Emma Watson vs Elyse Willems

Pre-Fight:

Emma Watson on facing a new opponent: “It’s what keeps you fresh, right? You have to take chances and put yourself out there against girls you’ve never fought before. It can work out well or it can be a disaster. But if you don’t sharpen your skills against a varied array of opponents then I believe you get stagnant.”

Elyse Willems on possibly her toughest opponent yet: “I’d say she’s definitely the best fighter I’ve faced yet. I don’t remember where Cree was when we fought, but this is just… a whole other kind of animal. Emma’s been a champ, she’s won at least 9 fights for four straight years. It’s… a tall task asking me to beat her. I have something to prove though after my last outing, so we’ll just have to see what happens.”

R1:

Emma comes out with a light blue shorts and gloves combo. Meanwhile Elyse has gone all yellow for this go-round. The two girls touch gloves and the fight is on.

Watson comes out and shows why Elyse spoke so highly over her to start. She works inside and out. Dodges punches. Sneaks in fast striking blows to Willems’ cheek. She controls the pace of the start of the round and doesn’t relinquish it at all. Elyse is clearly overwhelmed by pure speed and technique early on.

Willems clinches somewhat close to her corner, bringing the taller Brit in close. She tries to slow the pace and interrupt Emma’s rhythm early. The two break apart and Watson goes back to work. She cuts through Elyse’s guard with some more jabs, but when she comes in close Elsye again clinches. The ref breaks them up and Elyse seems to have figured out a bit of Emma’s rhythm for herself.

She ducks a Watson jab and follows up with two of her own. Then she hits her again, walking Watson back. More jabs flying through. Emma tries to evade, but Elyse is now deadly accurate with that left hand. She waits patiently for Emma’s guard to show the slightest drop, and she nails her in the nose once again with another jab.

The round ends with Emma taking it, but Elyse shows a glimmer of hope near the end.

Watson up 10-9.

R2:

Watson keeps a cool head and goes back to her tried-and-true attack. She’s fast. Too fast for Elyse to guard forever. Jabs rail the Free Puncher’s cheek over and over again. It’s a slow and methodical pace, but one Emma is hoping softens her up for something bigger.

That something bigger though never quite opens up in this round, as Elyse keeps her guard well enough to draw Emma in. Watson takes a bit of a chance, gets too close, and WHAM. A left uppercut stuns the Vixen! Emma looks dazed. Elyse goes at her with all she’s got. Hammering her opponent between heavy left and right hooks that bang off of Emma’s gloves and biceps.

Elyse tries to break down Watson’s guard, but she holds true and counter-punches, knocking Elyse’s head to the side with a right. Emma back in the driver’s seat as a flurry of combos brush Elyse back past the center of the ring. But once again Elyse rallies and nails Emma with a heavy right to the midsection.

Willems comes at Watson with everything she’s got. She lands a really beautiful right hook that seemingly opens a cut over Emma’s eye and the bell rings.

Willems takes the round and evens the fight up 19-19.

R3:

With Emma in some pain, Elyse sees an opportunity. She comes out southpaw and it twists Emma all out of sorts.

Now it’s a right-handed jab that’s finding Watson over and over again. Emma looks confused and her corner looks concerned. There’s a sense of dread looming over there as Elyse easily works Watson into a corner. Emma’s still able to counter-punch well and get out of danger as she skirts away.

Elyse comes after her though, absorbing some punishment as she does, but she gets a nice one-two combo that leaves Emma stumbling into the ropes. Watson’s guard goes up and it’s just heavy blows to the ribs and abs from Elyse. Over and over she annihilates Emma’s midsection as the bell rings. Willems looking like a completely different fighter than her last time in the ring.

Willems up 29-28.

R4:

Elyse comes back out southpaw, but clearly Emma got some advice from her corner. She slips under the right handed jab and busts Elyse’s guard open wide with a right cross. Emma’s quick hands slip in and out of Elyse’s guard, knocking her chin around with alternating blows.

Willems is in trouble. Emma comes back in, cool and calm once more, and starts to really win the landed punches battle. Statistically she out-lands Elyse 2:1 this round. Willems puts up a valiant effort, but Emma has sailed through the rough patch and is now coasting as she finishes the round busting Elyse’s guard open again and nailing her with a right uppercut that almost drops the blonde.

R5:

Watson isn’t messing around anymore. Even as Elyse switches back to her orthodox stance, Emma is just eluding everything. She can’t seem to get hit even if she wanted too. She’s zoned in, smacking Elyse around with her quick-striking jabs and straights.

Willems stands tall as best she can, but when she gets backed into a corner she just can’t stop the experienced Emma from having her way. Right cross. Left cross. Right cross. Down.

Elyse drops to the canvas, her knees buckling as she leans against the corner. She pants heavily and tries to use the ropes to push herself back up, but she’s too disoriented and collapses back down as the ref counts to ten.

WINNER IN ROUND 5 VIA KO: EMMA WATSON

Post-Fight:

Emma Watson on a tricky fighter: “Yeah, that was a bag of tricks she pulled out. Going southpaw, and boy that jab… when she had that working there’s no answer to it. But when you break it down, I never felt in a lot of danger in this fight. I didn’t think she could knock me down and really five rounds isn’t super long. So I think this is my third straight win… and sorry but I think I looked pretty damn good doing it tonight.”

Elyse Willems on dropping three straight: “You know… it’s been rough for me here in the FCBA. I’ll just say it. This fight though, I just really tried to confuse her and I did for a while. She’s just too good for me right now. I don’t know what else to say. I have a fight against Kristen in the PPV and that’s where my focus is now. But yeah, a really really rough patch for me.”