Posted by Simguy on 8/3/2002, 8:01 am.

Before; Champion Michelle Williams steps in ringside to get her on air props for deposing Lucy Liu, shaking up the flyweight ranks, and to make some comments on Danes/Stevens. “I think it is a great mistake for Claire to overlook Rachel—to me, they’re about equal in terms if threat. If Danes gets brave,  Stevens will hurt her—Claire can’t bulldoze Rachel the way I did. I think the while key for Stevens is to stay composed, realize she’s going to lose rounds, and just keep applying the pressure—Claire WILL crack, and I wouldn’t be surprised to se Rachel pull out a late stoppage,” Stevens in cotton two piece undies, royal blue top, red bottoms, highlighted hair—Danes in black bikini.

During R1: Danes circling, tucking her chin behind her left shoulder and making tight turns around it, making Stevens miss a lot of punches. Danes busy in the gut—she’ll slip a Rachel right hand, come up snick-snack on the paunch and pivot to the left as the Brit reloads. Stevens with her dukes up, trying to walk Claire down but getting badly outclassed this round--still manages some well-intended wide right hands to the hip to avoid the shutout.

R2: Thumping good work from Rachel—she shows decent jump out of corner, jiggly offense as she douses Claire at the ropes. Danes supple against the strands, picking off Rachel’s head shits, leaning in to smother, swaying out to make Stevens miss, slipping under a lot of British leather, Rachel stays on her pushing a stabilizing left into Claire’s chest, then plunging right hands to the stomach to put some mileage on those trim legs. Danes minimizes the damage but can’t answer back—corner doesn’t want her getting cute at the ropes.

R3,4: Oh, Claire Danes, Danes back at midring, getting low—she’s countering Rachel in the belly, but she’s also stinging Stevens with sudden lead right hands in the nose, clapping hooks in the ear. Rachel stunned repeatedly in these rounds, rocked onto her heels as Danes pounds away to face with vicious intentions. End of the third, hard-to-cut Rachel busted up over the left eye, courtesy some slicing Danes elbows—fourth round Danes goes to work like a surgeon. Jabs, straight right hands bounce off that eye—Claire melting away like a phantom after striking—Rachel wobbly butt, soaking up punishment and struggling forward on autopilot. AFTER 4, REF GIVES Rachel an out—Stevens refuses to quit and begs the man to stop Claire’s repeated elbow strikes. That eye is UGLY.

R5: Claire up and down, swiveling to her left—taking mittfulls of Rachel’s tummy, coming up to clout jaw, and always, spiking that swollen left eye. Stevens getting steered around the mat, but dutifully coming forward, just not getting enough leather on meat to slow Danes down. All Claire to the final moments when she paws a lazy left—Rachel bends in and down, pulls the right hand over the top and DANES TAKES A SEAT! Shattering shot off the face drops Claire to her backside—Stevens buoyed by the sight as Danes gets stiffly to her feet at the bell.

R6: Shutout Claire Danes, Danes taking a little off the fastball—got a little power punch happy with the success to Rachel’s head, now boxes smart bell to bell. Stevens snorting, following, loading up, getting pre-empted—she just can’t get off as Danes nimbly picks her over, then escapes out to the side.

R7,8: Pecking blonde attack continues—she’s wheeling Spadafora-like around her prey, stabbing her right hand into Rachel’s left eye, locking jaw the left hook—S6evens just on the take and muling forward. Danes stepping in on occasion to lick 6 punch combinations against Rachel—Stevens just standing up with her gloves tight at her face, letting the rain pelt against her body and guard. Mostly slapping arm stuff from Danes, but judges see her getting off, while Rachel gets tattooed.

R9: Shutout Danes, It’s a romp at this point—Claire’s legs, snaking upper body movement preclude her from taking any real damage, meanwhile she’s able to get whip armed right/lefts against the waist, wheel-and deal strikes to the face as Rachel blunders forward. Stevens not jabbing, reacting late to punches. Claire bright and breezy at the bell, slaps Stevens on her tired butt en route to corners.

R10: Claire socks away the round with her slip and stick routine for 2 minutes, then fades to the ropes, waves Rachel in and clams up. Weary Stevens grudgingly squares way, but she’s missed so many punches tonight she doesn’t commit properly. Stevens poking straight rights, halfheartedly turning into lefts/rights to the body—Danes with the right at her cheek, left hand low, using her left shoulder to nudge Rachel off, leaning away into ropes to slip. Bell sounds—Danes raises her mitts, follows a bludgeoned sullen Stevens all the way to her corner as Rachel stares at the canvas.

After: Mish: “As I expected, Rachel gave Claire all she wanted to tonight. Danes showed some heart getting off the canvas in the 5^th, but you have to think if that was a Mish Williams counter right hand she gets caught with, fight’s over. Claire got a lot of cooperation tonight—Rachel comes forward, but she doesn’t work, so that’s perfect for Danes. You could see how gunshy Claire was in the second half—stunk the joint out to get the decision rather than really rolling Rachel up. It’s a win I guess, a weak win. If she wants me next, I better not see a 50-50 money offer from those HISC bean counters.” Almost as if hearing the comments—Danes lounges at the ropes directly above Mish, raising her eyebrows expectantly, shrugging her shoulders, “When’s it going to happen Mish?” Claire wants to know. Grins and shrugs from a coy champion.

Reposted by Archer 9/26/13.