweight noise in the foreseeable future!

Meanwhile Miriam showed enough courage to warrant another chance and allthough she was outnumbered by a superior opponent in the second half of the fight, she will probably secure a couple of fights against boxing thirsty newcomers to the division according to Georgie Thompson and remains on the fringes of gatekeeper status especially if she heads back to native Italy to recharge her batteries. Fighting Michibata and Gregoraci back-to-back was bruising enough for anyone on the organization's roster to try and better that and Miriam deserves some rest while she keeps fighting to stay afloat of the free agency shark pool.

Final result: Elisabetta Gregoraci def. Miriam Leone TKO7.