WELTERWEIGHT JAMBOREE

Finals

Posted by Simguy on 8/27/2005, 3:27 pm.

They had earned their final-berths with stirring first round stoppages over worthy foes. Brooke had shown the hardiest chin and surprisingly, the gutsiest hearty in fighting some of the toughest rounds of the tournament and proving her mettle. Henstridge had proven to be the irresistible puncher, dispatching her foes with clinical precision and savage power; her route to the final had been comparatively pain-free.

Round 1 and 2 cast Brooke in the role of cautious stalker, patiently walking Henstridge down, keeping hands up and wary of Natasha’s sudden delivery. Henny used her jab like a cattle prod, banging away at the guard and body of her foe, keeping Brooke from pushing her weight too aggressively, and turning the bigger beauty with circular stepping in a clockwise direction.

In the third round, Henstridge proved she could move Brooke as right hands began to penetrate and score heavily to the Shields’ chin. Brooke would visit the canvas off a series of bang-bang one-twos and Nat Henstridge took a commanding lead into the middle rounds.

They traded bombs in the 4th and 5th--still fighting at range, working behind heavy jabs to land right hands, then sliding  in to clinch. Henny’s backside trembled, but stood up to Brooke’s thunderous punching and the fight took on a tense, stop and go rhythm as the girls circled, punched, and tied up.

In the sixth, the fight began to slip away from Brooke Shields. Natasha’s heartless jab opened a cut above Brook’s left eye, which clearly distracted Shields long enough for a searing right to graze her chin. Stepping in fence post holes, Brooke was hurt, unable to hold ground, and Natasha was able to walk her  foe to ropes. Nat set up the way she had on Hunter--pawing and palming her left hand to disorganize Brooke’s guard, then drilling in savage right hands at the openings as Shields slumped in the ropes. Brooke gobbled some hellish punishment but hung on making it out of the rounds all busted up and staggery.

Now Nat put her body on Brooke, going at her big-girl, walking and pushing and bullying while putting clouting leather together at close and medium distance, Shields stumbled in retreat, getting clouted about her head and shoulders, ripped across her ribcage. Hurt from hook against her body, Brooke ate the lethal Henstridge cross and fell to all fours destitute and forlorn. Brooke would fight off the count with an impressive show of heart, but Henny’s blood was up and more punishment was coming. Shields fought in spots, occasionally lifting a heavy right hand up into Henny’s belly, or bashing Henny’s arms, but the fresher, stronger, vixen down the stretch was Nat.

In the tenth, Natasha came for Brooke and tasted the thudding might of Shields’ jab. The girls stood apart on wide spread legs, trading pounding stick to chests and faces, when Brooke turned into a cleaving right hand to chin and SITTING HENSTRIDGE DOWN!  Henny was in shock--the audience leaping to its collective feet with a shout as now Natasha had to dig down and show something extra to beat a count. Shields waded in, pawing her left the way Natasha had done and swinging thick right hands to the body to break the blonde down. Big, Foremanesque lefts and rights shook Nat to the waist, with Brooke occasionally coming off the body with crude, but cudgeling uppercuts. AGAIN Natasha wobbled to her knees, debilitated downstairs, head ringing, and AGAIN,, she refused Brooke satisfaction. With a minute left, Shields pawed left, leaned in with creaming rights, her shoulder brushing up on Natasha’s open mouth on follow through. Big, bashing lefts wedged in behind Henstridge’s elbow, bending her chassis and forcing her breath passed cracked lips in a gusty whimper. Flat bludgeoning punches burst against Natasha’s biceps, numbing her, rendering her helpless to answer back, and with seconds left in the fight THE REF STEPPED IN! Brooke Shields had done it it--she’d overhauled Natasha Henstridge to win the Honolulu Invitational.

Afterwards:

1.) Pundits marveled at Brooke’s come-from behind win to upset the favored Nat Henny, who bhad appeared all but untouchable throughout the tournament.

2.) First rond losers would claim they had not been paid their agreed upon appearance fees, and had been saddled with Hotel bills they had not expected. Catherine Zeta Jones waded in with her crack litigation team--men who had won supposedly unsinkable cases against the Tabloids--and effectively handed these women a savage beach down in the courts to go with their humiliation in ring experiences.

3.) At trophy presentation/awards dinner--Brooke was presented with a three-foot tall pillar/statuette deal. Stacy Keibler streaked across the stage, was captured backstage and handed another dreadful beating by vengeful upstaged welterweights.

4.) Pundits pondered several questions. The existence of a tournament champion obviously undermined the authority of the crowned division champion as well as established Welter royalty like GLN and Ali Landry. Would tournaments be the way of the future for the welterweight division, taking the pressure off individual fighters to make big events fights?

Reposted by Archer 2/1/11.