BBU presents "St. Patrick's Day Showdown"
Katie McGrath vs Laura Whitmore
(BBU Debut vs 1-3, 1 KO)

BEFORE: We're live at the Red Cow Moran Hotel in Dublin, Ireland to celebrate the 2017 edition of the St. Patrick' Day Showdown. Both of tonight's contestants hail from County Wicklow and apparently they've shared a pint or two in the bar earlier already however that doesn't mean the crowd gathered in the hotel won't get to witness a proper Irish boxing dust-up.

Laura Whitmore has done this before, in fact it's been exactly a year since the blonde TV presenter made her BBU debut but she'll look to go one better this time following a nasty knockout at the hands of Christine Bleakley twelve months ago. Her opponent comes from the movies industry and has pushed Daisy Ridley for eight rounds last June already, that indicates Katie McGrath isn't your regular BBU newcomer and Denise van Outen is the first to admit that as she headlines the BBU TV special coverage.

Both girls wear national colors tonight and match their skimpy outfits; Irish green bikini tops with white four-leaf clovers on each cup and white knickers. However Laura has chosen black mitts and Katie a pair of green ones. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the bantamweight division.

Round 1:
Some back & forth jabbing indicates the atmosphere insdie the Red Cow is anything but vicious at the early stage of the fight and Laura's smile is a massive turnaround from her latest outing where she threatened to break the rules against Jessica Lucas of Team Canada. Well, she did break some rules there before going down but she gives Katie too much room to stretch her elbows tonight and soon pays a price for it. Because the brunette drops the hammer first and ups the tempo of her hitherto subpar jabbing to loop promising hooks straight into the blonde's temples. Laura gets blocked off in response and fails to slice Katie's guard before getting rocked with a heavy stunner on the nose that allows the older girl to dominate the subsequent avtion and back the TV presenter into the ropes come the bell. Laura escapes additional pressure by clinching the actress late but she needs to get on with it here if she wants to avoid last year's misery repeat.

Round 2:
Sure enough, Laura means business from the on-set and beats the brunette for the early jabbing exchange, clipping her chin a couple of times in the proccess. Katie looks to push ahead with her aggressive response but she finds it a little difficult to loop as clean strikes as she did in the opener and allows the blonde to outwork her in close range. She refuses to yield an inch of real estate though and both women nearly clash heads as they look to rattle each other around before settling for a reboot. They circle around each other for a while and Katie fakes a downstairs approach a couple of times but holds back at the last moment and Whitmore's overhand swings doesn't catch the actress by surprise whatsoever.

Round 3:
Denise van Outen believes Laura could use an upgrade in her footwork as Katie looks much better on her feet and waltzes around the blonde's jabbing efforts early in the third before riding a classic counterpunching assault to keep the younger girl stranded in the center of the ring. The Irish crowd roars in support of some proper head swivels that befell Laura as she gets tagged from both flanks and begins to wince a little which only fuels McGrath's desire to keep plugging away. It's Katie who emerges on top of a hectic exchange during the second minute but Whitmore's exection was downright ugly and it's a miracle the TV presenter escaped getting pounded all the way back to the ropes. It comes with a price though as Katie gave her a visible swelling on the lips and another loe hook pierces the navel to finally break the blonde's resilience. Ugh! Laura jumps back to safety but the hassling that follows gives more confidence to Katie and her supporters and at the bell the actress is the one that salutes the crowd while the blonde looks very much puzzled by the circumstances.

Round 4:
Laura finally channels her inner bytch and lashes out at the brunette's guts - and at least one hook was aimed at the groin according to Denise van Outen - but Katie sidesteps away from the close range plans of her opponent and riffles a left/right combo that smacks poor Laura on the temples and wobbles her into a chest-busting uppercut rally. The blonde girl loses her footing but yells out in anger regardless and BLASTS the actress across the nose in a desperate effort to throw her off the comfort zone. It works! Katie gurgles in pain for the first time tonight and briefly ponders what might have happened with her nasal ridge but Whitmore's all over her quickly enough to render those thoughts irrelevant. She remains on the front foot for remainder of the round and equals the hassling script from minutes prior however Katie has shown flashes of real durability strenght against Daisy Ridley last year and she laughs off the blonde's determined efforts to clobber her back to the turnbuckle which results in a really long death stare between the two at the bell.

Round 5:
Whitmore's really up for some proper action now as she improves her work rate in close range but she gets stuffed in a clinch once McGrath realizes she needs to calm thing down in order to avoid a haymaker disaster. Both girls waste plenty of time in shoving each other around before Laura finds the groin with a belting hook that skimmed off the hip. Ugh! Katie loses her temper and harpoons the blonde all over the ring thereafter, it's like Whitmore accepted the foul and was looking for a referee to step in and do something about it however it's Katie who does all the talking now... with her gloves no less. She scythes across the blonde's swollen lips and cranks up a fine uppercut on the jaw which drops Laura's guard and a nasty left hook tears a patch under the eye in the final seconds which reels the younger lass onto the ropes for good and allows the Irish Black to run away with an unanswered series to the midsection thereafter.

Round 6:
Laura fails to match the brunette's work rate after that tough ending to the fifth and spends the opening minute in retreat however Katie urges her to show some guts here and therefore lures the TV presenter into a trap... and it's a nasty one indeed as Whitmore skims off the forearms with her initila hookinh drive only to meet a crunching overhand on the left eye a split second later... Ugh! LAURA IS ROCKED!!! The proud blonde screams out her loudest of the night yet and drops back to her heels with eyes closed as McGrath pours in with a thunder of a follow up shot to NAIL HER ON THE CHIN!!! They've heard it all over Ireland, folks and Whitmore's shapely legs shoot up in the air with their owner CRASHING DOWN ON HER BACK TO RISE NO MORE!!! Are you kiddin' me? KO6 Katie McGrath in slam dunk fashion!!!

AFTER: Even Denise van Outen didn't see that shot coming and well, Katie's short tape of boxing action surely caught several BBU fans and pundits off guard - Laura Whitmore learning about it the hard way in the proccess! It's a lights-out knockout success for the Black Irish who seems genuinely shocked how all of this happened. However she holds no grudge towards her fallen rival and actually helps Laura back onto her feet, the proud blonde is still woozy after taking that mammoth shot to the jaw and very much relieved that no bones were broken there. Mouthing off against Jessica Lucas is one thing, landing some questionable rabbit shots is another but apparently Katie really wants to spend the remaining hours of St. Paddy's Day sharing a bottle of whiskey with the woman she just laid out flat!

Denise van Outen reckons McGrath's focus remains overseas - her Lana Luthor "Supergirl" TV gig obviously taking priority - and we won't be seeing her in the BBU on a regular basis unless some economic demands are met in first place. Katie is poised to play the mystery part for quite a while yet as she refuses to discuss her imminient plans with van Outen; maybe the Real View crew will have more luck this weekend? She heads for the bar instead where the friendly bottle of whiskey awaits her. And so the BBU fans should enjoy the St. Patrick's Day in a similar fashion. See ya all next year!

Final result: Katie McGrath def. Laura Whitmore KO6.