31 January 2009

WEBA Roundup with Devon Ling and Val Henning

Devon meets Val at the WEBA Towers after Val's been away in Washington, D.C. for the Inauguration.  

Devon: How was your trip, Val?

Val:  It was awesome!  Bitter cold though, you wouldn't have enjoyed that part at all, and getting there and back was not half the fun, it was a pain in the you know what. But it was a great day to be on the Mall with all the other people watching history being made right there!  It was a big day for America and I wouldn't have missed it for anything!    

Devon: I was happy to settle for watching the TV coverage, but it must have been special for you to be there.   

Val: Huge, it's a day I'll never forget.  Hard to come down from it and get back to everyday same old stuff, but it was great to see so many people optimistic that everything's possible!

Devon:  So back down to Earth, and to the fights, Val!  

Val: Yeah, hon, we had some more excitement on the last WEBA card!  The Main Event was another tough match between Lumbee Princess Cyan Locklear and Dangerous Diedre Dornan for the world welterweight title! 

Devon: Yeah, this was the rematch after Cyan won the title back on a DQ. There was some rough stuff in this fight too, as both of them used their elbows on each other and Diedre got several warnings for thumbs and a head butt, too. She's playing it rough for sure but it was Cyan's boxing skills that won the day. The Princess was in trouble in the second round after Diedre got her backed up against the ropes and dropped her twice, but she managed to make it back to her corner and then turned the tables on the Chicago tough girl with good combination punching in the third. This was another damaging fight with both boxers getting their faces bloodied, but the longer it went on the more Cyan Locklear seemed to me to be taking charge and controlling the action. Diedre was badly cut under both eyes and she began to have vision problems by the end of the fifth, the ref and the doc were checking her over in her corner. Cyan also got some payback in this fight by using some dirty tactics of her own to do damage to Diedre's face, but Dornan couldn't find the answers.  Diedre's corner also couldn't stop the damage accumulating around her eyes so the fight was stopped at the end of the tenth with Diedre sitting on her stool looking upset.  Cyan was very systematic in this fight and simply wore Diedre down, Val. 

Val: It wasn't pretty to watch, but it was effective as Cyan showed she's still got what it takes to be the world champ. She can handle the rough stuff and box when she needs to, and this was a good win that showed she has Dornan's number.  Diedre will have to sit out the KO now while her face heals up so she'll be the one to face the boxoff winner for the WEBA welterweight title.  How about the bantamweights, we got a new champ there this time, huh?

Devon: We saw the first ever WEBA bantamweight title fight with veteran front runner Sunny "The Tigress" Wong from Wo Hop's Gym in Hong Kong taking on the current junior champion Diana Rancier from Borden Taylor's Bulldog Gym in Trinidad. Sunny's had way more fight experience than Diana, who's a relative newbie with just 15 fights coming into this one, so she's likely to be the fave for this belt for a while, Diana held her own well enough in the early going but Sunny's experience and durability started to make the difference in the fight around the sixth round.  This match was scheduled for 12 which is more than Diana's ever had to go as a junior and this started to show in the ninth after Sunny dropped Diana to her knees with a combination to her body. Diana went down again in the tenth and the eleventh, putting her in a deep hole on the scorecards but she rallied in the final round and made Sunny work for the title win. It went to the scorecards, where Sunny had won a clear points decision to become the first-ever WEBA bantamweight champ.

Val: Sunny had some success fighting as a featherweight earlier in her career despite her small size. She won both the world and WEBA titles at that weight against significantly bigger opponents but Raquel Rivera put an end to her reign there and she's been looking for new competition at her real weight as a bantamweight. Diana wasn't quite ready yet, but you could see that she might be able to give Sunny a run for her money later when she's built up her experience and stamina.  How about the junior title fights?

Devon: The junior middleweight bout featured Karen "Kickass" Kelly from Windsor, Canada against Jillian "The Red Baroness" Russell from Joliet, Illinois, in another Northern cross-border battle.  Karen's had a do-or-die, KO-or-be-KO'd approach since she joined the WEBA, and her fights are never boring, that's for sure. Jillian's never beaten Karen so this was a long shot challenge for her and it looked that way in the early going as Karen came out throwing leather with bad intentions from the first bell. Jillian looked dazed after all of the first three rounds but she hadn't been off her feet and Karen started to look a little winded from her own effort. Jillian finally put some steady pressure on Karen in the fourth round, landing some serious body shots that had the Canadian a little shaken up. Jillian made some headway again early in the fifth but Karen opened up with power combinations and Jillian went down for the first time after taking a vicious right hook to the stomach followed by a big left uppercut. She got back to her feet by the six count, but Karen was merciless and piled into her with a series of bombs that sat her on the canvas again almost immediately. Jillian got back to one knee by the six count, but decided to stay down and concede the win to the hard-hitting Canadian. 

Val: Karen Kelly's our longest-running champion, she's held the belt for over a year and seems to have solved all her junior rivals like Hannah Riley and Jillian Russell, and even has an edge over more experienced fighters like Jenny Johnson, but she's not yet been able to make a dent on Maria Lozada or Sharon Brown.  Karen seems to have found her niche and she looked convincing in this title defense. How about the welterweights?

Devon: A different story there, it's a tight four-way battle for the junior crown, with Mexico's Esther Gonzalez, Spain's Sandra Perez, Chile's Tereza Delgado and Canada's Irena Hrbkova all in contention. Delgado can beat Hrbkova and Gonzalez but not Perez, while Perez has had trouble with Hrbkova and Gonzalez. None of them's burst out of this pack yet so the title's doing the rounds. Esther Gonzalez started strong in this fight with defending champion Sandra Perez and dropped her for a six count in the first round, but then Esther hurt her right hand. Sandra landed serious leather in the second round and I thought Esther's hand injury might tip the fight but the Mexican used her boxing skills to take charge after that. Sandra got frustrated as rounds went by and Esther added to her lead on the scorecards despite her injured paw and a bloody nose. Sandra's frustration boiled over in the seventh and she tried to rough Esther up in clinches, getting a series of warnings from the ref before she was finally disqualified for thumbing the Mexican in her eye. 

Val: This was the second week in a row that a champion got DQ'd out of a title fight,... first it was Dornan and now it was Perez!  It's getting a bit too rough in there, Devon. But how about the junior featherweights? Stephanie Page and Xiao-wei Zhang fought another barn burner this time!

Devon: This is becoming one of the best rivalries around, as Page and Zhang are identical in height and weight and both of them fight like furies. Stephanie was more aggressive and effective in the opening rounds and appeared to have the upper hand by the end of the fourth with Xiao-wei cut over her left eye. The fifth was closer with both landing heavily and Xiao-wei bloodying Stephanie's nose. Stephanie knocked Xiao-wei down for a short count at the start of sixth but the Chinese fighter came off the canvas and continued to target the American's bloody nose which began distracting Stephanie  from her fight plan.  Xiao-wei began to get the upper hand and rocked Stephanie with a right to the head that knocked her down for a nine count near the end of the round. The doctor went to Stephanie's corner and she had to plead to be allowed to fight on. The action was hot and heavy in the seventh, which ended with Stephanie putting Xiao-wei down for a six count with a brutal body shot. Xiao-wei pounded Stephanie's face in the eighth but they traded knockdowns in the ninth and the round ended with the fans on their feet cheering them both on. Stephanie's nose was now in terrible shape and her blood was flying everywhere when Xiao-wei landed to her head.  Xiao-wei took full advantage of the situation in the final round, throwing everything she had at the American, who went to the canvas three times and looked out on her feet at the final bell. I thought Xiao-wei might have won the fight but she may have cost herself the title by having a point deducted for a series of elbow and forearm shots to Stephanie's bloody nose early in the last round. The judges scored it almost even despite the point deducted from Zhang for dirty fighting, making it a majority draw. Page retained her title but she was taken to the hospital for treatment to her nose after the fight. 

Val: There's no love lost between these two, it's a war every time they face each other!  Zhang could have taken the belt this time if she hadn't fought dirty at the end, but Page almost knocked her out earlier in the fight so either way this could have ended differently.

Devon:  Any highlights from the undercard, Val?

Val: The WEBA welterweight tournament got off to a good start this week. Amber "Midnight" Taltos from Puerto Rico fought a tough battle with Italian veteran Rose "The Assassin" Mora for six rounds then came on strong with a seventh round knockdown and a punishing eighth round in which Rose's mouth was badly bloodied and she went down twice, the second time for the full count. Rose Mora's closing in on her 200th WEBA fight but this is one she'll want to forget as the Puerto Rican bloodied her badly and then knocked her out. Amber goes on to face Florida's Heather Corrigan, who had a less convincing win over Sweden's Carolina Kusmagk in the other preliminary. Corrigan took the fight to the Swedish boxer in the early rounds and started to built up a solid points lead, only to see that slip away as Carolina stormed back in the sixth with a two-knockdown round, The action heated up big time as they traded knockdowns in the seventh and the eighth began with Heather's nose and Carolina;s mouth both bleeding heavily. The final round was a slugfest in which Heather decked,Carolina for seven but then was hammered by several big uppercuts from Carolina that brought a standing eight. Both boxers were battered and exhausted by the end of this fight, which had gotten sloppy with both swinging and holding on. Corrigan escaped with a narrow decision on the scorecards in yet another fight that nearly got away from her near the end.

Devon:  Both of these fights were exciting but I was more impressed by Amber Taltos's KO win. Corrigan may have to put a lot of early pressure on Taltos in their rematch as the former champ's having trouble in fights that go the full distance these days.  It'll be interesting to see if Amber can bring the finishing power to a rematch with Heather like she did to another veteran in Rose Mora!  Any more highlights, Val?

Val: I'm watching out for WEBA newbies who do well early against more experienced fighters so I'll mention new English middleweight Trish Rollins who  held Irish star Hannah Riley to a draw over six rounds this week. Hannah started her own WEBA career with a run of KO wins that made her a hot prospect but she's hit a personal roadblock in Karen Kelly. Trish is a more recent newcomer who was 5-0 coming into this contest. Nobody had told Rollins anything about her being the underdog in this match and she started out well, taking the fight to Riley in the first round  Hannah stood her ground better in the next two rounds as they traded bruising body shots and quick combos but Trish got the upper hand again at the start of the fourth. The British boxer kept Hannah backing up until near the end of the session when Hannah began to trade with her more evenly. The fifth round was fairly even, but Trish landed the best shots of the sixth despite Hannah's efforts to tie her up in clinches. I thought Rollins had a good chance to pull off an upset, but all three judges scored it dead even, so it was a draw.

Devon: Still, a draw was a pretty good result for Trish Rollins when you consider Riley's had a lot more experience. Maybe this result also gives Australian newbie Mia Campbell some encouragement. Trish had KO'd Mia in their debut fight but both have gone undefeated since and are showing form that suggests they could be threats to Riley and the other junior middleweight contenders. How about some highlights from the smaller fighters, Val?

Val: Brazil's Carmen "Leoparda" Santos got revenge for her split decision loss to Bolivia's Tulia Minez that had cost Carmen the WEBA lightweight title. This rematch was a non-title eight rounder but it kept a streak going where neither Carmen nor Tulia has ever won a clear decision over the other. So far all three of their bouts have ended up as split decisions, with two going to Carmen Santos and the big one for the WEBA title going to Tulia Minez. Even though she lost narrowly that was actually a good result for Tulia who was in big trouble in the seventh round after Carmen knocked her down three times!  The "Desert Tulip" looked dazed on the way back to her corner after that near-disaster so it took a huge effort for her to keep the fight as close as it ended up with a big final round in which she dished out payback with Carmen backed up against the ropes. This was a well fought bout all the way, clean and close, with Tulia getting a good start and finish and Carmen controlling the middle rounds. These two have a good rivalry going that could take them a while to sort out!

Devon:   The next big thing among this lightweight group could be the return of Albuquerque's Katelyn Kennedy, the junior champion who's racked up an impressive 13-3-1 record. She's been on vacation since the first week of November but she has three straight wins over Carmen Santos .  , and Katelyn's only losses have come to more experienced boxers.

Val:   One of those more experienced boxers is Germany's Karin "The Valkyrie" Bauer, who's posted a couple of points wins over Kennedy. So another result I noted this week was that Bauer was KO'd by Jolting Jane McGowan this week! In fact, that fight wasn't even close, as Jane got the jump on Karin in the first round and then kept major heat on her for the rest of the fight. Karin went down for a short count in the fourth, stayed on her feet but still got hammered in the fifth, went down for six more in the sixth, and then got clobbered in the seventh. Jane opened a big can of whoop-ass on Karin of the sort that her mentor Heather Corrigan hasn't been able to come up with herself recently.  So McGowan just cruised past a fighter who's taken two decisions from Katelyn Kennedy and it might get interesting if McGowan and Kennedy go head to head. 

Devon: We'll have to see if this is one of those cases where McGowan can beat Bauer and Bauer can beat Kennedy, but styles make  McGowan vs. Kennedy a different fight!  Carmen Santos may want to muscle in on any rematches with Katelyn Kennedy too, after getting another win over Minez! 

Val: It's one thing that makes boxing interesting, different styles make different fights, and sometimes a boxer can have one particular nemesis for a long time while others can beat her, just because of how their styles match up. Anyways, we have several good rivalries building in the juniors now that should keep us our toes!

Devon: Yeah, I can't wait for the next card!,       

"I want to win this tournament",
says Heather

The press are in Heather Corrigan's dressing room after her win over Carolina Kusmagk in the welterweight tournament. Jane McGowan is helping to clean Heather up while Heather's father Mike greets the reporters at the door.

Reporter: Were you satisfied with the rematch, Heather?

Heather (grimacing):  That Swedish bitch messed up my nose, but I put her out of this tournament and I'm going on to fight again, so yes I am satisfied.  I got what I wanted!

Reporter:  It was a close decision and you took a beating in several of the rounds. Weren't you a little lucky?

Heather: Kusmagk can take a punch. She's bigger than me so I have a tough time fighting her but she's never beaten me in a proper WEBA fight. I do not think that's luck, she's a loudmouth bitch who thinks she's better than she is so I'm happy that I was the one who beat her in this tournament.

Reporter:  You'd said you wanted to hurt her badly after she disrespected you at Wu's. You sounded like you wanted to knock her out. Was this result enough revenge for what she did to you at Wu's?

Heather:  I'd have knocked her out if I could, but she's too freaking big. Our grudge match got out of hand and she knocked me out but she should show me some respect now. But let's move on, I won this fight and I want to look ahead now, not back. 

Reporter:   Your next opponent will be Amber Taltos, who won her tournament fight by a KO. Will you be ready for Taltos?

Heather: I've only fought her once, and that was a draw, so I expect another tough fight. Anyone who can knock out Rose Mora is dangerous, fellas. She's young and she'll be hungry because it will be a big win for her if she beats me, but I'll be ready and I am looking forward to the rematch.

Reporter: How did you feel about tonight's fights, Jane?

Jane: I feel much better now than I did after Pattaya!  Heather did great against Carolina Kusmagk and I feel good about my KO win over Karin Bauer.  Bauer's a good boxer who's been around a long time,so the KO was icing on the cake for me.  Heather's told me she wants me to finish my opponents off so I can't get stiffed by the judges, and that's what I did. Also, Carmen Santos knocked Bauer out and I want to show I can keep pace with her.

Reporter:  Carmen Santos is who you are measuring yourself against now?

Heather:  Jane's lost to Santos twice but I want her to beat Santos one day so we'll watch what Carmen does and try to keep pace with her as a way to measure Jane's progress.

Reporter: How about you, Mike? Any comments about how the girls did?

Mike: I'd hoped Heather might knock Carolina Kusmagk out, but I'm happy she stayed alive in this tournament. I want to see Heather win another title and if she'd lost to Kusmagk again it would have been difficult to justify going for another title shot. Heather came through again in a tough fight and I am very proud of her.  Jane also got a good KO win that will give her confidence for her next fight. It was a good night for both of them, fellas, and I'm glad Heather's put the whole Kusmagk thing behind her. Heather has to stay focused on what's ahead, not dwell too much on things she can't change now. 

Reporter: Will you ever rematch Carolina Kusmagk at Wu's, Heather?

Heather:  I won't say no to that, but I want to win this tournament and get another title belt, fellas, so I don't need any distractions like that Swedish tart. It's Amber Taltos I have to think about now!
.

Xiao-wei Zhang and Stephanie Page have fought to a draw and the referee raises their gloves high together. Xiao-wei's left eyebrow is cut and swollen and Stephanie's sweaty sport bra is soaked with  blood. The fans cheer the two battered boxers but Kwan Shu Wu is distracted by the delectable Devon Ling as the wondrous wanton won ton walks up to him. Devon looks divine in a sparkling silver dress with a daringly deep decolletage.

Wu:  Ah Miss Devon, it so long since I see so much of you!  I see you keep all of yourself in lovely shape!  That is so sexy dress you wear, it make heart beat fast like work out!

Devon leans forward to kiss Wu's cheek and one slender silvery strap slips off her silky smooth shoulder, offering Wu a view of her bodaciously bare bosom.  Devon gives a girlish grin as she hoists the silver dress strap back to its proper place.

Devon: It's been long time, Kwan Shu. I see your tiger cub Miss Xiao-wei still can't beat the desert Diamond!  Are you losing your trainer touch since I fought for you? 

Wu: You always make big lip to me, Devon, but Miss Step-on-me is tough chickie with big knocker punch who fight back while bleed like piglet. Xiao-wei need to beat her when feathers fly in Wu ring like Bloody Jo Fullsome. Xiao-wei is good boxer girl, Miss Devon, she no lose to this red princess in Wu ring or Wu have big egg on face long time.  Xiao-wei win big belt one time that no shoot, you take it from Wu.

Devon: What happened to 'you not lose when fight for Wu's' like you always told Pam Chai and me!  Mindy Li and Xiao-wei don't have any titles so are Wu's warriors all wishy and washed up?

Wu:  There are tougher chickies in rings much harder than when you fight, Miss Devon!  Big knocker girls like Carla Ram-your-eyes, Kookie Suzuki, Margarine Arse-no, and ComeOn Sweetass make fierce fights with my Mindy, and my Xiao-wei have big fights still try to turn over Page.  Do not not count out Wu chickies before eggs are due, our time will come!  It will be good New Year of Ox Ji Chou for Wu, Miss Devon.  Last Year of Rat Wu Zi make Wu woozy but we make new year of Ox tale ahead that is no shoot,  You see Xiao-wei make hay with feathers and become next big fighting deal, Miss Devon!  But we want keep a breast of you too. Will you come back fight Deedy Doormat at Wu's like you did Caroline Goodsmack?  Wu read you get punched in gut by Doormat after Goodsmack give you good whack.  Maybe you fight grudging matches again my place soon?

Devon: In your dreams, Kwan Shu!

Wu: You always in my dreams, Miss Devon,  I always look forward see more of you in sexy dresses!

Devon: I think you need to attend to Miss Xiao-wei, that cut over her eye looks bad.