The champion’s instincts kick in
Esther: “We aren’t done with this big match in Berlin. Potvin could be leading as the championship rounds, where Schumann is usually at her best, begin.”
Ding.
The brunette starts with 15 cautious seconds of jabbing before unleashing a storm of punches that make Alesia concede space, and find herself near the red corner.
Chloé makes a daring move by switching to southpaw and throwing a vicious straight left. The blonde lowers her hands for balance and dodges for a very narrow miss.
Alesia thinks: “All this practice with Zohana is paying off.”
Cheeky
A relentless Chloé fires volleys with such energy that the German knows she has no choice but to take risks. Either she can impose respect with hurtful counterattacks or she will find herself under a pile of punishment and lose her title.
At the two-minute mark, the Canadian punching machine throws shots and cuts the ring effectively, but the Diva increases footwork to create new angles. When she finally has an opening, she shifts her weight back and forth to unload a short right in the middle to catch the Oiseau de malheur‘s cheek as she is in motion for a right hook.
The crowd cheers.
Esther: “Schumann scores with a big right hand! Accurate timing as Potvin was wide open, if only for a split second.”
Anna: “This is when being a technician becomes handy. You can instinctively find the right position and transfer weight behind a shot that is bound to be felt.”
Uppercut delivery
The battle slowly moves to the centre of the ring as the challenger is forced to respect the champion’s ability to retaliate under pressure. No one wants to get knocked out by being overly optimistic.
The girl in blue goes for disruption again with an attempt to push Alesia with her left hand. If she can get her off balance, it can create an opportunity to land a clean punch. The blonde evades by leaning outside, freeing her left hand to strike with a sharp uppercut under the jaw. Pish!
Virani: “Oof. I think I felt that.”
Sophie: “Oh yeah. It’s bad when you throw yourself forward and get caught this clean.”
Melanie: “No. How the hell does she keep doing this?”
Leyla: “It’s called practice.”
Melanie: “You seem pretty happy that Alesia is scoring against the girl you helped in camp.”
Leyla: “I’m neutral here. Unlike you, I don’t mind if Alesia wins.”
Melanie: “Meh.”
Double delivery
Being the title-hungry and durable animal that she is, Chloé doesn’t slow down. She keeps the pressure cooker’s level high, in the hope that her work rate and brute force can create the mistake needed to hurt Alesia.
The method backfires with a little less than a minute to go. She mistimes her advance as the contestants pivot at the same time near the red corner. Chloé is turning from right to left while aiming at the body. The girl in black and white plants her back foot on the canvas and shovels her right uppercut, landing straight in the mouth and snapping the Québécoise‘s upper chest up.
A massive cheer comes out of the audience.
Regina thinks: “Bringing it out at the right time. Good.”
Esther: “Schumann lands a bomb! The Allycut is on target and Potvin stays up, Anna. We weren’t kidding when we said she was durable.”
Anna: “A chin can’t be bought. Either you have it or you don’t, and Potvin is the kind who can refuse to fall in a canyon that made many victims.”
Alesia thinks: “I had a hunch she was able to take it. Confirmed.”
enlarge
Chloé takes a small breather to regain her senses after getting rocked. The champion allows it due to her lack of interest in throwing herself forward after landing a round-winning blow.
The challenger looks to do a little more holding and punching to benefit from her outstanding body strength. She comes in to capture the Diva… who sticks her left arm out to block before throwing her right gloved fist in the sternum.
Chloé: “Urgh.”
Esther: “Schumann gives Potvin special treatment with a dose of her own medicine, fighting fire with fire.”
Anna: “Getting punched below the throat isn’t what sends a fighter down, but it causes discomfort. Alesia is showing her versatility by making this fight ugly when needed.”
Chloé isn’t happy, but she concedes the round. Much to Alesia’s satisfaction, no significant action takes place in the final 15 seconds of the engagement, and the bell rings. The Diva gets a round of applause from the audience.
Corner talks
In the red corner, Regina greets her protégée with a very calm talk.
Regina: “Good work. That’s what I expect. You made her overcommit before punishing the little mistakes, and resisted when she wanted to use brute force. I want you to keep being clever. Let her take risks. She’s the challenger, so the burden is on her shoulder.”
They go quiet for the rest of the minute, with the coach buttering up Ally’s face and giving her water. An economy of words that is standard in their corner.
In the blue corner
Vanessa: “Dammit girl. You dropped points and it’s tight. You know that champs have the advantage when that happens.”
Chloé: “I’m taking the fight to her!”
Vanessa: “I know, but keep your balance. Don’t throw yourself forward so much because that’s when the counter is most effective. Balance is the key to beat this chick.”
Chloé nods.
Even terms
Anna: “We are in the final stretch of this championship match and I give Round 8 to Alesia. The score at this point? I see it as an even 76-76, in a battle that has yet to be settled. Are you on the edge of your seat yet? Good, but don’t fall off.”
Rebecca: “Seconds out!”
Nice work with these renders! There’s a lot of dynamic strength to the ones you’ve done for this fight.
Thanks. Just wait ’til you see Round 9, lol
I’m glad to see Alesia using some of the strategies she picked up in training. Chloe now is under a bit of pressure to take the belt from the champ.
It turns out that working with Zohana was very productive for Alesia. After all, the pound for pound queen can teach a thing or two to about anyone!
Alesia,
This fight is coming along just like I pictured it would. Chloe would try to use brute strength and punching volume to overcome Alesia Schumann, but to no avail. Chloe has landed some punches, but her skills are no match for Alesia’s skills and punching power. Alesia is slowly and methodically beating up Chloe, and I must say she looks very sexy doing so!! To add, Chloe is proving hard to knock out completely as she takes steady and serious punishment from Alesia. There’s only so much punishment she can take before it starts to take it’s toll. One can only take so many punches from Alesia before they turn into a punching bag for her, and a highlight reel!!
Mike
Chloé is super tough, though. Perhaps the most durable fighter that Alesia ever face, and one of the best hitters. If the Diva is to win this, she can’t afford to slip up.
Amazing round by Alesia as she was able to counter and punch Chloe all over the ring this round! The training with Zohana worked, and if Alesia can beat Chloe with things she learned from Zohana, does that mean Zohana defeats Chloe too? Chloe is in frustration mode now, no doubt, and I think this will be where she continues making mistakes in the next two rounds instead of pulling it together. I think if Alesia can win at least 1 more round, she has the fight for sure with the judges. Even if round 10 ends up being even, it would be enough as long as Alesia does not make a big mistake herself. That will be the biggest key. It’s a lot of pressure for both boxers, and both cannot afford to make a mistake and lose on a stage like this.
You are correct about strategy. If Alesia can win another round without disaster striking in another, she could get a decision. Who the hell knows what the judges can do with this? We don’t know, but champs normally get the nod in tight situations since challengers have to convince, not just fight OK.
This round was the reaction of a champion.
This is Ally at her best, dipping, ducking, dodging all of her opponents best efforts and then taking the openings given to her and making her opponent pay for those misses. It’s the combination that has undone many of Ally’s opponents over the years, and Chloe is no different.
From making the Montrealer miss vicious punches, to making the Montrealer receive vicious punches, Alesia imposes her will this round. That right hook that Alesia lands at the 1 minute mark of the round would be a punch that would severely hurt a less durable opponent, but Chloe takes it without much complaint. But the timing of that shot had to hurt.
Then we see the uppercut, and although it is just the left uppercut, we’ve seen that punch stagger other opponents, especially when delivered opportunistically. Again it’s a well timed, powerful shot that Chloe takes while off balance, but she doesn’t even seem to be hurt by that shot either.
Side note: Ally delivering uppercuts? Very hot 😀
Then we get the big right uppercut, that Alesia just polished off her last opponent with *cough.* It doesn’t get quite under the chin (I’m sure if it did, even Chloe would have had to had slightly more of reaction, one thinks.
Anna: A chin can’t be bought. Either you have it or you don’t
True. We know that some fighters have increadible chins. Alesia’s is pretty darn good, but Chloe might be on another level. It’s kind of amazing that Taylor Grant was able to stop the tough Canadian.
Love Regina aping Alesia’s movement at ringside. That’s a coach that’s into the fight 🙂
Alesia doesn’t follow up on the uppercut, content to win the round. It’s a different sort of mentality than some have – some fighters would have tried to pounce after landing a shot like that, but Ally is playing the long game. She knows its hard to stop Chloe, so she doesn’t really try. Honestly, with 50 seconds in the round, maybe she could have gone for it a little more. A knockdown would have really helped Ally on the scorecards.
In the corners, I have to say I love these 1st person shots of the coaches – always nice to get a good view of Regina :).
You get the sense of how hard this is for Chloe. She needs to be aggresive to win the rounds, but she can’t overcommit. It’s easy to say go for balance, but how do you find it? It’s not exactly easy. Most of Ally’s opponents have not been able to find the balance.
The rounds are even, but I think there could be tough sledding ahead for Chloe. But the margin of error is quite low!
I think that Chloé would dispute being called a Montrealer 😆
One of the pillars of Alesia’s game is creating opportunities to attack with her defensive work. There are boxing fans who only notice punches, but how you “build them up” is important as well. Especially at the elite level.
Chloé, though, has a chin that other fighters can be jealous about. While it doesn’t make taking Alesia’s uppercut any fun, it can at least allow to stay up and keep having a fighting chance.
Some could question Alesia’s decision to put points in the bag instead of trying to hurt Chloé more. But then again, many boxing careers have been damaged by the greed of those who didn’t know when to “hold back” against someone who can take fire and return it.
Margin of error? There is none, for either side 👀
Looks like Alesia is back on track yet again. She dominated that round being clever and Violet 😉
First she makes Chloe come to her and making her miss and then lands a clean hook to her face. But Alesia doesn’t stop there. She lands not one but two uppercuts! Her best punch two times and Chloe took it pretty well but I’m sure it still hurt.
Hard to decide who I’d want to win, I like them both but I think I’m just gonna continue to enjoy the fight. 👍
Outside at ring side seems like Leyla and Melanie aren’t getting along so much. Seems Leyla doesn’t mind if Alesia or Chloe wins, I’m kinda the same. But Melanie doesn’t think so. Who knows maybe they might face each other in the future.
Now that the score is tied it’s time to see how both fighters will get through the last two rounds.
This fight isn’t decided yet. Possibly dead even on the scorecards. Two rounds to go with Alesia back in form, and given what’s in store for Round 9… prepare for something special 👀
I don’t think that Leyla has much respect for Melanie 😆
Oooh! I’m curious to what you mean by special 😮this fight has had some good back and forth action, curious to see how things turn out.
And I think I’m with you on Leyla having now respect for Melanie, she hasn’t done anything to earn her respect
Aha! Now THAT is what I was expecting out of Alesia! Even though it took a while for that to happen, it’s only fair that the fight is Even Steven since Chloe is proving herself to be yet another formidable opponent. Question now is, how will the fight pan out from here on in and how long will we have to wait to see it happen?
The better your opponent, the harder it is to execute your game plan. Chloé is certainly one of the best fighters in the world, so it’s normal for Alesia to only find success in Round 8. Taking advantages of little mistakes in crunch time is something she does well.