BEFORE: Ellie Goulding wants to join the bantamweight title picture as she believes she's more than qualified to upset Una Healy pending the Irish redhead's succesful defense against Dorota Rabczewska sometime over the next couple of months. Meanwhile former Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts is widely regarded as the weakest of the quartet ever since Nadine Coyle jumped into a winning spree last year. Therefore she's not supposed to halt Goulding's title ambitions and Charlie Webster thinks she will be fortunate to make it past the half-distance tonight.

Ellie Goulding wears a silver bikini top, blue knickers and blue gloves. Blonde hair tied in a custom ponytail. Nicola Roberts wears a black bikini top, green knickers and green gloves. Red hair straight. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the bantamweight division.

Round 1:
Nicola wants to upset the odds and charges at the blonde with a jabbing fury that finds the intended target and nails Ellie on the lips before a looping hook crashes into her temple and wobbles her on her heels on the spot. The redhead powers ahead between the arms thereafter and clips Ellie's jugs reeling the younger singer onto the ropes where she keeps dishing out the midsection punishment to dump the blonde under a desperate cover. A quick switch upstairs proves less successful and allows Goulding to clinch her foe and both girls remain trapped on the ropes battling for supremacy. Nicola is obviously upset she let the fellow singer drag her into such a wasteful effort but she still looked mighty good in that opening round.

Round 2:
More piercing jabs split the blonde's high guard and send her into defensive circles as Roberts channels her rarely seen aggression and fires away to keep her opponent at bay. Charlie Webster thinks that Ellie didn't expect such an aggressive stance from the redhead and needs more time to settle in however Nicola pounds her back to the ropes with more head hunting display before drilling her on the guts for a good measure. Goulding remains locked out of any significant response as her single hand efforts only bounce off the forearms and Nicola underlines her superiority by bursting a jabbing series on the blonde's mouth in the dying seconds and slumping her into a yelping disarray.

Round 3:
Ellie storms out of her stool and finally beats the older singer for the opening punch, she clips the redhead's jaw and adds a quick hook on the boobs to reel Nicola back however another follow up crashes off the guard and Roberts locks her into a lenghty clinch which sends both women tangling into the ropes. Accidental clash of heads forces the ref to separate them but Ellie still rocks her foe with a drilling uppercut on the jaw and pounds her back to the turnbuckle in the final minute. She ignores the redhead's high guard and rallies onto her breadbasket thereafter to keep her pinned in precarious position but lacks the big punch to the face that would really dent Roberts' confidence.

Round 4:
Both women keep plugging away in close range and Charlie's really impressed by Nicola's aggression tonight. Admittedly, Ellie hasn't really punished her enough thus far and struggles to land that big punch again despite outworking the redhead in the opening minute. Nicola gets a little vocal as she stays in the bruising exchange and slams a couple of cross hooks on the mouth to reel the blonde back. Ellie's really annoyed that she lost the slight upperhand and shouts "Bytch!" at her opponent which only triggers a flying response from the redhead who aims exclusively at the head and slams more drilling jabs against the brow ridges which result in a visible swelling come the final minute. Goulding tries to close the distance one more time but gets bumped off jug-to-jug and Nicola slams a nasty harpoon on the liver area to stuff her into the corner however the clock expires before she can make further progress.

Round 5:
Ellie's almost too desperate to tame Nicola's confident approach and bounces off the high guard repeatedly before eating a quick uppercut on the jaw as the redhead screams out in her efforts to finally dwarf the blonde's antics. Goulding remains unimpressed by Roberts' stance and lands a cross hooking series herself but only staggers the redhead in the middle of the ring instead of perhaps reeling her back and soaks up another looping hook on the swollen brow ridge which removes her from imminient response. Nicola blasts a one-two set on the jaw and sinks the blonde on her knees before a scything cross finds the nose AND SENDS ELLIE TUMBLING DOWN ON HER BUM moments later! That's a genuine shocker for Charlie Webster and most of the Sheffield audience as the pre-fight favorite suffers a heavy blow to her title ambitions here. Nicola screams out repeatedly as the blonde scampers back to her feet at six and indicates she slipped but of course that's not the case and more redhead jabbing pounds her back towards the ropes thereafter. Both girls squeal in their efforts but Nicola works the uppercut drive to the limit and splits the younger singer's guard to swivel her head repeatedly in the dying seconds to leave Goulding on soft knees at the bell.

Round 6:
Nicola seeks more production in close range and allthough Ellie tries to prevent additional damage, she gets outworked over the top and eats a quick series on the swollen brow ridge which only makes her overprotective and allows the redhead to blast a hooking drive on the guts. The blonde bends forward with a loud scream and tries to clinch herself out of trouble but Roberts is all over her breadbasket and pierces the navel with brutal shots; she drives the aching blonde back to the ropes and traps her under a body assault that makes Goulding drop the clinching ideas and shuts her down completely behind a desperate earmuff. However the body attack alone enables Nicola to keep her foot on the gas and she leaves Ellie in all sorts of bother at the bell; even Charlie Webster simply can't believe her eyes right now!

Round 7:
Roberts works on the wounded left brow ridge and Goulding's high guard crumbles under the aerial attack within seconds of the bell; redhead pounds the blonde back to the ropes and lands a triple hooking combo that whips Ellie over the ropes screaming out in pain - another drilling uppercut shatters the guard alltogether and has Nicola thumping unanswered leather straight into the blonde's face... that's simply too much for Ellie WHO SLIDES DOWN ON HER KNEES with eyes closed in the middle of the redhead's leather frenzy... Goulding leans her head against the canvas but needs more time to recover than before and only climbs back to her feet at nine... her left brow ridge is torn up badly and the ref needs to consult the doctor... Ellie's head slumps between her shoulders as she gets inspected but she's allowed to continue... if only she had the fighting spark left in her... Nicola doesn't care about it whatsoever and just rips more jabs into the swollen area to stack the blonde up in the center of the ring but there's nothing coming back from Ellie anymore and she spins back to the ropes with eyes closed and another painful yelp... one last hook on the wounded brow ridge whips her sideways against the turnbuckle and there's genuine fear in her eyes which is quickly noticed by the ref. HE'S SEEN ENOUGH AND STEPS IN MOMENTS LATER TO HALT THE BOUT!!! Nicola's so pumped up she doesn't realize it at first but then collapses on her knees and can't stop the tears of joy anymore. Upset TKO7 Nicola Roberts!!!

AFTER: Ellie just slides down on the canvas and buries her face in the gloves as she learns that challenging Una Healy for the lineal title has just officially become mission impossible. Nobody around Sheffield saw this result coming with the perenially underperforming Nicola literally punching the previously unbeaten blonde into a spooked bloody mess! Indeed, the Girls Aloud redhead was never known as a power puncher and this is the first time in ages when she actually inflicted so much damage on her opponent! The fight could have been stopped on medical grounds if it continued for another round but the ref has made a good decision regardless since Goulding wilted under Roberts' repeated assault which was easy to spot since the opening bell.

Charlie Webster calls this result the BBU Upset of the Year to date and indicates that if Nadine Coyle could elevate herself into serious flyweight contention, there's no reason to believe Nicola can't repeat those heroics anytime soon! After all, their bandmate Cheryl Cole has posted only a 50% winning record in the UK before creating havoc on the other side of the Atlantic in recent months. However more evidence is required to rule out tonight's result as a one-off fluke. Meanwhile there's no doubt Ellie will return to winning ways sooner rather than later but she's been dealt a heavy mental blow as well as physical and refuses to talk to BBU TV about a potential Roberts rematch as she exits Bramall Lane with a massive ice pack around the wounded brow ridge.

Final result: Nicola Roberts def. Ellie Goulding TKO7.