A women’s boxing highlight show hosted by Laila Ali showcases some of the fighters building their records.
Laila: “Hello everyone and welcome to the Women’s Boxing Wrapup here on DAZN. I am your host, Laila Ali. Coming up, we have highlights from around the world of women’s boxing, so that you can catch up on all the fights you may have missed from the ever growing sport of women’s boxing.
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At Virani’s cushy condo in Toronto, the show has two very interested watchers in Emma McGale and Virani MacVicar.
Virani: “Is the popcorn ready yet?”
Emma: “It’s not done popping!”
Virani: “Last time I put you in charge of getting the snacks ready.”
Emma: “Just hit pause, it’ll be ready in a moment.”
Laila takes the viewers around the world of boxing, showing highlights such as Chelsea Carter’s recent win over Juana Sanchez, before the American host comes to some highlights that are more to the watchers’ direct interest.
Laila: “Let’s look now at the Featherweight division – for a long time this had been considered to be a division without much talent, but as of right now it is one of the most competitive in women’s boxing.”
Virani: “She really should have mentioned me here.”
Emma thinks: “Ego, Virani, ego.”
Kasandra’s Return
Laila: “In Ottawa, Ontario a few weeks ago, we had the return of a fighter that many had claimed was one of the division’s hottest prospects – Kasandra Sobieski. She lost her undefeated record, and a lot of the hype around her, after her loss to Leanne Storm back in November. The Polish fighter took on Cornelia Estefan, on the undercard. We’ll take you now to the best parts of the fight.”
On screen, the fight is dominated by the tall Polish fighter, as she intelligently uses her jab to keep the well-built but outclassed opponent trapped in the corner.
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Kasandra follows that up with a scything right hand as Cornelia tried to escape the corner. Kasandra swarms the overwhelmed fighter, but she can’t or doesn’t want to put her opponent away.
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Laila: “Sobieski won the fight easily, 60-54 on all scorecards in this 6 round fight. Her record moves to 5 wins with one loss. The Polish fighter appears to be back on track, and we hope to see her again on DAZN soon.”
Virani: “It’s a win, but…”
Emma: “Doesn’t mean much.”
Virani: “Kasandra has talent, and she works hard, there’s just that something missing.”
Emma: “If she doesn’t develop it shortly, its going to be too late. How many more ‘warmup’ fights can she take? She’ll have to be thrown to the wolves at some point.”
Virani: “At a certain point, talent and hard work only takes you so far. She’s got to have that desire to be the best, the desire to say ‘I’m the better woman and I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it.’ I wonder if she’s too nice.”
Emma: “I’m nice. But I’ll still knock anyone out that stands across the ring from me.”
Virani: “I wonder if that’s a lesson she’ll ever learn.”
Emma: “If she does, she’s better than all of us.”
Virani thinks: Not me, she isn’t.
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Canada’s Champ
Laila: “We stay in Canada and check in with the Canadian Featherweight champion, Mechelle Gauthier as she takes on Crystal Nosek, in Montreal.”
Emma: “This was like a free with for Mechelle. That girl was a punching bag.”
Laila: “Gauthier cruised comfortably through her first defence of her Canadian title, as she overwhelmed Nosek in 5 rounds and cruised to a 5th round stoppage.”
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Virani: “Say what you want about Mechelle, but she is very, very pretty. Not sure I love the new outfit – I kind of dug the old schoolgirl style. Maybe if she’s leaving it open, I should appropriate it.”
Emma: “I think when you look like Mechelle, there isn’t a bad outfit you can pick.”
Virani: “You want a rematch with her?”
Emma: “Fuck yes, I fought dumb in the first fight. I need to fight more patient, work inside more and wear her down. Mechelle isn’t a bad fighter, and I have respect for her ability, but I can and will take that pretty title from her.”
Virani: “I want to see it. Anything you need from me, you’ll get.”
Emma: “Thanks, Virani. So if I need you to bribe the ref or a judge or two?”
Virani: “Anything that isn’t illegal you will get from me.”
Emma: “Just had to clarify.”
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Storm Rising
Laila: “Moving on in the Featherweight division, we had one of 2020s upset winners continue on a trend upwards as Leanne Storm demolished the respected veteran Carly Hampton in 4 lopsided rounds.”
Virani: “How do you feel about this.”
Emma: “Oh, I’m happy for Leanne. She’s my half-sister. How could I not be happy for her?”
Virani: “Well, it’s uh, complicated, with the thing with your dad.”
Emma: “Yeah. And I’ll prove that I’m heir to his legacy. But that has nothing to do with Leanne.”
On screen, Leanne punctuated a fight filled with power punches by landing a big left hook that caught the attention of both the Featherweights on the couch.
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Hampton went down hard and the ref wasted no time, calling a halt to the fight.
Virani: “She looks gigantic for a Featherweight. And she’s a good puncher too.”
Emma: “Leanne knows how to grind her opponents into dust. Like her dad. She’ll eat boxer types like Carly for lunch. Now, someone that might hit her back, I think that will be a different sort of challenge. I’m happy for her though.”
Virani: “This division feels like its getting more and more good fighters.”
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The Prospect Finds Another Victim
Laila: “And our last fight from the Featherweight division, features the fighter that many, including myself are most excited about – Tanille Taylor.”
Emma: “Not her again…”
Laila: “As we’ve seen time and again, Tanille demolished her opponent, Ava Price in 4 rounds, landing the sort of combinations that only get seen on Youtube highlight videos.”
Virani: “Maybe put her in the ring with someone half decent again?”
On screen, the impressive and lovely Tanille put on a crowd pleasing show against an obviously overmatched opponent, before landing a savage right hand that collapsed the blonde girl’s legs.
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Laila: “Referee Frank Herbert drew a round of criticism online for not stepping in earlier, and waiting before Ava hit the canvas before stopping the fight.”
Emma: “How about criticizing the promoter for putting this killer in the ring with a girl that trains part time?”
Laila: “Taylor continues to rack up wins and knockouts, and is now 9-0 with 6 KOs. She seems to have corrected her early career flaw of not being able to finish her opponents. Her promoters have continued to stress that they want to bring the young and talented American along slowly, but performances like this one have only made the public want to see her fight the upper echelon of the division.”
Virani: “I hate this. They are just finding girls to put in the ring with her so she can rack up a massive undefeated record.”
Emma: “You’d think she’d fight someone better after beating me and Jessimin Reed last year, but Ava was just a warm body.”
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Setting Up the Title Fight
Laila: “And next week on DAZN, we have the first title defence for ‘The Empress’ Hee Jung Park as she will take on Wendy ‘Storm Surge’ Pozler, the #7 contender in the Featherweight division, in a fight that many are calling “The Showdown in Seoul.”
Virani: “Maybe after she polishes off this chump, she’ll actually fight me. I bet she’ll make some excuse. She doesn’t want the smoke. She’ll probably retire after she wins.”
Emma thinks: For a fighter coming off a loss, you sure are confident.
Laila: “Wendy Pozler agreed to travel to Seoul to fight the champion in her hometown, and for that you have to salute her toughness. The Czech fighter recently achieved her highest ranking to date, and on a 4 fight win streak, she will hope to extend that against her toughest opponent to date.”
Virani: “What do you think, Em? Does Pozler stand a chance?”
Emma: “No. Pozler’s decent. Tough. Well rounded. But not much of a puncher and eminently too hittable for someone like The Empress. She’s interesting because she’ll have a reach advantage and she’ll know how to use that. But beyond that, I don’t think she’s got the talent. I think Hee Jung gets a stoppage.”
Virani: “I’ll be cheering for her to give Hee Jung a good fight. I want to see more of the Empress. And hell, maybe she flukes out a win and I’ll get to fight her for the title.”
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(Hat tip to Alesia for another of her wonderful poster designs which she has generously donated)
A lot of boxing news heading around the Featherweight division and its contenders. My favorite are Leanne Storm and Tanille Taylor out of the ones shown. As for the Empress, while no disrespect to Wendy as the number 7 contender, it reminds me a bit of Mike Tyson vs Buster Douglas as a situation due to convenience and travel since people want to see Virani as the next challenger for Hee.
Leanne and Tannille are intriguing prospects for the division. Tanile is the biggest threat to the top of the rankings, but Leanne looks serious.
Hee Jung is getting an ‘easy’ home defence before moving on to the main course. But who knows what can happen. It’s boxing. Stranger things have happened.
The feathers are flying. Quick quick, try to catch one!
First, the popcorn won’t pop faster if you ask it to. Microwaves are not very sensitive to that kind of request.
So, we have an honest effort by Kasandra. It’s too bad she couldn’t finish, but a win is a win. Maybe a little more work on the killer instinct will do wonders.
Mechelle’s situation isn’t too surprising. After a major war in her Canadian title win against Emma, she gets someone whose primary job is being overmatched and generously hit. A tune-up that is typical in the boxing world.
Leanne’s intensity and power probably stand out in this post. By all means, she looks like the kind of person who guarantees that you’ll fall when she hits you. Intimidating. Her choice of pink gloves surprises me, though. I didn’t expect that to be her style.
It doesn’t look like Emma is too happy to see Tanille on the screen. Although if I endured a proper beating the way she did at her hands, I’d probably squirm a little at the sight of Tanille.
She punches like as savage, and poor Ava had no chance. It’s not uncommon either for promoters to send part-timers in the ring to get beat up by prospects just to beef up those records.
How about that title match? I could play devil’s advocate, but unless Wendy shows us something unexpected, it’s hard to see The Empress falling to anyone for the time being.
You never know, though. One punch is enough to dramatically alter a fighter’s history. I’ll definitely Czech it out.
Must be a vent somewhere with all these feathers rising :D.
Kasandra, all the talent in the world, everyone keeps saying it. Both Virani (somewhat) and Emma think she has a massive future, but she seems like she’s stuck in place. Progress is needed soon.
Mechelle gets a gimme victory. Who can blame her! She gets a win and looks good doing it. Even a champ gets an easy one every now and then.
Leanne does have ‘the look’ she just looks mean in the ring. She looks big. She looks scary. And she’s punching girls out. A major test must be coming for her soon.
Emma’s reaction about Tanille shows there is still a bit of ill feeling there. Of course, getting brutally knocked out might produce that sort of reaction. I also think that Emma doesn’t like Tanille beating up on a fighter that is similar in talent to Emma.
Tanille’s fight is a pure record padder. Just put her up against a girl that has no chance to show the fans how good she is. It’s not the most…enlightened strategy and morally questionable at best, but its a proven sales tactic.
Hee Jung is taking a fairly easy defence, but then again, Wendy has a good record and there is no such thing as a free world title defence. You know that your opponent is going to give her best because it might be the only time they get that chance. That being said, going to a hometown champion’s backyard is always a tough ask.
“I’ll definitely Czech it out.”
BOOO! 😀
Again, shout out to Alesia for the poster of the upcoming title fight.
I’ve been toying with a format similar to this for a while, where we can catch up on some of the more minor characters that still have a role in the story. Let me know if you like this format or if there is any improvements you can think of.
I was about to comment on the post but I’ll comment here instead, cause first I have to say lovely job to Alesia with the poster! And I really love the background in it. ❤️
And also the format your working with Alex seems fine to me, it’s good to see how the other minor characters are doing in the featherweight. ^^
Now onto the actual post :3
First off it’s good to see Kasandra making a comeback in the ring again after her loss to Leanne (who I’ll be mentioning in this post later) but I do agree with Virani and Emma, she needs more of a challenge and needs to develop more.
Then there’s Michelle with her first title defense which she won easily, glad she’s doing well but it was an easy fight and I’m hoping when Emma faces her again she’ll win that Canadian title to prove to her so called father.
Speaking of as I mentioned earlier here’s Leanna storm. She’s also on the rise in this division. But glad Emma is happy for her and isn’t holding a grudge with her because of the complicated relationship with her dad. But Leanna definitely deserves a rise in the division.
Another opponent that seems to be on the rise is Tanille….another fighter that’s undefeated like Kayleigh and would love to see get knocked out….and she may be good but she really hasn’t had a challenge at all…all she’s fighting is a bunch of easy punching bags.
One thing I can say though that even though I still wanna see the two get knocked Kayleigh is more skilled and she actually has faced tough opponents like V and against Yenifer in her last fight. I’m surprised the fluke wasn’t mentioned in this after her win.
And then we have Hee Jung who is defending her title against a digger I never seen yet, this should be a good fight but I feel this might be another easy one for her.
If anyone deserves to face her it’s Virani, she really wants that title and she’s sounding very confident after her lose to Alesia.
I feel she would be ready but will have to train like hell to be prepared and watching this fight will be helpful.
Alesia is the #1 when it comes to posters. No doubt. Can always tell when the poster design is hers 🙂 .
Kasandra picks up a win, and its nice to get back in winning ways. She’s still got the same problem as before though.
Mechelle is so pretty <3. Good win against not much of an opponent, but she’s due another defence against Emma I think.
Emma supports Leanne for sure – I mean that is her half sister. The Storm is rising. That’s a story that is coming for sure…
Tanille is…she’s doing the same sort of thing. Winning against fighters she is better than. You can see that Emma and Virani want to see her against someone better, but her promoter seems to want to build a record for Tanille.
And yes, coming up will be Hee Jung. The first defence of her world title!