THE WELTERWEIGHT REVIVAL
WILD-CARD FIGHT #1
Posted by Lookout! Boxing & Vassago on April 19, 2015, 9:39 am
BEFORE: It's the first of the wildcard bouts where Scottish redhead Karen Gillan takes on American brunette Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as both women try to avoid the inglorious wooden spoon decider. Gillan is yet to win in SSB in five attempts but nearly mauled Sarah Lancaster into exhaustion in her first round match while O'Keefe suffered a straight-forward defeat at the hands of Paula Patton. Mainly because Gillan is yet to score that elusive victory the Tractorpull Magazine's money is on O'Keefe however Karen is truly determined to finally break her lousy streak without having to wait another two weeks for her last opportunity in the foreseeable future.
Karen Gillan wears a green bikini top, black hip-huggers and blue gloves. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe wears a red bikini top, white hip-huggers and white gloves. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the welterweight division.
Round 1:
Jodi strikes first blood - if not literally - as she dominates the early close range exchange and forces the redhead back after thumping her a couple of times on the cheeks. Karen struggles to stretch her elbows at this stage and bounces off the guard as Jodi ups the tempo of her attacks and keeps swinging around her opponent's head before landing another solid jab on the nose to make Gillan think better off it and retreat for good. O'Keefe tries to inflict more damage but doesn't quite have the speed neccessary allthough she scores single punch success in the final minute as Karen can only land a few harpoons around the elbows but fails to slice the high guard at all.
Round 2:
More close range brawling that originally gives O'Keefe the advantage as she strikes the redhead's mits aside and digs into her cheeks but Gillan refuses to buckle this time and leans on the brunette with more midsection assault and spikes Jodi's liver area before enforcing a clinch struggle. Both women wrestle each other for a while before Jodi breaks free only to eat a clubbing hook on the jaw followed by a piercing jab on the brow ridge. This combo roots her to the spot briefly but that's enough for Karen to finally score repeated facial leather as she wobbles the American back to the ropes but runs out of time to really polish her charge and O'Keefe shuts her off in another clinch struggle in the dying seconds of the round.
Round 3:
Both women seem happy to brawl in close range and Jodi comes out on top this time after pulverizing the redhead's guard with a piercing uppercut combo that tags the chin and snaps Karen's head back. Immediate facial follow up has the brunette thumping Gillan's cheeks and rocking her backwards even though O'Keefe just can't trap her foe along the ropes as the Scottish lass escapes to safety in desperate albeit successful fashion. The pursuit is on afterwards and Karen seems happy to concede the round just letting Jodi wear herself out which suggests this one might go all the way and Karen's been there before fighting Sarah Lancaster for almost full half and hour. O'Keefe's stamina remains suspect even though she took Amanda Righetti nine rounds not that long ago. Jodi scores a late rally between the guard and clips the redhead's jugs but gets clinched on the turn and wrestled into the ropes as Gillan sticks to her own plan and escapes serious punishment.
Round 4:
Gillan hangs back in mid distance which suggests she will try to maul Jodi into exhaustion but the American is keen to score immediate damage instead and leaps around her defensive minded opponent landing single hand leather in the proccess. Karen's guard withstands those efforts even though she gets nailed by a couple of loose shots however once Jodi starts to question the precision of her attacks and drops her arms to pause briefly, she jumps into a charge of her own and slams a quick one-two on the cheeks to snap the brunette's head back and trigger a high-tempo dust up where she pierces Jodi's breasts and locks her in another clinch after getting whacked across the mouth herself. Jodi shows superior strenght and breaks free first again to send an uppercut flurry that trips Gillan back to the ropes and there's no escape this time as Jodi stuns her with a left hook on the temple before an uppercut from the right crashes into the mouth and gives the Scottish lass a fat lip on the spot.
Round 5:
The lip injury makes Karen change her tactics in the fifth as the exhaustion plan threatens to never materialise with O'Keefe still looking very sharp and menacing. This time it's Gillan who enforces the close range tangle and beats her rival for a right on right overhand which snaps the brunette's head back before adding a quick uppercut on the jugs. Jodi tries to switch low for the midriff but is bumped off and fails to react for a crunching overhand that nails her on the right brow ridge and wobbles back on the spot.... Gillan comes crashing down on her and pummels back to the ropes with a series of jabs before piercing the navel with a low switch; Jodi rocks back & forth on her feet but fails to punch the redhead back from her heels and has to cover up in earmuff and seek a clinching respite however Gillan's into the feisty mood now and just peppers the brunette's flesh for remainder of the round and keeps her well trapped on the ropes to score her best round of the night.
Round 6:
Jodi's wary of the change in her rival's tactics but doesn't have the speed and agility neccessary to avoid the onslaught plus Karen looks really impressive in terms of fitness as she jumps all over the brunette and spikes her between the guard during the opening minute to sink the cumbersome and tiring American on her knees. The ammount of leather increases in the second minute and Jodi begins to feel the heat as she moans in her defensive struggles but is eventually pummelled back to the ropes where Gillan smacks her on the cheeks and brow ridge before drilling the navel again and making Jodi gasp for air in worrying fashion... the American closes her eyes and just wraps herself around the Scottish lass but fails to prevent Karen from pounding her tummy into a mush and quite frankly it's the physical shape of the two vixens making the difference as O'Keefe looks dead tired on her legs after just six rounds and it's obvious she didn't really recover well enough since her Patton clash a fortnight ago.
Round 7:
Gillan traps a slow moving O'Keefe in the middle of the ring and slashes her guard aside with repeated jabs to push her slowly into the turnbuckle. The response is sluggish and predictable as Jodi loops her overhands wide off the mark and gets sinked on her knees with a heavy left/right combo on the eye that inflicts a serious swelling around O'Keefe's left eye. The American just leans back on the ropes and begins to yelp in pain again as Gillan thunders her face thereafter and rocks all over the place literally punching her back to the corner.... the earmuff cover doesn't make the grade anymore and when Karen nails her on the solar plexus the loudest scream of the night makes the brunette drop her arms and slump her head in a sign of checking out of this fight... Still the redhead finds a clubbing hook on the right ear that JUST SENDS O'KEEFE CRASHING DOWN ON HER SIDE with eyes closed.. ref starts the count but aborts it at five since there's no response from the fallen US woman at all... KO7 Karen Gillan!!!
AFTER: Karen can't believe it at first but finally realizes she's broken the deadlock and scored that elusive maiden victory tonight! The Lookout! Atlantic entourage explodes in joyful madness as if Vanessa Hudgens retained her flyweight title or something. It was a tough start for the Scottish redhead but her fitness preparation eventually proved vastly superior and she took full advantage of Jodi Lyn leaking energy in numbers ever since the fifth round. Now the too-close-to-call defeat against Sarah Lancaster looks really unfortunate but a 5th place contest consolation is still above Karen's expectations as she entered the Welterweight Revival as the only winless fighter of the lot. And now she doesn't look like the worst of them at all which Jodi Lyn found about the hard way. Indeed the American was just unable to recover from the thumping Paula Patton gave her a fortnight ago and was mauled into a KO disaster which pretty much resembled her own original plan. Talk about the hunter becoming the huntee Las Vegas style!
Final result: Karen Gillan def. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe KO7.
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