TESS VALMORE


The February PPV featured three title bouts. In the fight of the night and a possible fight of the year Adrianne Palicki took the title from the long time holder. Amanda Righetti by a KO9, ending Righetti’s record breaking twelve fight defenses and 14 month reign. Palicki’s win which was her second since moving up from lightweight, has to be considered an upset. In another good fight, Taylor Swift defended her title for the ninth time by beating Yvonne Strahovski for the second time in title fights. In the bantams, Evangeline Lilly KOed Brie Larson to defend her newly won title for the first time.

In the Welters, Hannah Ferguson beat Lawley making a claim for a title match. She and Rhoda should have in inside track. Karlie Kloss continues to deteriorate as she lost her sixth out of her last seven, this time to the veteran Mandy Moore.
The welters suffered another loss to a lightweight when Tasya Teles beat Paula Patton who was ranked at fourteen in Boxing Worlds last rankings.

The big fight in the lightweights, outside of the title fight, was DiDonato’s win over Sagra. That should place DiDonato in line for a title fight. She has been here before only to be beaten and moved out to title contention before she got the shot. Agdal should move up in the ranking with her win over Kerr and Yustman got back on track win her win over Lancaster, but her win probably won’t help her in the rankings.

Outside of the title fights, there weren’t may bantam fights of immediate importance. One-third of the fights on this card were at bantam. Kaya Scodelario beat Kristen Bell to stay in a top position for a title fight. Scodelario has fought Lilly twice and beat her both times. Should make for a great title fight. Naomi Scott continued to make a name by winning her eighth out of ten beating Shailene Woodley. After losing nine of ten, Mitchell won her second straight fight. Can this once top bantam once again regain her mojo?

Among the flyweights, the first four ranked were not in action. Lowndes ranked fifth should maintain her ranking by beating McNamara. Miley Cyrus lost to Vanessa Hudgens which will probably cost her her spot in the top ten. The same goes for Lilly Collins who got upset by Ana De Armas.

There was one debut on the card bringing the number of newbies for the year to thirteen.

FEBRUARY ASYLUM TEN YEARS, TEN FIGHTS PPV

The Front Street tenth anniversary PPV went pretty much as expected with Front Street sweeping the card winning all ten bouts. The big winners of the night were Utgaard, Winter and Reinhart.

Even though Garner was 22 years older and smaller than Utgaard, I thought she was the one chance the visitors had of winning a fight. It didn’t happen as Utgaard won by a seventh round TKO.

Winter won over Shahi. Shahi had retired in 2018 after having a poor year but she had the experience and a height advantage, the downside was Winter was 22 years younger. It was a impressive performance from Winter.

Cuthbert had a big advantage in experience and was a three time unified champion. Cuthbert had 120 fights under her belt while Reinhart had 13 in her career. Cuthbert had been active last year. All that didn’t help her as Reinhart won by a KO. Reinhart’s ranking should go up three or four spots, if not more.

Arterton faced a previous top lightweight in Nichols. Nichols could be a dangerous fighter even now, but Arterton is ranked at three in the last Boxing World rankings. I thought Nichols might give her trouble, but wasn’t going to win. She didn’t.

My off and On buddy Jenny Mac was taller, but 14 years older than Dennings. This was the only bout on the card between top twenty fighters. Mac held her own through five, but she didn’t make it to the end of the end of the sixth, as Dennings walked away with a KO win. By the way, if you were not watching on TV, I did not do the interview in body paint.

Stewart was three inches taller than her opponent. Hard to believe isn’t it? Actually she is two inches taller than Dennings and slightly taller than Bennet who are top bantams.

I thought the one fight that was a foregone conclusion was Hill/Theron. Hill, an up and coming lightweight, was bigger heavier and 21 years younger than the Golden Goddess. She had handed the CT a terrible loss last year KOing her in seven. This fight proved to be almost an exact replica of that fight. She handed CT a bad beating in the sixth and finished her in the seventh. I expect Hills ranking to skyrocket in the next Boxing Worlds rankings. I might say it was hard for me to interview Hill after the fight. It was not because I don’t like Hill. I like her a lot. She’s becoming one of my Front Street favorites, but CT is a good friend of mine.

NOTE. In the first two months in all FCBA bouts there have been 122 fights.  How many of those 122 fights ended in KOs? 122. I think writers should stop using wins and wins by KO in their write ups. The two figures have become redundant. Wins and wins by KO have become the same and it is not fair to the fighters who came on the scene six or seven years ago when decisions were common.