BEFORE: Due to Sophie Howard's April PPV commitement the entire bottom bracket of the tournament's opening round had to be postponed and that makes her tonight's rival, Joan Smalls, VERY angry indeed. The Girls Friday-based model had to withdraw from the Good Friday event after making the title tournament grade but finds herself inactive since March 2nd when she impressively knocked out Foxfire Atlantic stalwart Jaye Jacobs on her BBU debut.

Getting valuable ring action is the most important thing for Joan who remains of the top betting picks to make it all the way to the final despite just a single bout under her belt. However that Maria Sharapova-like frame leaves most pundits & fans in firm belief she will become the next undisputed welterweight champion. But don't tell Jourdan Dunn that!

Sophie Howard wears a black bikini set and red gloves. Shoulder lenght dark brown hair. Joan Smalls wears a silver basque top, brown knickers and golden gloves. Long brown hair wet & straight, tucked behind the ears. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the welterweight division.

Round 1:
Joan storms into immediate leather assault and picks Sophie off in the center of the ring taking full advantage of her longer reach. The English brunette tries to stay in the exchange but finds her opponent's precision too tough to handle and must back off before Joan really enforces her presence here. However those lanky legs help Smalls in chasing the otherwise slow moving Sophie down and trap her in the corner with another feisty jabbing rush up the middle. Howard leans on the ropes and allthough she fires back a couple of nasty hook on the taller girl's cheeks, she eats a late flurry on the chest and ends the round gasping for air and looking anything but pleased with her performance.

Round 2:
Sophie's win over Catherine Bell remains her calling card but Joan is like 20 years younger than the Ginny's Academy veteran and doesn't care about anything else than pounding the former Page Three model to the gut. Smalls suffered with nerves on her debut and that's why she took so long to defeat Jaye Jacobs but she knows a thing or two about hurting such a buxom operator like Howard and buries more spicy hooks into the cleavage which stuffs the older brunette in the corner come the two minute mark and leaves her searching for a clinch rather than outwork Smalls from behind the guard. Another belting hook on the navel keeps Sophie gasping for air at the bell and Joan truly looks like the 'Next Best Thing' in BBU!

Round 3:
No sight of Jourdan Dunn in the Cardiff Arena stands but apparently Joan wants to send out a message here as she slams another heavy cross into Sophie's face before tackling the rack and just rocking the Merseyside veteran back & forth in the center of the ring. Howard tries to beat the Puerto Rican for a punch... any punch literally but makes no impression on the taller woman at all and bounces off the forearms and gloves repeatedly while getting backed into the ropes again. She finally nails Joan with a vicious hook on the mouth but that's not enough to make a difference and she soaks up a double combo on the brow ridge/temple moments later to groan out her frustration at the bell. Meanwhile Joan keeps it strictly business while nodding back to coach Melanie Sykes during the interval as if she never planned this bout to be her last on the Welterweight Title schedule.

Round 4:
Sophie upsets the run of play but drilling Joan's ribcage early in the fourth but Joan stumbled a little when she tried to swing another hook into the older model's mouth and allowed the veteran to finally come back at her. However the ribcage pounding is short-live since Joan rips a right hook on the nose to wobble Sophie back amid a loud squeal and the reach advantage begins to tell again as she quickly reels the Merseyside girl back with a steady overhand rush. Howard thinks better of it and backs off completely in the second half of the round; whatever plan she had for this one is not working and thankfully Smalls doesn't blow her gasket once she notices her foe looking lost in the ring like that. Where is your plan B Ms. Howard?

Round 5:
Hectic discussion between Sophie and Lioness Club coach Mel B. during the interval doesn't help one bit since the brunette struggles to work from the inside and around the superior Puerto Rican reach. And Joan finally enforces some bleeding here as she thumps Howard's nostrils repeatedly with a cross hooking route in the second minute which dissects the high guard all too easily - even for Denise van Outen's liking. Sophie unloads a last-chance salloon hooking drive while yelping loudly with blood seeping from her nose but she gets blocked off by Smalls' high guard and then soaks up immediate counter on the ribcage that bends her forward and allows the taller woman to rip a quick uppercut on the solar plexus... Ugh! Sophie screams out again and loses her balance alltogether but Joan still thumps her one more time on the nose even as she was heading down on the canvas already... HOWARD IS DOWN and remains slumped on all fours until the count reaches seven... she gets up and swallows her own blood but Smalls quickly pummels her back to the Lioness corner and unloads another piercing drive on the liver area which almost pulls the plug of the older brunette only for the bell to terminate the actions prematurely.

Round 6:
Not much left in Howard's tank after that knockdown, she falls into another head hunting frenzy and this time Smalls barks in her efforts to put her foe away... Girls Friday coach Lauren Berlingeri leads the support and since Sophie's gloves slump by her breasts still inside the opening minute, it's just a classic face bashing mode that Joan can thrive on.... AND SHE CHOPS HOWARD DOWN FOR THE SECOND TIME just short of the minute mark... the nose begins to bleed again and while Sophie sits down on her heels to look up in the lights above the ring, even Denise van Outen knows it's all over. There's no way back for the Merseyside veteran and her dream of becoming a BBU champion must be send back to fantasy section here. KO6 Joan Smalls!!!

AFTER: The Puerto Rican prospect doesn't even blink an eye when the ref calls the fight off and struts back to coaches Sykes & Berlingeri in the Girls Friday corner. She didn't enter the tournament just to beat Sophie Howard up and Denise van Outen remains impressed by the newcomer's demeanour: "She's got the physical tools, the mental edge and that special approach that doesn't mean every fight is your last one. She brushed Sophie aside, the very same girl that won only 4 of her 15 fights before but actually travelled to America to slam dunk Cat Bell. That last result alone would make half of the division choke on their breakfast but not Joan, she's been around the world and with more and more fashion & lingerie models entering the game, she's not your genuine rookie. That Jaye Jacobs struggle must be considered a one-off! I can't hardly wait to see how Jourdan & Joan develop in the future!"

Meanwhile Sophie doesn't look all that upset in defeat allthough that busted up nose will take a day or two to heal. She's got a JMD(D) Queendom fight booked against fellow BBU crossover Hayley Atwell for June 10th and that's the main concern for the entire Lioness Club entourage. Apparently Sophie can sell more tickets - and earn more salary -  via jug muggin' in the States rather than fighting for BBU welterweight title these days. Denise van Outen remains coy on whether that's good or bad news at the end of the day.

Final result: Joan Smalls def. Sophie Howard KO6.