Nina Dobrev versus Claire Danes (Bantamweight Title)

Unified Bantamweight Title aka The Last Stand
Ch Nina Dobrev vs Claire Danes
(Lioness Club of America vs Hawkeye International Sports Consortium)
(39-24-1, 31 KO vs 94-56-6, 48 KO)
Results: Lookout!; Story: Vassago

BEFORE: "I must admit, Claire Danes was NEVER my intended choice here and Priyanka Chopra had the best chance of getting here before Claire BUT if Hawkeye says Danes will be RETIRED if she loses this one, then I'm ALL for it!", bantamweight champion Nina Dobrev expains her somewhat strange choice for her third title defense. "Everyone knows that my owner Mr. V absolutely HATES the Hall of Fame and never gives these gals extra chance but since neither Jessica Lowndes nor Vanessa Hudgens could retire Michelle Williams, it's time that someone finally laid down the law on these Hawkeys. They've been making too much noise too long now! And just look what Krissy Kreuk did to Cheryl Cole earlier tonight! This means WAR!!!"

"Retirement? Huh! That's the official idea BUT I'm not going to retire while knocking Nina's teeth out!", Claire laughs at the concept this could be her last FCBA hurrah. "Everyone has written Mishy off too and she smoked all these Next Gen girls around. Why can't I follow suit and strip Nina off her belts! We're still the best there is in fly & bantam so how can anyone question my chances? Nina couldn't hold onto a solid job for years and got replaced by Demi frickin' Lovato? I beat her ass last year and if she's better than Dobrev which Paris Hilton tells me then I can see myself on top of the world again! Nina stands no chance tonight! Just give me my belts already!"

Nina Dobrev wears a leopard print bikini top, violet hotpants & golden gloves. Long dark brown hair tied in a curled ponytail. Claire Danes wears a golden sports bra, matching hotpants & red gloves. Shoulder-lenght blonde hair straight. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the bantamweight division.

Round 1:
Claire's too experienced to blow her gasket seconds into her potentially last fight but this lethargic start allows Nina to control the action and easily pick off the reeling blonde up the middle. Claire survives the initial onslaught but then gets backed into the corner when the champion begins to stack up the punches outright and splits the mitts with too much ease. Danes tries to recover over the top but fails to match the brunette's flow and eats a scything cross on the nose that pins her onto the ropes where Dobrev barges ahead with more methodical strikes until the bell halts her charge.

Round 2:
Hawkeye's plan to see out the early storm seems to be going the wrong way after another feisty jabbing start from Dobrev so Danes has to accept the slugging route and pounce on the charging brunette herself. Both women almost clash heads in the center of the ring alas Claire recovers first and whacks the champion up the gut to force to dirty brawl where a couple of blows stray dangerously close around the waist line. Claire turns it from the hip and catches the brunette on the liver area before thumping a quick uppercut series that makes Nina think better off it. The chase is off since Danes doesn't have the legs at the moment to match the livey champ but Nina looks pretty upset at the bell regardless.

Round 3:
More power coming from the Hall of Famer but Nina matches her stride for stride and lands the big hook on the nose that sinks the blonde behind a tight earmuff. It's almost a suicidal tactics to go all slugging versus someone like Dobrev and Claire quickly learns it the hard way when she gets clubbed on the chest and loses some oxygen supply in the process. She tries to fend the Bulgarian champ off in mid-range but gets blasted across the chest once again and slumps into a turtle-like defense with Nina pounding her back into the turnbuckle for a good measure. Ugh! Claire has to clinch her foe just to survive another leather drive up her chimney and that's not what the Hawkeye fans had in mind for whatsoever!

Round 4:
Danes becomes more aggressive but she's almost forced to in order to avoid the looming whitewash; she delivers a solid double on the chin alas Nina stays right in her face and both women struggle to fully stretch their elbows in the process. Single punches find their way to punish each midsection until a jug-to-jug contact forces a quick break... Claire recovers first and BLASTS the champ on the jaw which sends Nina into spasms... huh! Cue in that legendary Hawkeye power that has Danes thumping the brunette's guts out thereafter and Dobrev simply wilts under the pressure; she tries to clinch the veteran but gets pummelled back to the ropes instead and settles into a strike for strike exchange that bends her sideways when the New Yorker find another cruel uppercut on the jaw late.

Round 5:
Claire mounts more pressure up the middle and finds too much comfort in the close range while Dobrev fails to carry the power supply and bounces off the top of the blonde's forehead. Danes has no such issues and slams a left/right combo in the cleavage before blasting the stunned champion on the jaw... Nina takes a couple of steps back but still meets a crushing hook on the jaw and goes all shimmy shake... she tries to back off but Claire still hauls in another hook on the nose TO SEND THE BRUNETTE DOWN ON HER BACKSIDE!!! How about that! Claire blows right back into contention and seems more than comfortable with the slugging route - perhaps against the odds. Nina wisely takes the standard eight count but yield real estate in a hurry while Danes works the phone booth magic to close her down along the ropes. She pierces more tummy just to keep Dobrev under wraps and flirts with more shots on the boobs to really stun the audience with her Hall of Fame-like display!

Rounds 6 & 7:
The going gets tougher for the reigning champ who needs more than a couple of rounds to recover from the knockdown funk but maybe it's down to the pressure of the moment as well. If Mishy could avoid retirement (at least once) then what if Claire follows through and wrecks Nina's hopes of becoming the Lioness Alpha? Nina's got the speed to stay clear of the phone booth menace but Danes still lands way too many shots on the chest not to make the champion feel it. She cracks more hooks upstairs and while they don't carry too much damage, the New Yorker runs the bout from the front and has the Bulgarian reeling in avoidance for majority of the action. Will Claire regret not going for the kill? Not many people agree with it as Nina remains shut down and bounces off the stiff guard time and time again before eating a looping cross that has Danes almost laughing at her face after the bell. "Nobody's gonna retire me tonight! NOBODY!!!"

Round 8:
BLONDE! Magazine has Danes up by two if not three points before the eight and it's like a lesson in Hall of Fame performance until she gets caught in a desperate comeback effort that has Dobrev going all for broke... Risky much? Not if it works - Danes gets clubbed on the chest almost by accident but the punch carries through on the jaw and drops the blonde on her heels while Nina lands her best overhand since like forever and adds more juice in a blink of an eye! She clatters Claire's lips in the process and delivers the stinger on the liver area while pushing for more jaw damage as well. Blonde's chin slumps right into the brunette's range and the clinching effort fails miserably when Nina turns the challenger around and WHACKS her on the lips with a classic piledriver... Ugh! Bonde's legs go jelly and she's unable to cover for a brutal left cross that DRILLS her on the nose AND SENDS CRASHING DOWN ONTO HER BACKSIDE!!! Big time turnaround from the struggling champ who yells out in delight but Claire won't check out like that at all... she takes the full eight count as well and vows immediate revenge only for another clash of heads to calm thing down deep into the final minute. "We're not done, bytch!", she shouts at Nina who seems to be in much better mental shape right now with six minutes remaining.

Round 9:
Nina pushes for the ultimate kill shot but Claire tries to ride it out regardless and both women tangle in another head-hunting duel in the center of the ring; Danes keeps it all square during the initial impact but gets gradually outworked when Nina finds the body shots and thumps the Hall of Famer around the ring thereafter. Danes refuses to default the action but fatigue begins to catch up with her and the final minute is all about the Bulgarian pursuit that traps the New Yorker in the corner and has Nina piercing more tummy with Claire apparently running in fumes. Still, Nina hersef is gassed and can't finish the aching woman off which leads into a mercy clinch in the final twenty odd seconds.

Round 10:
More of the same in the tenth, Nina makes the early impact while Claire connects with the single shots and then it's all survival mode as neither woman has enough strenght to find the KO solution, Hawkeye fans count on some Hall of Fame bonus points but most pundits think this battle royale could actually end in a draw which would keep the straps in the Lioness corner. And the what about the supposed Danes retirement? She won't lose this after all? Too much fatigue in the ring until the final minute when Dobrev brekas the clinch and thumps extra swelling onto the blonde's lips. Claire's seen it all before but she just can't secure the final stretch and almost goes down when Nina bangs one last combo on the chest before the bell brings this gruesome battle to an end! Both girls think they've won it but the judges declare a MAJORITY DRAW!!! One has it for Danes by a single point and the others are 5 rounds-each in a dead heat!

NINA DOBREV retains the unified bantamweight title but the Danes legend LIVES ON!!! She didn't lose the "lose and you're done" fight!!!

HOLD EVERYTHING!!!

Nina Dobrev refuses to accept the verdict and taunts Claire into overtime last woman standing finish: "It's lose and you're out, bytch! No phoney gimmicks allowed! The champ has spoken...

Quick look around the arena and NOBODY wants a draw. It's not GGG vs Canelo bullcrap again. Not in the FCBA house on Anniversary night!

BRING IT ON!!!

Round 11:
Claire was almost done physically after ten rounds and allthough she tries to slug it out one more time, Nina's the more agile of the two and carries too much juice to punish the blonde's ribcage during the opening minute... a low blow response, a clinch and a jug-bump doesn't cut it for Claire who tries to slam a last-ditch haymaker but gets swamped by the jug attack and tails off against the ropes where Nina pounds away from both flanks but still can't floor the veteran again... that's like dumping a nuke bomb on these Hawkeyes and they NEVER go away... feeling the pain of the Lowndeses and Hudgenses of this world Dobrev slumps into spasms when Danes blasts her up the chimney and FINDS THE JACKHAMMER on the jaw that puts her on KO standby... and no, Claire can't get it done either... she misses the put away hook with Nina fish-tailing backwards only to get saved by the bell moments later... She had it.. she had it... but no, the legs stayed back and Danes comes away empty...

Round 12:
Nina's jaw is hurting but she charges ahead well aware of the fact one more hook like that and she might not rise anymore tonight... Danes knows it too and it's like a one-punch drill now.... Claire bounces off the top of the brunette's shoulder nad goes LIMP when the champion cracks one on the nose... Uh-oh!!! Nina's legs stay behind and she almost falls flat on her face when she whups a left cross just within her range... Danes goes into slo-motion and gets NAILED on the nose that begins to leak blood upon impact and that's the last straw... DOWN GOES CLAIRE... the legs simply gave way and the New Yorker is down and potentially out for the last time in her career...

Enter the cockroach mode...

Danes is NOT done...

Nina almost begs for the ref to stop the fight but Danes rises from the ashes one more time... You gotta be kiddin' me... nose bleeds badly but the Hall of Famer is up and taunts the champion to hit her the right way: "Got some left, tramp?"

She does... mind over matter again and Nina scowls in the jabbing drive to shove extra leather up the American's chimney before piercing the solar plexus to really pull the plug on the cockroach hopes... Claire's just standing there and taking abuse... the fumes are gone but how much Nina needs to find to knock her down again? Blood spills all over the referee's shirt and Danes is getting her face wrecked now... but she won't go down...

AND THEN COMES THE MERCY RULE...

Claire has fought until the last blood but that one hook maybe broke her nose outright.... and she finally buckles.. trips back onto the ropes and cries out with blood smeared all over... this got ugy in a hurry, folks!!!

REF WAVES IT OFF when she slips on a pile of blood... and it's TKO12 and STILL your unified bantamweight champion... oh, wait... she's down on her knees too... and down on her face wholesale... meanwhile Danes slides onto her backside with eyes closed and now we can have the medics rushing in, please...

World War III in the ring... two sets of stretchers needed... delay in the LIVE broadcast... someone's gonna have to pay for this!!!!

The curtain FALLS... even Michael Jordan retired twice... and so will Mishy.... Danes bows out FIGHTIN'!!!

Stay tuned for the medical update... and the retirement parade...

Official result: Nina Dobrev def. Claire Danes TKO12.