4 February 2008
WEBA Roundup with Devon Ling and Val
Henning
'This was a rough night for Heather', says Mike Corrigan
'I do my talking in the ring', says Rose
Maria and the
Marsupial's Pouch
Santos in training
Devon Ling meets Val Henning at the WEBA Towers to go over the week's WEBA action.
Val: Hey Devon, some great fights this week, huh?
Devon: There was a totally hellacious battle for the world welterweight title, as the feisty Italian "Assassin" Rose Mora took the title away from Hellcat Heather Corrigan with a spectacular knockout.
Val: That was a slam bang, slobber-knocking punch-up that coulda gone either way! Did you think Rose Mora still had fights like that in her, Devon?
Devon:
You
know, I
had wondered what was ahead in Rose's boxing career after
she was outboxed by the Mexican newbie Esther
Gonzalez in
her
last
fight. She's been close to the top of the
welterweights
for years but it had been five long years since she last held the world
belt.
But she's a battler who's never out of a fight unless she's
just been KO'd, and she'd beaten Corrigan in several title fights
before this one. So maybe Rose's loss to Gonzalez was telling us
more about
Esther's boxing skills than about Rose's chances in an
all-out brawl with Corrigan. This was a total slugfest
in
which two hard hitters went toe to toe all the way and beat the you
know what out of each other. Heather nearly knocked Rose out in
the
second,
put her on the canvas twice and the ring doc went to the Italian
corner before the fight could go on. Then Rose busted up
Heather's
mouth big time in the fourth. The defending champ
had
blood
pouring down her chin and the doc was over in her corner looking to
stop the
fight! They let Heather go on as she was ahead on
the
scorecards but she couldn't put Rose away and took more
punishment in the fifth and sixth. Just when it was starting to
look like Heather was done for, the tables started to turn her way
again in the seventh when she broke Rose's nose
with
a picture
perfect left and then went on the attack despite blood still pouring
from her mouth. This began to look like one of the
bloodier punch-ups at Wu's, as Heather and Rose took turns
beating
the bejeezers
out of each other, neither giving an inch and both
getting
hit hard. Both were bleeding profusely and I figured the doc
might stop the fight any time, because they were gettng beaten
up so bad, but the officials decided to let them go on. Rose
got the upper hand in the tenth when she
knocked
Heather down with a left to the head, and she never
looked back after that, pummelling the champion round the ring and
knocking her down several more times before a
brutal uppercut put Heather away for the full count.
It was a wild sight, Val, the
defeated champ down on all fours spitting blood while
Rose celebrated with blood streaming from her broken nose
and the fans going nuts. Definitely a night to
rember in the
WEBA
Val: A huge win for Rose Mora at this stage of her career, and she finally got the title back in just the kind of all-out kickass battle she seems to love. Only last week Corrigan had been complaining that nobody would step up to fight her, but Rose came through with the answer for that big time! The WEBA welterweights can sure put on a show for their title, but how about the lightweights? Rikku Hui took a shot at the world belt by calling out Baby Doll Ramirez ... that was another gutsy call, huh?
Devon:
Rikku had performed well against Baby Doll in the early rounds of their last fight,
and she has come on strong since then, so this rematch would be a good measure of
the
Strongarm girl's progress. Baby Doll has turned into perhaps the best
fighter
pound for pound in WEBA history, so the lightweight contenders are looking for even
a
decent showing against her. Whatever their hopes for taking Baby Doll's title eventually ,
she's the yardstick the other lightweights have to measure themselves
against. Rikki Hui started strong in this one as well and was able to hang with the
terrible Texan for the first three rounds, but Carla began to dominate
the action when she caught Rikku against the ropes and in a corner
in the back half of the fourth. Baby Doll went to her corner bleeding
from her mouth but she looked confident that she had solved Rikku Hui's
aggressive boxing style again. They traded hard shots in the fifth but
Carla got the better of it in a script we've seen a few times before. Rikku took her first trip to the
canvas in the sixth and Carla kept the heat on her after that, leading
to a standing eight count later in the round. Carla was actually bleeding a
little
more from her mouth as Rikku had got some leather through but there wasn't much doubt about who was getting
the upper hand overall. By the end of the seventh Rikku looked like a beaten
fighter and the doctor went to her corner between the rounds before
letting
her continue. To the Strongarm girl's credit, she survived several more
rounds and never gave up the effort, but the champion closed the fight out with
a punishing ninth round in which Rikku was knocked down several times
before she was finally counted out.
Val: Once again Carla took her time getting the final KO, you almost wonder if she has a bit of a sadistic streak! But it was a gutsy challenge by Rikku Hui and she may have learned some things that she can put to use in her quest for the WEBA title. She might have a better shot at Keiko Suzuki, Devon.
Devon: But Carla's the one who shows the lightweights where they have to get to and I give big props to Rikku for giving it another try. She's from a gym where the world championship's the standard now as Cyan Locklear and Jordan Strongarm have both made it to the top in their divisions. The Strongarm team have to be trying to prep Rikku as the one to take Carla Ramirez down eventually, and this was another look at what's it's going to take to do that. How about the undercard, Val? Any surprises there?
Val: Not a surprise any more I guess but the
featherweight tournament semifinals saw another strong performance by
Chile's bad girl Mónica "KO" Rodriguez. Mónica started well and then never let up
against our good friend and WEBA veteran Tina "Tiger" Boppa. The li'l Boppa
girl had her best round in the fifth when she pummeled the Chilean
against the ropes and dropped her to her knees with a bad ol' titty-banger.
Devon: A what? That's not a boxing term I've heard before!
Val: Well it's what I call that one-two combo to the boobies that folds a girl's knees up so she goes down, hon! Ya don't knock anyone out with that but it sure hurts, Mónica took one of those and went down to get over it, but trainer Manuel Soto got her fired up between the rounds and the Santiago slugger came right back with a great round of her own in the sixth and then beat Tina's nose bloody in the eighth. The fight ended with Tina taking a hellacious beating from the Chilean, and there was absolutely no doubt who's earned the right to go on to the tournament final. Tina's another former WEBA "golden girl" who's starting to struggle now, and maybe she ought to have been on Telisha Cooper's list of "time to go's".
Devon: Mónica will now go on to face Raquel Rivera for the title belt, as Rivera stopped former world champ Sunny Wong at the end of the sixth. Sunny had taken too much damage around her eyes and couldn't see well enough to continue. and the ref called the fight with Sunny sitting on her stool in her corner. That was a tough goodbye to the featherweight division for Sunny Wong, but she may have another go at world titles as a bantamweight.
Val: Sunny had been on the low end of featherweight all her career and fighting at bantamweight will give her a shot at fighting more girls her own size in future. Mónica's been the success story of the tournament so far, going further than we might have guessed from the pre-tournament standings. But she'll get her biggest test ever now when she goes up against Raquel for the title belt. Raquel must want another shot at Jordan Strongarm soon, and Mónica's kinda business "Rocky" needs to take care of on the way to another world title shot.
Devon: Anything else on the undercard that stand out for you, Val?
Val: Carmen
"Leoparda" Santos scored
another impressive win by outpunching the current junior featherweight
champion Cathy "Slick" Simmons in an exciting eight-rounder. Cathy's
edge in
height and ring experience showed in the early rounds as the lanky
Canadian looked like she would be able to control the pretty Brazilian
at first. By the end of the third the pretty Leoparda's nose
was
bleeding and she was starting to show some swelling around both her
eyes. Cathy's accurate punching had taken its toll but some good
corner
work to minimize Carmen's problems and perhaps a little over-confidence
from
Cathy helped the Brazilian battle her way back into this
fight. Carmen worked the tall Canadian's body well to get a
knockdown in the fourth
and that took some steam out of Cathy's attack. As the fight went on it
was
Carmen Santos who seemed to get stronger and Cathy Simmons really
struggled in the
final round, going to the canvas again. Cathy's got some slick
boxing moves to go with her ring name, but it was the Brazilian
newbie's heavy hands and body
shots that made the difference in the late going and tipped the
judges' decision her way.
Devon: Carmen's looking more and more like an emerging threat in the lightweight division as she has some good wins under her belt already, and she already came close to winning the junior lightweight tournament. A lot could depend on how well she uses her gym time as she starts to accumulate training money.
Val: On the other side of it, Cathy Simmons is not having a lot of success fighting lightweights who seems to have a little too much heft and firepower for her. Trouble is she also has tough contenders like Fiona Black and Mónica Rodriguez to contend with in her own division, so she needs some bouts with lightweights to fill out her schedule. It's a tough road ahead for Cathy and she needs to pick up some more training money somehow. She got off to a fairly good start in WEBA and has some good wins but consistent streaks have been a problem for her so far. Anyone else looking hot to you, Devon?
Devon: It
was a better than usual week for the Russians, and
middleweight Olga "The Hammer" Ivanova put a dent in Irish newbie
Hannah "Hot Stuff" Riley's
record. Hannah started her WEBA career with a such a red hot KO
streak that I was wondering if the sky's the limit for her, but the big
Russian cooled "Hot Stuff" down and brought her down to earth with a
hard fought split
decision. Olga did her best work in the opening round, starting
fast and keeping
big pressure on the Irish girl after winning a
standing eight count and coming through with a nice combo that dropped
Hannah to the
canvas for a short count just before the bell. Hannah did well
to recover from this shaky start and she showed her toughness by
clawing her way back into the fight in
the later rounds, but she only put Olga down on the canvas briefly
once. Hannah had her hands full with the Russian's banging style
despite giving
the Hammer a bloody nose early on in the fight. We haven't seen
a lot of Ivanova recently but she's a very tough opponent at
middleweight.
Val: Ivanova's had some impressive KO wins in her career, so Hannah Riley did well to recover from that slow start in the first round to end up with the split decision. Another Russian who got a win this week was Anna Kulikova, who started bantamweight career by outpointing Japanese newbie Aiko Miyakawa convincingly over eight rounds .
Devon: The new bantamweight division should get going properly soon, with new boxers from India and Trinidad joining Sunny Wong, Anna Kulikova and Aiko Miyakawa in what may be a very international group when we're done. We're getting some new boxers from exotic places these days, Val!
Val: Yes, and the WEBA's still taking applicants for this new bantamweight class, which may give more managers an opportunity to work with smaller girls who win with their speed and skills rather than raw firepower. I gotta admit the slugfests like we saw in the welterweight ttle fight are pretty exciting, but we could see some skill tests with the smaller girls who will need speed and ring skills to make up for not having quite as much pop in their punches.
Devon: Interesting times ahead, Val. See you back at the fights!
Mike Corrigan stands outside the dressing room where the doctor is checking his daughter over after her brutal KO loss to Rose Mora.
Reporter: Is Heather going to be ok, Mike? She took a bad beating and lost the title.
Mike: I can't sugar coat it, fellas, this was a rough night for Heather but Rose Mora is always a fierce opponent and we didn't expect anything to come easy. Heather and Rose both lay it all on the line very time, no holding back. They're two hurting girls right now but Heather's going to be hurting longer because this is the second straight time she's watched Rose take a title belt home after they've fought. This is a big rivalry for us and Rose walked off with Heather's title this time, so Heather's going to be fighting mad when she gets healthy.
Reporter: Heather was bleeding so much that the referee talked about stopping the fight earlier, so are you sorry that you let her go on and get knocked out?
Mike (laughs): Fellas, Rose may be sorrier that fight went on longer, because Heather broke her nose after that! No, we have no regrets. Heather wouldn't have wanted to lose her title by a TKO if she could still stand up, see and breathe! She's a warrior and when you have two girls this tough going for a world title, you don't want the referee deciding it on a little bit of blood. I'd have been a lot happier about it if Heather had knocked Rose out, of course, but with the world title on the line you don't want to throw in the towel. Heather's always got a shot in this kind of fight, but it was Rose's night in the end. That's a chance you take.
Reporter: Telisha Cooper said WEBA veterans like Heather should show their "love for the sport" by hanging up their gloves. Devon Ling and Val Henning have often said Heather's past her best. Could a beating like this be the end of the line for Heather's ring career?
Mike: End
of the line? No way, fellas. Heather got knocked around pretty bad at
the end of this fight and I never ever like to watch that
happen, but
she's taken losses before and come
back to win big. This fight was nothing to make Heather hang her gloves up over, it was close until the last
round, when another very good fighter got a great
KO. I'm sorry it was my daughter who got KO'd as that always hurts me too but she has a right
to a rematch now and we'll go for that.
Reporter: So Team
Corrigan has no comment on Telisha Cooper's callout to Heather to stop fighting?
Mike: Cooper didn't single Heather out. She called out Rose, Claire, Jeanette, Cyan, Tammy as well ... I have no beef with Telisha Cooper, she was a tough competitor who fought for a long time. I am not going to try to take anything away from her or get into a dissing match with her. She is entitled to her opinion, but that's all it is, her opinion.
Reporter: Cooper said that if the other veterans like Heather really love the sport they would step aside and let younger fighters develop, maybe train a younger fighter, themselves instead of hogging the spotlight
Mike: Heather isn't stopping anyone from developing, and title fights like you just saw from Heather and Rose should inspire young fighters to get to where they can put on this kind of a show! There's always a spotlight on top fighters but good young boxers can go for those junior titles. We've always talked to the press, win or lose, fellas, so everyone knows all about Heather. Anyone can do that, it's not hard to get the spotlight if you fight well and talk to the press. So to be quite honest i don't know what Telisha's beef was, but I wish her well in whatever she does next.
Reporter: So Heather will be back for more, despite the whupping she took tonight?
Mike (grins): You can ask her that yourself that later, when her mouth is all healed ... but if I were you I'd stand well out of her way when you do! This wasn't a whupping, fellas, it was just a damn good fight she lost. You want to see a whupping, just keep talking to her like that when she's feeling better and she'll show you one!
Devon Ling is standing in the dressing room of the new world's welterweight champion .. Rose Mora. The champagne is flowing and it is truly a festive atmosphere.
Devon: Champ, Champ, can I have a few words? What was going through your mind as the ref counted to "10"?
Rose: It has been a long road to get here! First, I want to thank Heather for giving me a shot at the title. She is a true champion of the WEBA. And I want to thank my husband and trainer for his advice and friendship these years.
Devon: Did the fight go according to your plans?
Rose: Yes, I knew I had to last the first few rounds with Heather. She is a great finisher once she has you hurt in the ring. Once the fight got into the later rounds, I felt more confident and knew that I'd be there at the end.
Devon: What are your plans?
Rose: A good rest!! And then back to training.
Devon: It seems a few have been avoiding you here in the WEBA.
Rose: Oh yes...it's tough for me to get a fight..a lot have avoided me and have ducked me.Oh and tell Telisha Cooper, I'm not going home. Too bad she retired.
Devon: Are you calling her out?
Rose. She does her talking at a microphone...I do my talking in the ring!
All the while she is thinking, the back of very back of her head gets sore. And the front of her head gets tighter. Devon Ling has the resources to beat it. But she best keep a clear head while grabbing Frez for a quick interview after the Lozada fight tonight.
Devon (apprehensive) : Hello, Balio. Hello Maria. Well you two have gotta be happy after tonight, huh?
Balio (smiling): Hello, Miss Devon. Yes, it was great to have Miss Maria back and focused again on her boxing. And we have gained plenty of respect for Miss Esther tonight.
Devon: And so you should, Frez. Gonzalez had your big girl all over the place in the first three rounds.
Balio: Yes she did, Miss Devon. And Miss Esther landed some big shots in the third splitting our cheek and causing our corner problems early.
Maria: I felt the punch plenty, Devon. Esther has a power whack for sure. So I had to settle right down after that. Then I let her have some of the same medicine in the fourth.
Devon: You got some good head shots on her then Maria. (laughing) Both of you were a bit worse for wear at that point.
Balio: It became the war of attritions from there, Miss Devon. Both fighters hit the canvas in the fifth and it was just a battle for survival from then on.
Maria (proudly): In the next two rounds I had Esther on the run finally. The tide had turned my way. Esther got me with a sweet shot again though late in the eighth. And I went down on one knee to steady the ship.
Devon: But the winning points were in the ref's bag then it seemed.
Balio: Yes Devon. And like gran'mama would say "the marsupial's pouch is usually filled with the joys of new life."
Devon & Maria: The marsupial's what ????" .... New life ???? ... Huh ????!!"
Balio (roaring): Just maybe there's new life in the old boxer yet. Come on you two, let's feast ...
Box Latino found Carmen Santos in a bright, modern training gym in São Paulo. The gorgeous Brasilian is sparring with a young man who seems distracted by her skimpy boxing outfit and by the way she smiles when she hits him. Carmen removes her gloves and sits down with our reporter, wiping sweat off her face and body with a fresh scented towel.
BL: Carmen, it is good to find you in the gymnasium at last preparing yourself for another fight, but the young man you were boxing seems too stunned by your beauty to hit you properly. Where are your real trainers?
Carmen: I am confident that they have taught me good defensive skills. When I see other girl boxers get bruised and bloody, I think they should have my trainers already to teach them to box!
BL: Your good looks are your trademark, and so far you have finished your fights without serious cuts or bruises.
Carmen (laughing): Of course I want to look pretty for the cameras after my fights as well as other times, so I always try to move and guard well so I am not hit too hard in my face. With this sparring partner I am learning to hit better. He gets so horny and then enjoys to be hit by a pretty girl, which I think is nice for him and for me. He will take my hard punches in the training ring but he tries to move so that I miss, to train my quickness and my ability to land with accuracy.
BL: How did that enter into your fight with the German, Bauer?
Carmen: I always enjoy to fight the blondes as they are not such fast learners. I think the blonde's brain is starved for the growth that goes to other parts of her body. The German could not learn to avoid my fast punches and so I did damage her eye and her mouth. She was not pretty by the end of our fight, which I won against the odds. She has been the champion and I am only the learner, so I was happy with my achievement in winning by a close decision.
BL: You went to the canvas in the eighth round after looking confident earlier. Were you becoming tired or was that just your inexperience?
Carmen (smiling): The German knew I was winning so she made extra effort in her desperation. I was not so hurt by her punch, but I was off my balance and I made an ungraceful fall to the canvas. It was a surprising moment that tested my composure but the effects of being knocked down were not lasting long. Perhaps I was also tired, but I was excited to win the contest against a better-rated boxer.
BL: And your fight with the Canadian, Simmons. She gave you a bloody nose, what does that tell you?
Carmen (annoyed): It does not tell me anything except that I tried to make a fight inside, but there she was capable with her hands to grab and wrestle me. That is how I got the bloody nose.
BL: In that fight you needed a hard hitting finish to take victory.
Carmen: The Canadian was a quite skilled boxer, so it was important for me to fight hard at the end to earn the decision. In general I am happy with my defensive skills so that is why I work on my offence with a man who is happy to receive my hard punches.
BL: Many young men may be happy to be a ring with you in your skimpy bra and shiny boxing shorts. Sparring with you may be a young man's dream!
Carmen: I like to think many young girls will cheer for me to as well, so I can bring the excitement of female boxing to everyone and show them my sweet science.
BL: How soon do you hope to bring a title home to Brasil to inspire your many fans here?
Carmen: I have already defeated some boxers who have held titles so I hope it will not be long before I have one!