The opening bout of Lioness Club's inagural event features rookie Pilar Rubio and Leilani Dowding who last won back in March against Liz McClarnon. The fight is scheduled for six rounds in bantamweight division.

Pilar Rubio wearing a black bikini and red gloves. Leilani Dowding wearing navy-blue bikini and red gloves.

Round 1:
The crowd is still buzzing in anticipation of things to come later in the evening but they react to Leilaini landing a big punch on Pilar's ribs twenty seconds into the round. She goes for the follow up and pushes the Spaniard along the ropes. Pilar covers her face as Leilani lands more punches and clearly dominates. However she's not able to break her opponent's guard and Pilar ducks under her elbow back to centre of the ring. She's lucky to escape Leiliani's early charge but looks hesitant and surprised at the challenge lying ahead. Leilani continues to throw several jabs and hooks, neither of them causing any real harm to Pilar, but the first round has clearly gone to the British woman.

Round 2:
Still no attack from Pilar as Leilani jumps in on her and tries some fancy combinations. One of her right hooks skimms off Pilar's head and she ducks away in desperation as Leilani chases her into the corner. The British woman lands more punches but they all hit Spaniard's guard who is on the ropes continuously. Leilani is getting frustrated that she's unable to send her rival down on the canvas and steps back tempting Pilar into launching some attack on her own. However some single punches from the Spanish fighter do absolutely no damage to Dowding who has hardly broken any sweat so far. At the bell Leiliani secures another round in her favor.

Round 3:
Pilar Rubio finally gets off to some charge after receiving heavy pep-talk from Lioness Club head trainer, Gina Wild. She catches Leiliani's stomach with a low jab and peppers her ribs with a nice combination. That's the best the crowd has seen from the new girl and they have increased their support. Leilani guards well though and keeps Pilar at distance with some straight jabs. She has adjusted to the Spaniard's challenge and doesn't allow her to push her along the ropes. Neither of these two seem quicker on the feet and the round is contested primarily in the center of the ring. As the bell sounds, it's pretty even allthough Pilar might have convinced the judges she's the winner in this one.

Round 4:
After the experience from the previous round, Leilani doesn't waste any time and immediately begins to throw punches at her rival. Couple of quick swings miss the target though and then Pilar replies with a crushing hook into Dowding's midsection. The British woman clearly felt that punch and steps backwards. Pilar has seen it and follows up with a flurry of jabs, but they are very chaotic and fail to cause any more damage to Dowding. It's all down to a rush of blood to the rookie's head; more experienced fighter could have finished this fight off right there and then. Leilani clinches along the ropes and ref separates two women. But Leilaini soon seeks for more clinch and gets warned for it. However she's wasted enough time to recover from that hook and keeps Rubio at distance right until the bell. This round must go against her though.

Round 5:
Leiliang Dowding plays the waiting game at the start of the penultimate round and tries to lure her Spanish rival into more attack which she can later counter. But Pilar wisely throws only some single punches and both seem to be content with this lack of activity. The crowd doesn't like it, after the thrills in the previous rounds, this one is shockingly poor display of boxing. Some boos and whistles are being heard, but both women seem to ignore it and keep their strict guards up with only single jabs being thrown at each other. The bell finally brings this lacklustre round into an end and both women seem to settle it all in the final sixth round.

Round 6:
The general feeling is that whoever wins the final round might as well win the entire fight. Leilani has only once fought six rounds before, when she was knocked out by Ashley Benson in the seventh round earlier in April this year. Pilar throws the first combination and pushes Dowding along the ropes, she unleashed a fine uppercut that breaks through her rival's guard but only skimms off Leilani's nose. Pure instict saved the British women there! Pilar pummels her into the corner but is unable to find her way through Leiliani's guard anymore. Dowding clinches in the corner and referee separates them back to centre of the ring. Rubio throws a big hook at her foe straight away but is slow in execution and Leilani quickly moves back to avoid trouble. Luckily for the British woman, Pilar loses her balance as the hook went skywards and she's exposed to Leilani's counter. Two steps forward and Dowding is right at Pilar again who doesn't have any time to raise her gloves to cover a devastating hook from the left-side. Half of the crowd didn't even see where that was coming from and the next they see is Pilar going down on her knees as Leilani punched her down with that solid hook! Referee counts to eight and Pilar looks in some trouble before finally getting up. There's still a full minute remaining and Leilani goes for the kill pushing the clearly distracted Spaniard into the corner and pounds her without no mercy whatsoever. A barrage of hooks and jabs land on Pilar gloves, but hardly one of them is catching her in the face. Leilani looks at the referee if he's going to stop it, but he refuses to. Twenty seconds to go and Pilar's knees are wobbling, but she's not going down! One final hook from Leilaini finally goes through and stuns Rubio straight in the face, but as she lowers her gloves, the bell sounds and referee jumps in between the fighters and prevents Dowding from finishing off her rival for good. Leiliang looks frustrated that she just missed the KO, but walks back to her corner with her arm raised high in the air. Pilar walks back to her corner looking pretty beaten up as the result of Leilaini's final round treatment. It doesn't seem she will convince the judges to giver her the win...

After six rounds of boxing we go to the scorecards:

Judge Walter Iooss, Jr. (USA) scores the bout 59-56
Judge Sergei Demekhine (Russia) scores the bout 58-56
Judge Colin Jackson (Wales) scores the bout 59-56

...all in favor of LEILANI DOWDING who improves her record to 4-5, 3 KO.

Leilani Dowding accepts the verdict and walks around the ring as the crowd cheer her on. Pilar Rubio nods her head in approval of the verdict, she knows that the final round was always going to give the win to her rival. Trainer Gina Wild pads her on the back and escorts to the locker room. She soon emerges back ringside as the second fight of the evening is being announced already.

Final score: Leilani Dowding def. Pilar Rubio UD6