Team Canada International: The Homecoming
Jessica Lucas vs Roxanne McKee
(Team Canada vs Garnet Gunners UK)
(2-0, 2 KO vs 3-10, 2 KO)
Results: BBU; Story: Vassago

BEFORE: Jessica Lucas is one of Team Canada's most promising additions following the recent roster shake-up and several BBU pundits believe she's got all what it takes to become the new face of the franchise. To further boost her profile, she has accepted a homecoming challenge from Garnet Gunners' Roxanne McKee. The former Hollyoaks and Game Of Thrones actress was actually born in Canada and still holds the citizenship despite being a UK resident for years. Her BBU career has been downright disappointing thus far but given the national pride at stakes and Jessica's relative inexperience, anything is possible tonight!

Jessica Lucas wears a black corset with red trim and red gloves. Long black hair straight, tucked behind the ears. Roxanne McKee wears a navy blue corset with white trim and blue gloves. Long dark brown hair tied in a high ponytail. The fight scheduled for ten rounds in the bantamweight division takes place in the Pacific Coliseum, the former home of the Vancouver Canucks ice hockey team.

Round 1:
Jessica is the hometown girl and tries make an early statement but Roxanne catches most of the Vancouver audience by surprise when she beats the younger girl for a quick hook on the nose and gallops into her breadbasket with a power drive. Jessica misses a couple of hooks upstairs and has to yield real estate in wake of her opponent's aggressive rush. She manages to secure a mid-range respite when Roxanne struggles to connect with her punches down the stretch but Lucas just isn't able to mount her own recovery outside of the seemingly superior footwork at this stage of the fight. She becomes a little too wary of the McKee threat despite the latter's woeful record but the pressure is definitely on the local heroine - both in terms of keeping her unbeaten streak alive as well as leading Team Canada as the designated face of the franchise.

Round 2:
Roxanne prefers the close range tussle and the promising opening round gives her more confidence as she stalks the 'Gotham' starlet with a jabbing galore. Most of these punches find the guard but Lucas keeps misfiring over the top and one can only wonder whether coach Amanda Tapping and her crew realize how vulnerable McKee's been through majority of her BBU career. Jessica's horrible execution doesn't help to expose Roxanne's biggest weakness and after an otherwise chaotic performance both women lock each other in a clinch which the Gunners brunette seems to be more annoyed with. She blasts the Vancouver faithful on the kidneys and earns a quick separation but also a word of advice from the man in charge. She ploughs through Jessica's high guard thereafter but the dominant footwork eventually allows the younger brunette to escape even though she keeps making McKee look exceptionally good during the late stalking pursuit.

Round 3:
Jessica finally finds the opening punch to tame Roxanne's aggressive approach; she uses some nimble footwork to deke away from the aerial swing and bursts onto McKee's lips before blasting a left hook on the ear that spins the Gunners veteran on her heels. While Roxanne usually wilts under sustained pressure, she suspects the judges favored her in both of the previous rounds so she answers right back which triggers immediate leather bash much to the crowd's delight. They trade blows during a frantic second minute and neither of them avoids visible injury. Jessica's lips are swollen all over the place and a nasty gash under McKee's left eye begins to swell long after the round comes to an end. The partisan crowd doesn't mind the fight is a little too close to call right now since the effort shown by both women is well worth the ticket price! However one person not happy about this is Amanda Tapping who thinks Lucas has eaten too many punches in a fight she was supposed to dominate!

Round 4:
Both women are happy to sit back and perhaps lick their wounds during the opening minute but the rampant support eventually forces Jessica's hand and she blasts the Gunners brunette across the nose to trigger a lenghty period of dominance. Roxanne is guilty of letting up when she was doing so well but she's not really used to running the fight from the front, she manages to stay in the close range exchange for a while but Lucas delivers the better punches down the stretch and stacks her up on the heels in the corner come the final minute. The performance gap between the two women widens and Jessica finally finds the midsection target to drop more damage on the aching opponent. McKee looks a little worn out here already and the swarming attitude she's shown before seems to be catching up with her as Lucas drills her tummy repeatedly to close out the round.

Round 5:
Roxanne tries to mount a proper comeback but she gives away too much in the footwork department and spends the opening minute slicing thin air and barely finding Jessica's flesh. The 'Gotham' stunner then moves into a counter-punching response and quickly finds the head hunting drill to work on that gash on the older brunette's face. McKee's old demons haunt her back to the ropes as she retreats from a looming leather supply however she still thumps the local favorite with a quick hook on the jaw to delay the full-scale attack. Jessica actually loses her temper for the first time tonight when her rival escapes along the ropes but the superior footwork allows her to track her down in the opposite corner where a quick left/right combo tags the temples and paves the way for a belting hook on the solar plexus that bends the UK resident in half. Ugh! McKee shrieks out her loudest and tries to clinch the younger actress but a nasty half-uppercut nails her on the jaw AND SLIDES HER DOWN THE TURNBUCKLE inside the final twenty seconds of the round! Ugh! That's the break-through both Amanda Tapping and sidekick Nicole de Boer needed in Team Canada corner! Jessica keeps it strictly business instead and struts back to the neutral corner but Roxanne finds the strenght to fend off another disaster and gets up at eight! The clock expires soon afterwards and Lucas just didn't want to rush in for the kill with so little time remaining. She's got plenty more left to complete the job and everyone inside the Coliseum knows that too.

Round 6:
Roxanne looks discouraged by that knockdown and the swelling under the left eye affects her vision now which allows Lucas to cash in with a steady jabbing approach during the initial tangle. McKee's footwork is nowhere near good enough since the opening bell and she gets stuck on her heels under the aerial assault which renders her survival plans irrelevant. Meanwhile Jessica just hammers in the juice against a clearly wounded opponent and that knockdown has broken McKee's resilience in more ways that one! She eats punches like skittles and succumbs underneath the onslaught well inside the one minute mark. Lucas threatens to add another swollen spot under her foe's other eye and the amount of punches bouncing off Roxanne's face is almost too painful to watch. Cue in the training sack mode as the embattled UK resident cries out her demise and wobbles forward into one last uppercut on the jaw THAT DROPS HER FACE-DOWN ON THE CANVAS!!! The referee doesn't even bother with the count since the Gunners brunette has been well and truly pounded out of her senses! KO6 Jessica Lucas!!!

AFTER: It's all smiles for the Team Canada entourage as Jessica has spoiled Roxanne's homecoming effort in a very vicious fashion indeed. The Vancouver-native took her time before finally letting it rip however this was one of McKee's most aggressive performances to date - even if it ends as usual. One could say coach Tapping & co. never saw this aggression coming but Jessica is too good of a prospect not to adjust and have her own way with an otherwise inferior opponent regardless of the circumstances. There are still questions whether the 'Gotham' actress manages to upstage Sarah Gadon as the new face of the franchise but the local media claim it's all good among the stablemates especially that they compete in separate weight divisions. And the luxury of having a few hot prospects on the roster instead of just one suggests the Canucks are poised to make the loudest noise in the BBU since Erica Cerra held the bantamweight straps and Alaina Huffman was on the brink of lightweight glory. Watch out for these girls in the upcoming months!

Final result: Jessica Lucas def. Roxanne McKee KO6.