27 April 2008

WEBA Roundup with Devon Ling and Val Henning
'I will win the titles' says Carmen Santos
'That sucked', says Heather

WEBA Roundup with Devon Ling and Val Henning

Devon Ling is in her training gym, working out on the speed ball, as Val Henning strolls in.

Val:  Hey Devon!  Nice hand work there, you haven't lost your co-ordination any. How's your training going? 

Devon:  I'm having fun, Val, and I'll be ready in case some of these WEBA boxers decide to call me out!

Val: Ya never know, after Balio and Carolina wanted to get you back in the ring!  Boxing workouts are good for you anyway, grrl!

Devon: Yeah it feels good to be in shape again and I took a couple pounds off already.

Devon removes her bag gloves as Val hands her a towel.

Val:  Good for you! So, what did you think about the title fights this week?

Devon: It was another frustrating fight for Hellcat Heather Corrigan, Val, as she dropped her fifth straight to Lucky Lucille Perkins, who has Heather's number big time now. The Hellcat won the early rounds then faded to lose by a split decision.

Val: Lucille's only lost one fight since the start of 2006 and that was a split decision to Dangerous Diedre Dornan for the world title. She's had some close calls, and this was one of them, but she's tough as they come, she fights consistent, and she's boxing like a real champ now.  

Devon:   Heather had Lucille in trouble against the ropes in the third, punishing her with her patented body attack, but Lucille fought her way back into it in the middle rounds and bloodied Heather's mouth. The Hellcat desperately tried to put the fight away in the eighth and hammered Lucille to a standing eight count. but Lucille dug deep and came back from that to deck Heather with a nice one-two.  They went toe-to-toe after that and Lucille looked shaken up as she went back to her corner, but then she stormed out in the ninth and hammered Heather to the canvas twice.  That was the turning point as the Hellcat faded and wasn't the same after that round and went to the canvas in every round after that.  Lucille didn't let up on the pressure at all despite taking some monster shots from the challenger at times. Lucille's got a good chin and she dominated the action to erase the points lead Heather built up in the early going.  It was Lucille by a split decision and another night of frustration for Corrigan.

Val:  Lucille's never made a big media story out of her WEBA career, she's just quietly become a competitor at the very top level of the game. It's hard to get her rattled for long and she has the boxing skills and firepower to hang with the best in long fights  This one was close for a while, but Lucille paced herself better and  dominated the late going to earn the win over the Florida veteran with a great finish. So Perkins keeps the WEBA welterweight belt but we saw a WEBA first in the lightweights.

Devon:  Yes, Billy-Jo Fulton, the all-American girl  from Kentucky, finally won her first real title, in a hard-fought battle with Sweden's Frida Svensson.  Billy-Jo controlled the early rounds of this fight with good ring movement and fast-paced combinations, plus some rough tactics thrown in when the action got heavy at close quarters!  BJ appeared to have things well in hand by the end of the fourth when the Swedish champion took a standing eight count, but Frida showed her resilience by battling back in the fifth and had BJ in trouble against the ropes. BJ blunted this comeback attempt by the champion for a couple of rounds, then Frida had a huge round in the eighth, knocking BJ down twice and almost ending the fight. Frida kept the pressure on BJ for the rest of the bout and the American ended the fight bleeding heavily from her mouth as Frida's punches increasingly found their target. But the fight went to the scorecards where the Kentucky girl's early lead had held up by a narrow margin, so she was crowned the new WEBA champion.

Val: Persistence finally paid off for Billy-Jo, who never held the junior title but finally got her name on the title roll with this win in her 66th pro fight!  This lightweight title's been on a total merry-go-round recently, changing hands every few months as nobody seems to be able to hold it down for long and establish themselves as the top contender for Baby Doll Ramirez's world title.  This win may give BJ some more cred in WEBA, as she'd only had consistent success against more questionable opponents at Wu's before this.  But this was still a close fight and I thought Frida was coming on stronger in the late rounds, so we might see a rematch soon.  How about the juniors, Devon?

Devon: Sandra "Baby" Perez of Spain had stunned the WEBA by taking the junior welterweight title away from Chilean star Tereza Delgado on the last card, and the blonde bombshell showed that big win was no flash in the pan by defending the belt against former junior champ Irena Hrbkova this time. Perez, who fights out of Madrid, has been something of a sleeper so far, and some people may have written her off after she was KO'd at Wu's by Fifee DeParee and again in the second round by tough Mexican Esther Gonzalez. But the gorgeous Spaniard's on a hot streak now with five straight wins  This fight was close in the early going but then Sandra appeared to be in trouble when Irena bloodied her nose and knocked her  down for a four count in the fourth round.   The doctor was called to the Perez's corner between the rounds, but she came out fighting in the fifth and turned the tide back her way when she dropped Irena with a hard one-two against the ropes.  Irena took a four count on her knees, then a standing eight later in the round, and the Spanish boxer never looked back after that.  She decked Irena with a spectacular right that send the Czech girl's mouthpiece flying in the eighth, kept the pressure on in the ninth and then held off a late rally by Hrbkova in the tenth to retain her title by a comfortable margin on all of the scorecards.

Val: Some WEBA teams don't take pretty blondes like Sandra Perez seriously, Devon, but this win shows that Perez is for real despite her supermodel good looks! She comes to fight and has two big wins now that mean the other junior welterweights may need to take her more seriously than they've done in the past!  One who everyone's learned to take seriously now is Arizona's Stephanie "Diamond" Page, who also had her first junior title defense on this card.
 

Devon: Stephanie's a scrapper who's fought as many fights at Wu's Fighting Tigers Club as she has in the WEBA. and she wasn't fazed at all by some devastating KO losses in her early fights. This junior featherweight title defense matched Stephanie against a tough fighter who'd already KO'd her at Wu's and battled her to a draw in a WEBA matchup - Mister Wu's own rising star Xiao-wei Zhang. We got to see a barn burner of a fight where both girls beat each other bloody, and the outcome was in doubt to the end with both boxers badly cut over their left eyes after absorbing power right hands from the other. The action was hot and heavy with both fighters winning big rounds and clearly hurting the other, and Stephanie appeared to be in trouble at the end of the seventh after Xiao-wei had worked her over hard for a standing eight. The ref called the doctor to the Arizonan's corner to check her over before letting the fight go on and this may have fired Page up as she came out smoking hot in the eighth and punished Xiao-Wei against the ropes, The Diamond girl wasn't shy about using her elbows either, so she got a couple of warnings from the referee.  By the end of the round, Zhang went to her corner looking dazed, and she was bleeding heavily from over her left eye, with both eyes badly swollen.  The referee called the doctor to her corner this time, and the fight was stopped as Xiao-wei was unable to see properly. This was a rough,let-i-all-hang-out TKO win for Stephanie Page, and a hard loss for the equally feisty Xiao-wei Zhang who had held her own pretty well until the eighth round.

Val: Marisol Kari has a rough li'l diamond on her hands with Stephanie Page!  This is a girl who obviously loves to fight and she seems at her best when the going gets toughest!  I think we might see an all-Arizona showdown some day between Stephanie Page and Raquel Rivera!  I'm not sure that state is big enough to hold both of them! 

Devon: I can see the whole featherweight division staying really hot as these girls sort out the pecking order with other talented boxers like Fiona Black and Cathy Simmons.  Mister Wu doesn't like his girls to lose, either, so I can imagine that Xiao-wei Zhang will be after Stephanie for a rematch soon! How about some highlights from the undercard, Val? 

Val: This week 's card put a lot of wounded and KO'd fighters into the infirmary having to take time out to recover!  One fight that ended early saw Stephanie Page's Polish team-mate Lilka Nowak beat French featherweight Nicole Geiger to a third-round KO. This bout brought a sudden ending to what had been a promising four-fight lossless streak for the pretty French girl, who's struggled in the WEBA so far but was starting to turn things a little more her way.  Lilka Nowak had difficulty dealing with Nicole's hand speed in the second round, and the Polish Hammer was forced to fight with her back against the corner padding for a while, trying to hold off the smaller French girl's busy attack. Marisol Kari must have given Lilka a good tongue-lashing between the rounds, though, as her Hammer came out red hot in the third and pounded an overhwlemed Nicole against the ropes, knocking her down twice before she delivered the coup de grace with a left to the head late in the round. 

Devon: Lilka's another boxer who brings excitement into the WEBA ring every time, not many of her fights have  been going the distance but she's been KO'd herself a few times as well as winning by KO's like this one!  Kari seems to like training aggressive boxers who don't want their fights to go all the way onto the scorecards, and that's the kind of opponent that seems to spell the most trouble for the stylish Nicole Geiger, who's got a more tactical boxing style.

Val: WEBA boxers who like to keep the judges out of the picture give us plenty of excitement, that's for sure.

Devon: Any more highlights among the newbies, Val?

Val: Yeah, there was a great scrap between rising Brazilian lightweight Carmen "Leoparda" Santos and Germany's Karin "The Valkyrie" Bauer.  Karin's an experienced boxer who's had an up-and-down career but was briefly the WEBA lightweight champion while Carmen's a hot new star looking to make her mark on this division. Karin had given Carmen a scare in their last fight, before Carmen won by a points decision, and this was another stiff test for the Brazilian. Carmen looked good in the first round but spent too much time with her back against the ropes in the next few rounds and was bleeding from her mouth by the end of the fourth. Karin Bauer stepped up the heat and appeared to have taken control of the bout by the end of the sixth, battering the pretty Brazilian mercilessly against the ropes. Santos was dazed and bloody after that round but she dug deeper in the seventh and stepped up her whole game, landing a stream of hooks and uppercuts to Bauer's head before dropping her for a short count near the end of the round. Karin was badly cut over her left eye and the doctor was called to the German corner to check her over before the fight continued. Carmen worked the cut over Karin's eye relentlessly in the eighth and final round, got the German reeling and then finally put her away on the third knockdown with a few seconds left in the fight. It would have been close if it had gone to the scorecards, but Leoparda kept her impressive winning streak going with a late KO.

Devon: Carmen Santos has already notched close wins over several boxers who have held the WEBA title - Karin Bauer, Frida Svensson, Tulia Minez, Billy-Jo Fulton. She's shown some KO power recently too.  I have to think we could see her wearing a title belt before long, like she's started promising her fans.

Val: Another great fight saw Ireland's Hannah Riley add one more to her KO tally with a devastating sixth-round demolition of another German boxer, Heidi Wulf. The Irish fighter needed to pull out all the stops to get the win after Heidi had opened up a serious cut under her right eye in the fifth.  This was no walkover for Hannah, who began her WEBA career with seven straight KO wins, including one over Wulf at Wu's. Hannah set a record with this KO-happy start but she has found it harder to climb the WEBA middleweight ladder and she recently lost the junior title belt to always-dangerous Karen Kelly. Heidi's a welterweight who also started out strong but then started to struggle a little.  Both boxers may have been looking for a little redemption in this matchup, but it was Hannah appeared to have the upper hand when she pounded Heidi to a standing eight in the opener and then did it again in the third. Heidi stiffened her resistance in the fourth and then did the damage under Hannah's right eye early in the fifth after driving the Irish girl into the ropes and opening up on her with both fists flying. Hannah Riley had to plead with the ring doctor to let her continue into the sixth round with the ugly cut, but she lost no time exacting her revenge on the German, opening up a bad cut under Heidi's left eye and then knocking her down twice on the way to a KO that left Heidi lying helpless on the canvas as she was counted out. 

Devon: Hannah Riley showed she can take the punches as well as dish them out, but she needs to get wins like this one over her big middleweight rivals, not the struggling welterweights, Val!

Val:  That's true, and several WEBA boxers have started strong like Hannah did but have then had difficulty movig on up.  Training's an very important part of anyone's success in the WEBA, hon.

Devon grins and pulls her bag gloves on again.

Devon:  That's right, Val!  I gotta get back into shape!.

Val: You look like a girl who's expecting to fight again, hon!

"I will win the titles"
says Carmen Santos

Box Latino visits with Carmen Santos in the ring after her second win over the German Karin Bauer. The Brasilian boxeadora is bleeding from her nose and mouth, but she is happy with the win which left the beaten blonde on the canvas covered with her own blood and hanging her head in defeat. 

BL: Congratulations on your win, Carmen!  But you will not want many photographs taken of you tonight with your own face so bloody.  Are you satisfied with how you fought this battle?

Carmen:  This German is a good boxer who hurted me several times in the fight, but I soon recovered my composure and found the timing for my punches to beat her like I have been trained by my coaches.  I have been working to improve my efficiency in the fight and to punch more precisely.  This paid the big dividend for me in the last round. In our first fight this German was like a hungry tigress who knocked me down in the last round but this time I was the hungry one and the better boxer at the end of the fight so she was the one who went to the canvas!  . 

BL:  Your boxing career is already the toast of Brasil, Leoparda, but your fans are looking forward to when you will finally join the ring of champions.  So far your fight career is like the hors d'oeuvres, while everyone awaits the main course. 

Carmen: I am building my skills to bring the prize to Brasil!  I love the ring and the fighting but I know it is important only to fight for the titles when I am well prepared and not to be too greedy or impatient. 

BL: The American Billy-Jo who you beated already at Wu's is now the champion of the WEBA.  Will you challenge her soon?,

Carmen: I enjoy having my way with the blondes with big breasts like the American Barbie, the Swedish and this German. But I will next box the junior champion, the Chinese Mindy Li who gave me my best fight in the ring so far!  I did also challenge the red haired girl Kennedy but she would not answer me, so I think she is coward and hides from me. 

BL: All of Brasil will cheer for you when you fight Mindy Li for the title again, and we will look forward to the times when your glove is raised for many titles!  

Carmen: I promise you will not wait long for that. I will win the titles and there will be the biggest parties ever on the beach to celebrate my victories!   We show the whole world how Brasilian girls beat the others in boxing and also have more fun!

"That sucked",
says Heather

Hellcat Heather Corrigan storms back to her corner after the referee has raised Lucille Perkins's glove in victory after their title fight.  She spits blood into the bucket her father is holding, punches the corner padding angrily, then turns to face the reporters 

Reporter:  Heather, you were winning this fight but Lucille Perkins came back to beat you. What happened?

Heather: That sucked, I had her where I wanted her, but I could not keep her there at the end.  I am totally fed up with losing to this girl, but she fights like freaking Houdini. I think I've got her, then suddenly I haven't. 

Reporter: You are coming up short in so many fights, are you thinking about ending your career? 

Heather (angrily):  No,no, no!  How many times do I have to tell you that?  I still have the best record ever in the WEBA! 

Reporter: A record doesn't mean much if you can't keep a lead in a big fight any more.  Lucille fought well, and she outlasted you for the decision.

Heather: She got lucky again. She's earning her name, I almost knocked her out again, but she got me with a couple of lucky punches.  .

Reporter:  Will you fight Cyan Locklear for the world title again?  

Heather: I will need some time to think about that, fellas.

A girl's voice: You could take your sweet time, Heather!

Heather stares at the girl who's standing behind the reporters wearing a tight-fitting silk dress that shows too much of her legs and boobs. She looks like something from a cheap Chinese whorehouse.

Heather: What do you want, Devon?

Devon: Just a close look at a former champ who's stayed in the game too long. Your body can't take it any more, you've got nothing left at the end of your fights, and you're getting whupped!

Heather: Well, you're an expert on getting whupped, it happened to you so often!

Devon:  Hey, you can't beat Lucille, you can't beat Rose.  Mikee beat you to a pulp, Carla outboxed you like a pro and you were back in the amateurs. Soon some newbie'll beat your ass!  Is that what you want? Are you going to wait until some kid like Delgado or Perez or Gonzalez beats you up?

Heather: You can talk!  That's that's all you do these days, Devon!  Get lost, or go back to Wu if he'll have you.

Devon laughs loudly, hands on her hips.  Heather's father holds her back as she tries to take a swing at the WEBA reporter, who steps back and laughs again.

Mike: Hey, kid, save it for the next fight!

Heather: I'm going to beat the crap out of that bitch one of these days!

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