Maddie Ziegler versus Jenna Ortega

(21, 5’5, 16:5 FCBA, The Dollhouse)
Vs.
Jenna Ortega
(21, 5’1, 7:3 FCBA, GBS)

Results: Lookout!; Story: Caspian & The Dollhouse

BEFORE:
Up next is a Flyweight contest of epic proportions, with Dollhouse blonde Maddie Ziegler set to continue her quest for former championship scalps. Just this year alone, Ziegler managed to take out Olivia Holt and most recently Millie Bobby Brown. And if she plays her cards right tonight, she’ll be able to add Jenna Ortega to that list of top-tier conquests.

Ortega, however, will have plenty to say about that. Looking at the GBS starlet’s fight record, she’s fought almost the same competition as Ziegler this year, though with less stellar results. Both women will wish to continue their streak tonight, and have plenty to say about each other during the pre-fight press conference:

"Jenna's a badass and I don't think she's afraid of anyone in this league,” Maddie says first from the press table, before continuing, “but her results this year aren't as amazing as last year's. She's definitely beatable and despite the fact we're still friends, there's nothing I want more tonight than to knock her out. She got me fair and square last time, but I'm here tonight to prove I'm actually better than her in the ring."

Jenna holding that small smirk on her lips from across the room, but has nothing but encouraging words of her own for her friend and opponent:

"I wish Maddie all the luck she can get, because she'll need it tonight. Our friendship goes on pause the moment the bell sounds as far as I'm concerned and she asked for it, so she's gonna get it. I feel great after knocking out Cierra last month. Maddie has a big height advantage over me but that didn't help her much last time...it won't help her tonight. This little girl is gonna put you down and out again Mads."

This height difference might indeed be too much for Ortega to overcome, with a good five inches between herself and Ziegler, when the two stride up on stage moments later for the official staredown. No animosity here between the friends, of course, and they simply smile at each other with their hands on their hips, before sharing a rare embrace between competitors. Ziegler has all the goods tonight to score the win, but who knows if Ortega being a friend might work against her favor or not.

Hours later, both young fighters are in opposite corners of the ring, with Ortega dressed in a black sports bra and black boxing trunks, her dark hair is in a tight ponytail and the GBS megastar is holding up a pair of white gloves to the cheers of her many fans. The Wednesday actress has taken Hollywood by storm, and she’s brought her fair share of fans to attend tonight’s contest. Then, Dollhouse rising superstar Maddie ‘Mad Dog’ Ziegler raises her own gloves at the sound of her name, the Dollhouse young prospect clad in a bright yellow sports bra and ankle-length blue tights as she jumps up and down to pump herself up, she’s wearing blue gloves and her blonde hair is nearly tied in a bun. She smiles at the sound of her own pop and shout from the fans, as the referee then signals for the start of this Flyweight contest!

HERE WE GO with ten rounds of young flyweight action!

ROUND 1:
Maddie’s moving in disciplined fashion as usual, arms up and favoring her face in the early game, not about to take any chances, even against someone like Ortega who might not have the reach to sting her. She’s tossing out stray jabs to keep Ortega at bay, and no doubt these friends have sparred before in the gym, which means Ziegler doesn’t want to surprise nor be surprised at this stage. For the most part, Jenna knows she’s at a disadvantage here, and does the complete opposite! Ortega might be small in stature but the little spitfire has boldly gone where no 5 foot 1-ner has gone before! She blocks most of Ziegler’s jabs early on before attempting to bum-rush the taller and bigger blonde, pound some shots into the arms and body and doing her darndest to disorient her frenemy. For the first minute, it seems to work, her aggression catching Maddie completely off guard and reeling, as several jabs find their way into her face and body, but the lack of power and wildness of the punches are more irritating to Ziegler than anything else. In fact, the Doll soon makes her own case when she strikes back with a single left hand later in the round, that one shot alone packing enough power to send Ortega reeling backwards in shock, her eyes wide and lips pouting. After that, Ziegler dominates the rest of the round, realizing that all she needs to do is score a big hit to her foe to save her own skin. Bell rings and what started as a promising assault and upset from Ortega has turned around to bite her in her own ass. It’s a wide round to Maddie Ziegler!

ROUND 2:
Ortega not giving up, however, running circles around Maddie and trying to confuse her first, punish her second. Several shots land all over her arms, as Ziegler rotates on her heels to meet the threat, choosing to stand firm and absorb rather than make any unforced errors at this point. That’s fine by Ortega, who uses the blonde’s lack of agility to hound her with an abundance of punches, left-right-left combos getting sunk into her guard and snagging the under-tummy, and then squeezed back high into the mouth or nose whenever Maddie tries to adjust her guard. Ziegler does let fly some of those same power punches from before, but she’s finding it more difficult to land her shots, especially with this hyper bunny that is Jenna dodging and flying in two ways at once. Ortega scores with a rare overhand haymaker that lands between the eyes in the third minute, and that one looks like it just might have hurt Maddie for the first time in this fight, with the Doll immediately backing away and covering up the rest of her head. At the bell, it looks like Jenna has turned the script on her friend, proudly leaping into the air and letting out a roar of triumph, at having thrown this fight wide open!

ROUND 3:
Maddie is still struggling to pin her strategy down, and then pin her opponent in place. Ortega’s speed is what has won her plenty of fights thus far, and lesser and slower girls have found out that their height advantage means sh*t if you can’t land your punches properly. Maddie tries to take Jenna out with some early speed and rush of her own, keeping her guard firm still but striding to the center of the ring to try and surprise Ortega with a big cross to the face. But Ortega saw it coming and slipped around it, banged a return glancing hook off the blonde’s forehead, another slammed in the other way to dazzle and daze. Maddie is still going at it, putting her head down and trying to rush Jenna down some more. If at first it fails, just do and do it again, eh? Doesn’t really work, at least not so early on someone like Jenna, who slips easily out of the way and prevents herself from getting trapped, all the way jabbing her fists into Maddie’s headspace to rack up continued points for herself. Sound of the bell and Maddie is breathing hard, shaking her head on her way back to her corner, at another wide round loss, whereas Jenna seems to have her strategy down pat!

ROUND 4:
Jenna’s fans are up and shouting at the start of the fourth, perhaps at the start thinking their girl wouldn’t make it past the fifth round, but now, seeing the way she’s dominating the action, wouldn’t put it past her to score an upset in the same timeframe. Of course, Maddie ain’t gonna let her do that, at least not over her cold, dead corpse. Maddie chooses to keep calm and let Jenna fly into her this time, predicting her friend’s punches way more effectively and thus being able to block them as they sail inwards. Jenna’s again throwing her speed into each exchange, literally leaping left and right before jumping forwards and letting those punches fly into arms and body, but still lacking the power to daze Maddie to the point of going down. Ziegler’s arms are also moving much more fluidly in tandem with Ortega’s targets, and this is where their familiarity with each other’s fighting techniques comes in more handy, with Maddie expertly raising and lowering her arms to block, before squeezing in the odd power hook to the head that forces Ortega to let out a yelp of surprise and take evasive actions. Ziegler pushes the brunette back in this way, as Ortega runs out of steam herself and gets NAILED by a couple of hooks either to her arms or body. Each time this happens, she goes twirling and flying, mouth ripe and open in shock once more. Thankfully, the bell rings soon after, meaning Ortega has to contend this time with a shorter and closer win. Slowly but surely, Maddie looks determined to battle her way back into this fight!

ROUND 5:
And it’s a repeat of the fourth, with Ortega slowing down considerably and allowing Ziegler to march forward one tiny step at a time to tighten the noose and score her own comeback. Ortega is still lacking in stamina and long-term planning, her errant jabs now lacking their effect entirely, either easily blocked by Ziegler or countered with a sudden step-in cross that barrels into her arms at the last possible minute. And Maddie KNOWS that all she needs to do is keep up the pressure, and ONE of those mighty right hands is gonna land right on the kisser. And then, it will all be night-night for the smaller woman. Ortega fights off her advances as best she can, of course, in the third minute digging deep and going into another speedy Gonzales rush. But those multiple jabs are easily turtled by Maddie, who simply covers her head up with a tight guard, before blasting a hook into Ortega’s side to send her stumbling off to the ropes with a groan. Bell rings seconds after, however, meaning the Doll’s gonna need another few rounds to cement her return. We head into the second half of this fight with Ortega slightly in the lead, but her friend in her rear-view mirror.

ROUND 6:
Burst of energy from Ortega at the sound of the bell, and HERE SHE COMES, eyes ablaze and head down, moving in to shock her opponent just like the first round! To her credit, she manages to slip under an opening overhand from the Doll before scoring with a flurry to her midsection, another straight to her chin and face, but if Ortega was hoping Maddie would simply lie down and let steam roll over, she’s dead wrong! Maddie wincing but HOLDING her ground, covers up her chin from more stray shots before blasting her own right hand straight into Jenna’s face! OUCH!! Jenna lets out a grunt and has a twisted look of rage for a second, and actually looks as though she might power through the pain and go right back into pushing Maddie backwards… But ONE MORE SHOT across the cheek seems to seal the deal, sending Ortega flying off into the ropes, this time slack-jawed and looking stunned! HERE COMES MADDIE ZIEGLER instead, now smelling blood in the water and looking to capitalize on her vulnerable form! Indeed, Ortega looks trapped against the ropes, her smaller body getting ROCKED to the left and right, those petite arms of hers swaying dangerously out of the way with each follow-up hook, before Ziegler lands her big textbook punch across the chin with impeccable accuracy, which SENDS JENNA DOWN! It’s a KNOCKDOWN for the Doll, who finally got to put her power to good use! Ortega’s utterly floored by the ropes, lying face-down and barely stirring! The referee runs over and starts the count, but by the third number, even he can see that the poor brunette ain’t getting up from this one! That’s it! He’s waving his arms in the air, meaning it’s OVER!

Official Result: Maddie Ziegler defeats Jenna Ortega via KO6!

AFTER:
HUGE revenge win for the now jubilant Maddie Ziegler, who immediately raises both arms in the air and turns to face the fans with a huge grin on her face, taking in the loud cheers for a few long seconds before hugging and high fiving her ecstatic team. The young blonde has now put away two of her most accomplished peers in Bobbie Brown and Ortega, and did so in back to back fashion, improving her record to 7-2 for the year!

Ziegler pauses her celebration soon after to check on her fallen friend, Jenna surrounded by her medical team as she’s helped to a sitting position by the ropes, her head still clearly spinning. But the GBS star is conscious enough to able to accept the victorious blonde’s fist bump offer and the fans are LOVING it as the two competitors show they’re still friends after beating each other up for 6 rounds tonight.

“Fighting Jenna is always risky….she’s freaking crazy, in case you didn’t notice!” Maddie chuckles in a post fight interview. “I’m glad I could take her out tonight. I knew that if I stuck to my gameplan an d used my size I could really punish her for her aggression…I wanted to prove I’m one of the best in my age bracket and I did that tonight. If Jenna wants a rubber match I’ll give it to her, no problem.”

Maddie Ziegler cements herself as a bonefide top flyweight tonight after knocking out two of the top young stars in the division, and some pundits are even suggesting the ‘Mad Dog’ might be the top flyweight fighter in the Dollhouse roster, something that would certainly not sit right with her fellow stablemates Lavigne and Roberts.

Whatever happens next, the Ziegler – Ortega rivalry seems far from over and perhaps only just beginning, with the two superstars now tied 1-1 with hints of more to come.

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for these two starlets!