Lily Aldridge vs Sara Sampaio

Lily Aldridge vs Sara Sampaio
(Lioness Club vs FCBA Independent)
(25-17, 25 KO vs 1-11, 1 KO)
Results: Lookout!; Story: Vassago

BEFORE: Lily Aldridge returns to Santa Monica beach where she takes on fellow Sports Illustrated veteran Sara Sampaio in a fan service battle more than anything else given the latter's underwhelming career record.

Lily Aldridge wears a yellow bikini set & black gloves. Long dark brown hair loose & straight. Sara Sampaio wears a blue bikini set & red gloves. Long dark brown hair in loose waves. Both women are barefoot. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the lightweight division.

Round 1:
Lily dominates the early action spraying several clean hits up the middle and making Sara look as hittable as her record indicates. The Portuguese model just can't show that mean edge required to become a serious player and is almost fortunate not to suffer early physical damage since she stops majority of Lily's punches with her face and that's always a terrible idea. She gets blasted back to the corner where Aldridge almost shoves her through the ropes and the dominant stance results in a low blow that earns the local favorite a warning but Lily claims it was purely accidental. Some of this stuff would be allowed during private Sports Illustrated boxing sessions but that's another tale to be told...

Round 2:
Sara wakes up to find a meaningful response while Lily almost enables her to flex some muscle but things get out of hand when the American gets busted on the cleavage and wobbles to her heels which allows Sampaio to apply even more slugging pressure. She takes off to knock immediate leather into Aldridge's face and drives her onto the ropes before landing more body shots to keep the older brunette in relative discomfort. Lily swings back over the top but misses the obvious target and has to soak up more punches to the body thereafter before applying a lenghty wrestling clinch that still earns her a stray elbow between the breasts.

Round 3:
Sara finds more success thumping Lily to the body and she moves in to blast an uppercut series that catches both the breasts and the chin to flush the Lioness brunette out of the pocket. A left-on-left double stuns Aldridge onto her heels before Sampaio BLOWS her with a right hook on the mouth that sends the older brunette down onto her backside!!! Uh-oh!!! That's a genuine shocker for the Santa Monica patrons however Erin Andrews in the booth thinks the local model was simply too careless facing a seemingly subpar opponent. Sara's record tells one story but every fight is different and the upset vibes are very much present once Lily beats the count at seven and dusts herself off the sand to resume the slugging pounce. She keeps leaking more punches up the middle and struggles to fend off the Sampaio charge until the clock comes to her rescue amid some wild jeers from the audience.

Round 4:
Lily works on her comeback but that only results in a messy round as both models display little quality which is neutralized by pure desperation instead. Sara thinks she can upstage the more accomplished foe but only lands single punches on target while Lily just can't shake off the fellow brunette and struggles to stretch her elbows before a clash of heads and another headlock attempt drags the contest beyond the boxing rules. Referee steps in to manhandle the girls aside but they refuses to get off each other so the action switches over to the ropes where Lily tries to trip the Portuguese rival down and they both end up on the sand moments before the bell. Ugh! Things are getting verbal as well which actually finds support among the beach patrons especially that Lily cannot contain her disgust for much longer.

Round 5:
Sara swoops in to land the early double but then shoots over Lily's head and gets smashed by a nasty uppercut on the chin before another drilling hook nails her on the eye and sends into immediate tailspin. She sinks on her heels and is too slow to raise her arms in wake of a brutal right hook that tags her on the eye again and SENDS DOWN FOR THE COUNT!!! Lily scores the long-awaited breakthrough and still has Sara all shaken up even after the Portuguese tourist beats the count at seven. That was a brave effort from the younger brunette but she's in no shape to mount a comeback and gets duly pounded back to the turnbuckle where Aldridge tries to drill through her guts and bangs her stomach into a mush forcing the ref to STEP IN and call the fight a day just as Sara descends into a mumbling disarray. She slides down on the sand again but the fight has been waved off already. TKO5 Lily Aldridge!!!

AFTER: This was supposed to be a straight-forward performance from the recent Queen of the Beach challenger but Lily still found the dust before coming back to restore order. No wonder she's still upset during the verdict announcement because that outing won't earn her any extra praise from the pundits. She probably underestimated the fellow SI model but she's really too experienced to fall for that ancient mistake at this stage of her career.

Official Result: Lily Aldridge def. Sara Sampaio TKO5.