BBU Monday Night Boxing
Venue: The KO Club
Location: Barnet, North London, England

Nicola Roberts vs Vera Brezhneva
(Lioness Club vs BBU Free Agent)
(11-13, 9 KO vs 2-0, 2 KO)
Results: BBU; Story: Vassago

BEFORE: Vera Brezhneva zeroes in on a potential International Baltic championship bout against Lioness Club's Dorota Rabczewska and arrives at the stable's headquarters in North London to contest an official dress rehearsal bout against veteran Nicola Roberts. Apparently the Lioness entourage plans to neutralize Brezhneva's ambitions with either Nicola or fellow ex-Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh if neccessary but the fact she's been invited to Barnet suggests there is no smoke without a fire and the two Eastern Europeans can indeed clash gloves before the year is over.

There's no sign of Rabczewska in Barnet tonight however Kimberley Walsh supports her ex-bandmate and vows to take revenge if Nicola goes down. Vera dismisses her threats though and claims Rabczewska can't send in the replacements forever. Despite blowing past Gabriella Cilmi and Tulisa Contostavlos earlier this summer, the Ukrainian singer remains an enigma and still hasn't earned herself the benefit of a doubt - at least according to BBU TV's Kate Abdo who provides the play-by-play commentary from tonight's bout.

Nicola Roberts wears a silver bikini set with red trim and red gloves. Long carrot-red hair tied in a sleek ponytail. Vera Brezhneva wears a navy blue bikini set and black gloves. Long blonde hair straight, tucked behind the ears. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the bantamweight division.

Round 1:
Nicola wants to show the blonde tourist who's the boss around here and jumps into a jabbing frenzy that earns her immediate support of the local crowd. Vera allows the redhead to dominate the opening minute but Kate Abdo notices that her guard has covered all the attacks thrown at her and the counterpunching response actually brings the older singer more success. Brezhneva snaps Nicola's head back a couple of times and drives into her breadbasket with a late rally that drops Roberts onto her heels and fails to halt the aggressive approach down the stretch. Nicola reverts into some quic footwork to escape getting trapped along the ropes but Vera clearly means business here and no wonder Kimberley Walsh looks a little concerned at the bell.

Round 2:
Nicola jumps into another early jabbing attack and shuts down the blonde's efforts during the opening minute but Kate Abdo thinks that's a genuine tactics from the older singer who prefers to see out the ineviteable redhead attack before finding her mark down the stretch. After all, one shouldn't expect Roberts to hold back on her own turf but she really fails to make her shots count while Brezhneva does exactly the opposite. She lands fewer punches than the former Girls Aloud member but dominates the execution percentage and hardly ever gets blocked off as she snaps Nicola's head in close range repeatedly during the second minute. Once again Roberts spends the latter stages of the round in retreat and that makes a bad impression on the judges since she's losing the momentum she had gained in the opening miniute.

Round 3:
There's no point in waiting for a furious Brezhneva attack here and despite Nicola's teasing efforts early in the third, the blonde sticks to her half-hearted pivots in the center of the ring and remains in mid-distance safety. Roberts keeps throwing the single jabs over the top but they barely graze the flesh as Vera fends them off with ease and actually shouts something over the redhead's shoulder. That was probably aimed at Kimberley Walsh but before Kate Abdo can use her CNN International experience to translate the exact words Nicole rams into the blonde's gut with her most aggressive effort to date. She leaps forward almost daring the older singer to counter her with a classic haymaker but for once she finds the speed neccessary to dump her foe into trouble. Brenzhneva gets bumped into the ropes and fails to deke to the right as the English singer clatters into her chest and then finds extra juice upstairs. She nails the Ukrainian tourist on the chin a couple of times and bends her across the ropes with a late flurry on the midsection. Vera looks vulnerable for the first time tonight and she doesn't even apply a proper clinch to get herself out of trouble which stuns Kate Abdo a bit however both Girls Aloud exchange a laugh after the bell and perhaps doing the dirty work for Dorota Rabczewska won't be such a difficult task after all?

Round 4:
That poor showing in the previous round has spurred Brezhneva into some quick action but Nicola should have seen in coming... she does but still walks into a crunching right over the top that sinks her on the heels and allows the fellow singer to haul in another left/right combo that finds the temples. Nicola's defense has long been her weak spot and she just can't lift her arms fast enough so Vera cranks it up where it almost hurts the most. She delivers another ferocious combo on the temples before switching low and piercing the redhead's navel with a proper gut shot... Ugh! Roberts wobbles forward and bumps her chin against the blonde's shoulder but then gets spun around onto the ropes where Brezhneva lands a mighty cross hook on the nose AND DROPS THE ENGLISH SINGER ONTO HER BUMS... Would you believe it? Kimberley Walsh surely can't and pounds the turnbuckle in frustration however clock is suddenly the Lioness Club's best friend and a visibly shaken Roberts manages to hold on until the bell following a wobbly escape from the boards that reached eight. Kate Abdo reckons that was a proper power punch from the blonde tourist who might yet have something up her sleeve after all. Even Nicola's questionable punching resistance doesn't explain why she folded so quickly there.

Round 5:
Perhaps the Lionesses really should give credit where it's due but there's no messing about from Brezhneva anymore as she blitzes her approach and connects with Nicola's ribs to sink her on jelly knees amid a desperate effort to lock a clinch. Kate Abdo reckons the younger girl still hasn't recovered from the beating she took in the fourth but all her strikes thrown from the back foot cut thin air here and do nothing to halt the Ukrainian's charge. Vera gets vocal as she connects with more punches and dissects the redhead's high guard at will while driving her back into the ropes. Kimberley Walsh's screams are futile, her stablemate enters that oh-so-familiar punchbag mode and while she manages to cover up in a tight earmuff, she leaves the tummy exposed and succumbs to Brezhneva's brutal hook that slams her on the liver AND DROPS INTO EMBRIONAL POSITION IN THE CORNER... That was simply sublime and there's just no way back for the redhead anymore. Even the ref waves the count off at five when he realizes Roberts is done here. KO5 Vera Brezhneva!!!

AFTER: The blonde tourist has silenced the Barnet audience tonight but actually only for a mere few seconds as Kimberley Walsh jumps into the ring and heads straight towards the Ukrainian singer. "Why you little c###! Just wait until I...", she tries to bareknuckle the blonde but misses at the first attempt and simply can't match Vera's footwork while wearing high heels herself. There are some loud cheers as Kimba chases the fellow singer around the ring for about twenty seconds before the Essex girl realizes she's being played at here and needs to get her act together if she wants to avenge Nicola's humiliating defeat. "Just forget it...", she whispers to herself and points at the Ukrainian foe: "We're not done here! You want Doda? Hah! Wishful thinking, bytch! First you'll have to knock me out! And that's an impossible task for you!"

Vera laughs out at Kimba's threats again and still waves back to the hostile crowd. Of course she does understand plenty of English but she knows best that her boxing must do all the talking until she finally takes down Lioness Club's top bantamweight fighter: "One down, two to go! We'll do it the hard way!", she tells Kate Abdo in a quick post-fight interview and even the BBU TV reporter begins to wonder just how hard will it be for Walsh and Rabczewska to stop the Brezhneva's hype train now?

Final result: Vera Brezhneva def. Nicola Roberts KO5.