Post by oddmanout on Jul 4, 2017 8:46:28 GMT -6
Before: “There aren't many more inspiring FCBA stories than Blake Lively's. The gorgeous blonde from Tarzana, CA was highly-touted when she entered the FCBA in 2008, then proceeded to go 8-16 in her first 24 fights including 0-6 in 2012 that got her sent packing from JKO. Things didn't get much better the next two years, with Blake cycling through her 3rd and 4th stables before joining Ginny's Academy and getting her career on track. Since then, she's gone 10-3, grabbed the lightweight title, and successfully defended it three times, actually managing to get her career record to .500 in the process.”
Sadly, less than one hour after Front Street wrote that heart-warming summary of Blake's rise from mediocrity to the pinnacle of her craft - a journey spanning 8 years, 4 months and 15 days - she was crawling around on her hands and knees looking up at the NEW lightweight champion, Gemma Arterton! As if losing the title wasn't enough, it sent Blake spiraling into a “funk” that sent her out of control as she lost 5 straight to a few solid, professional, ranked fighters, and a couple to journey-women she would have easily dispatched six months before.
In point of fact, Lively HASN'T WON a fight in 9 months (including 5 months she didn't even fight once! She spent much of her time, not training but moping around feeling sorry for herself. It took an “intervention” by several friends, led a former stablemate Jeri Ryan with Lindsay Lohan and ex-welter champ Kate Upton to get her back into the gym. Whether or not she's 'back on track' we'll find out in a few minutes! Notably, 'the face' of The Academy, Charlize Theron wasn't involved in Lively's 'rehabilitation' and hasn't been seen with Blake, leading to all sorts of speculation about discord, turmoil, or outright jealousy, among the troops!
Like Lively, Bar Rafaeli recently in few 'real' rings, and even when active, it's more like a lark (Google: beach fight, Body Paint, Ice Hotel... fights with husband?) In other words, things sold as being marginally competitive, but looked down on by “serious” fighters as mere gimmicks: ways to make a buck; get your name in a blog or on a tabloid cover... AKA: click bait on Internet fetish sites!
Lively looking fit and trim after 3/4 of a year away from a ring, in a white bikini, red gloves, and bare feet, shoulder length hair pulled back in a tight ponytail; Rafaeli, coming off of three straight wins, going with a bright yellow hipster bikini, gold hi-tops, and ponytail; gloves white.
During Rd 1: After too much time away from “real” boxing, it's not surprising neither young woman seems eager to be hit and they cautiously dial each other up long-distance, with only Bar seemingly ready to hit her “send” button. It's safe, but as jeering and booing fans vocally attest, not terribly entertaining! Bar a bit less tentative midway, feeling herself getting back into the routine of hit and be hit. Blake clearly less comfortable with the 'be hit' part as she visibly flinches every time Bar lands a hard punch...something she does more and more as the round continues! Blake not living up to her surname (lively) moves like she's in cement overshoes, or knee deep in a tub of molasses. Rafaeli grateful for the stationary target and thanks Blake by pancaking her breasts a few times. That puts a frown on Lively's lips, but Bar seems to enjoy herself and does it again... several times!
Bell! Blake pouting as she flounces unhappily to her corner where Jeri Ryan throws cold water in her face, soaking her bikini top in the process, trying to wake her up! Bar grinning like the cat that got the cream on her stool, shaking off advice from her trainer not to get too comfortable. Only surprise is Rafaeli winning the round close instead of a wider margin. She seemed to control offense, defense and maintained the initiative throughout most of the round.
Between: Apparently Jeri Ryan, agrees because she gives Lively “what for” between rounds. Blake's face red rising off her stool before the bell looking anxious... not about Bar but just to distance herself from a raging Ryan!
Rd 2: Opening salvo by both women on target! Lively's left hook under Bar's right elbow puts a shimmy in Rafaeli's bottom, but Bar's return-fire right explodes on Blake's jaw, buckling her briefly. Each responds to the hurt by clinching - like a comforting shoulder to lean on eases her pain somehow!
They spend the next 30 seconds dancing, thumping each others flanks as they collect their wits. Then Lively pushes Bar off...and whiffs on a left! From there they trade ineffectively; neither landing hard. Then suddenly, Blake remembers her jab, unseen for the better part of a year, and things suddenly get a whole lot easier for the blonde!
Lively steers Rafaeli around the with a straight, crisp, hard, jab to set up her right. Bar rocked back on her heels by two Lively right hands, wobbling and reeling, looking ready to nosedive to the canvas. But Rafaeli won't wilt under pressure and the closing seconds find her fighting back; stringing together a couple of combinations that stop Lively in her tracks, and at one point Bar actually backs Blake up several steps! Closing seconds, however, Lively lights up Raffie with a left hook-right cross combination the undoes all the good Bar had accomplished! The knee-buckling right, sends the Israeli model reeling to the ropes with Blake in lively pursuit; she bodies up to the wounded Rafaeli and hammers her torso with several gutting blows. Lively's winding up for a 'goodnight' right when the bell sounds and the referee steps in, Blake's fist sailing harmlessly over his shoulder past his ear! Big round for Lively sees her winning the points (wide) although, as with Bar in the first, judges appear to have seen more from her than this unbiased reporter.
Between: “Battling Bar” suffering the obligatory “I told you so” from the trainer who'd warned her about getting cocky after one round. She sat and took it, stoically, but when she stood for the 3rd round, her face was grim and her lips pursed. Never a good sign.
Rd 3: After watching her getting wound up by her trainer and seconds, no one's surprised that Rafaeli comes out flying; landing four consecutive punches before Lively knows what hit her. Thirty seconds into the round and Blake's right back where she started, with her butt against the turnbuckles in her own corner. She's not sitting down, but if she doesn't up her game she soon may be...on the canvas!
And up her game, she does. Blake bashes her way out of her corner, working Bar's sweet body with both fists, forcing her back out to center ring, giving up all the turf she'd fought so hard to gain. From there, the fight settled into the rhythm they'd established earlier; neither able to win or lose consecutive exchanges, almost like they took turns; Bar hits Blake three or four times, then Lively hits Bar three or four times. No one being hurt, but Rafaeli did seem to be having more fun hitting Blake's boobies and getting smacked in the belly in return than Blake did! It's a trade most fit supermodels would make any day!
Blake Lively's no supermodel, but she's proud of her expensive implants and after 'losing' several exchanges she pays more attention to protecting her 'pride 'n' joys' - which is likely what Bar wanted all along, because as soon as Lively's hands drop a little... SMACK Rafaeli cuffs Blake's 'face that launched a thousand JMDD challenges' and, Lively, ducking too late, leans into a whip-crack left hook to the jaw that rocks the blonde. Next thing she knows, Blake's crouched, with her butt-stuffed in the ropes, head bobbing, wondering “wha' happened?”
Blake tackles Rafaeli at the waist and, her legs churning, bull rushes Bar back to mid-ring where Lively pushes off and circles - well out of reach - buying time to clear her head. Bar's slow to react to the unexpected 'rasslin' tactic, is unable to cut off Blake's retreat at first, giving the blonde time to clear her head. By the time Bar corners her, Blake's OK and Bar's unable to do more than fight her even the rest of the round. Bar wins the round on points (close). Looks like the judges got it right this time.
Between[/u]: Ryan was holding the spit bucket when Lively turned toward her stool and for a second she thought 'Jeri's gonna dump it on me.' Instead she put between Blake's feet, lifted her chin, and poured water into her mouth, spilling a lot on Blake's already semi-transparent white top.
The fans all approved overwhelmingly (BTW)!
In Bar's corner, her trainer liked what he saw from her that round and urged her, “Do the same, only more!” She nodded, intending to do more...and better!
Rd 4:Maybe winding Bar Rafaeli up so tight wasn't a good idea! She came out like her hair was on fire, throwing combinations without a thought to tactics...or defense! Bar has Blake stepping lively for the first thirty or forty seconds, but aside from pancaked breasts, Bar really doesn't have much to show for all her effort and the energy she expended for the satisfaction. Once Rafaeli's adrenaline rush began to ebb, Lively picked up the offensive gauntlet and literally slapped Bar in the face with it! Lively inching forward behind a stiff left jab that not only keeps Bar's left hand busy on defense, it also keeps her mind on protecting her nose (which Blake had been popping steadily with her jab!) Those two tasks kept Bar too busy to throw the right and Blake's boobs were grateful for any respite from “pancaking” which was what they'd been getting from Bar thus far.
Once Lively settles into an offensive rhythm, things get a lot easier for her. With her strong jab established and working steadily, Blake begins to unlimber her big gun, her right! One of the “unwritten rules” is that if you're going to throw a punch, you gotta believe in it (otherwise you may end up staring up into the lights instead of down at your opponent). Blake's recent doldrums have been blamed on her being too cautious, although “timid” was the word Jeri Ryan used that afternoon she berated Blake in the gym in front of the entire Academy stable. It embarrassed her, but opened her eyes. Since then, she's been more like her old self. With a few rounds under her belt today, she's shaking off her 'ring rust'.
Blake clubs Bar in the left ear with a chopping right hand, then smacks her right cheek with the left hook, followed by another short right to the jaw! Rafaeli's head being bopped left and right, swivels back to her right as her torso torques from the blow, sending her folding facefirst between the ropes, leaving her hung up with her head and shoulders outside the strands. The alert referee (yep, FCBA has one or two of those) in quickly to protect the fighter, backing Lively off to give Rafaeli a standing 8. Bar blinking, but knows her name and at least offers a good guess when she's asked the day, because the referee allows the fight to go on.
Rafaeli on her bicycle, backpedaling behind peek-a-booed gloves, Blake in lively pursuit, pumping the jab, right cocked looking for an opening to deliver her 'go home hammer' to the Israeli supermodel. Bar bobbing her head and shoulders, faking left, going right, switching things up going lefty for a few seconds, anything to give Lively pause in her pursuit. Backed into a corner at last, Rafaeli does something many wish they could, she grabs Blake Lively and puts her in bearhug, their perky bosoms flattening between them as Bar goes belly-to-belly with the beautiful blonde actress.
Closing seconds and Blake at last frees herself from Bar's unwelcome embrace, flashing several quick punches that rock Rafaeli once again and it's looking like Bar's ready to go when DING! DING! DING! The bell rings to end round four, a round that Blake Lively wins (wide).
Between: Rafaeli's corner working hard to bring their girl back from the brink while Ryan all up in Lively's “business” berating her for “letting her off the hook” - reminding her there's going to be more public excoriation in front of her co-workers if she doesn't shape up...pretty much the usual stuff.
Across the ring, Bar's sitting up, looking more alert; ice on the back of her neck; Endswell under her swelling left eye - not a “go to” look for a supermodel, but it's the price one pays for following one's dream to become a world famous “fighting supermodel” and not just another pretty face!
Rd 5: Bar knows what she has to do to keep Lively buttoned up and defensive: spritz the jab, get close behind it, then unleash the hard stuff. Blake wants the opposite: keep Rafaeli away with her jab and drop the hammer from long range, thus keeping her breasts out of harm's way. They're both very good plans, nearly perfect...in a vacuum. But in a fight, a pesky opponent almost always has plan whose success conflicts with yours. In the great scheme of things, someone's plan - or the execution of the plan - prevails over the other... which is what happens here!
Blake still pumping her jab in Bar's face, right still cocked at her cheek, moving Bar back as Lively comes forward. Bar spitting out her own jab, but short arming, stopping it in front of Blake's right hand ready to defend against it. Two women each sticking to her plan. Bar using her feet to maneuver Blake, gliding to her right, going low to slide in under Blake's jab to pound puppy; looking to get Lively's left down a couple of inches to expose her chin and give Bar just one clean shot, which is all she needs!
Lively rotating with Rafaeli, pumping the jab, throwing an occasional right hand to keep Bar honest, then hooking the left in underneath when Rafaeli throws her own right hand. Move, countermove. All with the aim of forcing the opponent to expose herself, then make her pay for it.
Second minute, and so far Bar's had the better of the exchanges, but only slightly. Neither has made a mistake, but neither has forced the other out of her plan either. Bar paws her left, batting down Blake's right hand, then snaps her left into Lively's face. Blake leans back away from Rafaeli's sweeping right that just skims the front of her top. As Bar resets, BAM! Blake's snapping right whistles in to explode on the left side of Rafeali's chin. Bar blasted to her backside, head bouncing off the canvas, hands at her chest slowly unfold, her arms dropping on the canvas like she's been cricufied!
Blake steps over Bar's body with a curious look back, then saunters to the neutral corner, confident the supermodel's not getting up from that blast. Blake Lively is correct. Lively wins by KO5!
After: Blake the second to reach Bar, after the referee who waves off the count at six. They're kneeling with the unconscious brunette when Bar's seconds get to her. As soon as they start to revive her, Lively stands up and goes to her corner where she's greeted by Jeri Ryan with a fist bump on the glove that did the deed. After getting her gloves cut off, Blake returns to center ring where the referee and Bar are waiting; Rafaeli looking like a girl who's just had her birthday cake eaten by her worst enemy.
The two hug, pat each other on the back, then after Blake's hand is raised, and they turn to go, Blake says something to Bar that makes her stop and look back. Lively gives her a little spank and repeats it. Bar grins, nods and they shake hands before returning to their corners, both smiling.
While things seem to be in turmoil at Ginny's Academy - what with Ryan ursurping some of Theron's responsibility for day-to-day oversight of Lively, Lohan and Lawrence's career direction, all isn't hunky-dory over on the O&E side either! Stable rules require the fifth title defense to be in-house, but Rafaeli and Gonzales have both lost their last fights. They're going to have to go head-to-head, and soon, with a title shot on the line!
Given all that drama, the prospect of a six-way free-for-all is not only a distinct possibility, but one that has fans all excited...and managers tearing their hair (them what has any hair left!)