7. Lily Aldridge versus Adriana Lima

(Words: Vassago, Results: Lookout!)

Lily:
(32, 5’8, 1:0 FCBA, Lioness Club)

Adriana:
(36, 5’10, 26:19 FCBA, Odds & Ends Fight Studio)

BEFORE:
It's downright unfortunate for Lily Aldridge to be handed the elite Adriana Lima test at such an early stage of her BBU/FCBA crossover career. The Lioness Club management is no stranger to booking elite match-ups whenever possible but a Sui He-Adriana Lima upgrade in opposition is truly mind-blowing given the Brazilian's current form. 2017 is the year of Adriana in FCBA and only Megan Fox puts comparable numbers down among the flyweights this season. Adriana is a long-time Ice Hotel ambassador and resident champion but sitting on top of the Victoria's Secret-sponsored event is equally as important for the runaway betting favorite.

Lily dispatched Sui He in under six minutes last month and most of the pundits predict she'll be extremely lucky to survive more than six rounds against the current lightweight champion tonight. The only real unknown? Adriana's busy schedule must finally take it's physical toll on her sooner or later and perhaps Lily will indeed score the mother of all upsets to halt the Brazilian's winning streak here in the picturesque Key West landscape.

Adriana Lima wears a black bikini set and golden gloves. Long dark brown hair tied in a sleek ponytail. Lily Aldridge wears a light blue bikini set and silver gloves. Long dark brown hair in loose waves. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the lightweight division.

ROUND 1:
Adriana makes a brutal statement in the opening round; if anyone thought the champion takes it easy early on to see what the fellow brunette has at her disposal then the head hunting assault quickly erases any doubts about that particular script. She wastes no time whatsoever to tackle the American straight up the middle and Lily's head snaps back repeatedly under the onslaught. The Lioness girl gets bumped into the ropes through sheer intensity of the Brazilian's attack - the additional accuracy doesn't even play such a big part until Lima lands a nasty left/right combo that tears Lily's lips into visible swelling. The lightweight champion only smiles when she notices the quick damage but pounds away with similar fury regardless and leaves Aldridge completely shut down in the corner come the bell.

ROUND 2:
Lily realizes she can't count on the champion having a day off here and upgrades her footwork to avoid another whitewash concern. She stays clear of the Brazilian's attacks during the opening minute and some pundits believe she's been taking lessons from fellow Lioness member Odette Yustman in riding the hot defensive hand. The question is whether Adriana allows her to exploit the bendy defense a little longer down the stretch but for now she keeps firing away over the top even if Lily's improved performance neutralizes the immediate effects of the otherwise world class attack. This isn't pretty if you look for a classic war of attrition in the ring but at least Lily manages to settle into a counter-punching rhythm when Lima seems discouraged by the lack of progress in the final minute.

ROUND 3:
Adriana quickly adjusts the striking range and halts Lily's bendy defensive display when she smacks her across the lips and adds a quick one-two on the nose. The American wobbles on her heels and gets pummelled back to the ropes following an injection of pace which allows Lima to stay on top of the close range route. She splits Aldridge's high guard and camps inside her pretty face until a desperate clinch earns the American a respite. However Adriana pins her to the corner-post with another vicious head hunting rally and Lily's guard is simply unable to sustain the relentless pressure; more bruises cover her face at the bell and the smile on the Brazilian's face indicates she's well into her groove by now.

ROUNDS 4&5:
The action really stalls during the next couple of minutes as the Lioness entourage tries to come up with a back-up plan and Adriana simply doesn't push hard enough to secure the victory. Perhaps she has the Kendall Jenner title defence on her mind already and looks to save as much energy as possible? Whatever the case, Lily poses no threat to the current unified champion and her single-handed striking finds the bulletproof guard so often even the partisan Key West audience begins to lose faith in the mother of all upsets. Aldridge drags herself through this period of the fight thanks to more clinching and wrestling but soaks up more punishment to the body as the Brazilian shows a few versatile moves to keep her fans satisfied. She traps the fellow brunette along the ropes each time but seems to hold back the killer punch - almost toying with her opponent to the point of being borderline arrogant in the process. Lioness head trainer Claudia Schiffer is visibly animated and decides to abandon the ultra-defensive approach. If the lack of progress on the scorecards isn't enough to let Lily loose then the lack of respect shown by Lima most definitely is!

ROUNDS 6
The fight comes alive thanks to Lily raising the bets with an all-in, she dwarfs Lima's flamboyant display with a quick pouncing drive on the chest - the LW champion is anything but a JMDD veteran here - before cracking a nasty uppercut on the jaw that finally throws the Brazilian off her lethargic mood. Both women engage in a vicious punch-fest in the center of the ring but Lily ducks underneath the aerial onslaught and as Adriana bounces off the top of her forehead, she buries a piledriver into the solar plexus and stuns the champion with a wild hook on the jaw again! Ugh! Lima tails off to the ropes for the first time tonight and the Lioness brunette is all over here thereafter. Lily mounts her best run of the night and lifts Adriana's boobs as well stuffs her to the body so hard she forces the O&E brunette into spasms of discomfort. However she then truly shocks the experts when another piercing left hook finds the solar plexus on the double and SENDS THE BRAZILIAN TO HER KNEES in the corner!!! Nobody saw this one coming and Adriana least of all herself. But she struggles to catch her breath here and suddenly the fight has been turned on it's head. The man in charge is caught out by this knockdown himself and gives the unified champ a few precious seconds to recover extra. Lima is back on her feet at six and eyeballs the Lioness camp over in the opposite end however Lily doesn't have the raw power required to clean up the Brazilian's confidence and settles into picking her off in mid-distance for remainder of the round with the Florida crowd still picking up their jaws from the sand!

ROUND 7:
Enough is enough and Adriana brushes off the temporary setback by blowing past Lily's high guard repeatedly during the opening minute. While the American shows enough agility to escape the imminent wrath, she doesn't have the skills - or perhaps courage - necessary to slug it out for an extended period of time against the best fighter in the FCBA right now. Lima tracks her down all across the canvas and pins to the ropes before exploring the holes in her guard upstairs one more time. This means that Aldridge's lips begin to bleed again and she fails to tame the Brazilian's onslaught while getting shoved butt-in-ropes by the sheer intensity of these strikes. Adriana barks in her efforts to destroy the California native but Lily survives the barrage without going down even though she's been cut up on both cheeks during this vicious rally. Adriana has to be hauled off her prey at the bell and looks downright annoyed Lily remains standing on her feet. But we have three scheduled rounds remaining so there's plenty of time for the Brazilian power house to get the job done!

ROUND 8:
Not many pundits and fans expected this fight going into the eighth and Lily tries to bide her time in mid-distance as if the lone knockdown would make the all-important difference. However Adriana has other plans and hassles the smaller brunette with more head hunting assault that knocks her back to the ropes much faster than the Lioness camp would like to see. Lily wants to drag this one into another wrestling stalemate but gets punished to the body and must respond with a chest-stuffing assault. Both women almost clash heads as they wade into each other but Aldridge's yelps are getting louder with every second now and she only halts the Brazilian's charge when she digs her right hand into the solar plexus and adds a shot on the ear. Lima half-turns her foe to plant her against the turnbuckle but another low punch pierces her navel and drops into extended stalemate one more time. This just isn't the Adriana Lima the entire female boxing universe has grown to cherish!

ROUND 9:
Lily has found a successful way to avoid instant disaster tonight but even the brave underdogs run out of gas sometimes. The clinching tactics did as much physical damage to Aldridge as to her opponent and with the superior footwork suddenly going AWOL, the unified lightweight champion veers into her face with more brutal shots. This time Lily gets stuck on her heels and wobbles forward into a jaw-crunching uppercut that finally sags her on jelly knees. Adriana notices the numbness which begins to take over the fellow brunette's body and launches one upstairs to further punish Aldridge's jaw... and the poor girl gives up the ghost after holding on for so long... not anymore... DOWN GOES LILY!!! The California babe collapses face-down at the Brazilian's feet and only then Adriana yells out all her frustrations. Lily almost aches her heart out as she battles back through the knockdown daze... somehow even Lima's power supply hasn't turned her lights out... she's pushed herself off both arms at six and wobbles back upright at nine only to slip onto the ropes when the ref checks up on her with a closer look. That double combo on the chin was good enough to break some bones here and a dejected Lily complains to both her coach and the ref she's a little too dizzy to see in a straight line. She bellows out onto the ropes again and needs to be escorted back to her corner. Ugh! So close but no cigar... TKO9 Adriana Lima!!!


Official Decision: Adriana Lima defeats Lily Aldridge via KO9!


AFTER:
The Brazilian's hot streak continues but she basically grinded Lily Aldridge into physical extinction instead of properly blowing her doors off. Round one proved to be a false dawn and Adriana had all kinds of trouble to secure the quick victory thereafter everyone around the boxing world predicted. But she refuses to acknowledge her opponent's resilience and claims to have bigger things on her mind now: "Look, the fight is over. I won! I have to follow the fixed draw for this tournament but let's don't get overexcited about Lily, shall we? I mean, she's a cool girl but more in that annoying cute bunny kind of way. After a while even those cute bunnies annoy the heck out of you! Yeah, Kendall Jenner is next. Yeah, on the frickin' Asylum PPV! Now that will be fun as well. And then I believe either Devon Windsor or Romee Strijd in the quarter-finals. Gosh, where do all these girls come from?"

Meanwhile only time will tell if Lily Aldridge thrives on this extremely promising performance (albeit disappointing results-wise) or turns up a mentally broken woman going forward. Coach Claudia Schiffer tries to convince the experts that Lily is the true moral winner of this bout as nobody expected her to drag the Fighter of the Year hopeful into round number nine but moral victories count for nothing on the big stage. The Cubs are no longer the lovable losers following last year's World Series triumph so maybe there will be some love for Lily in the press instead?