An ugly decision that has the boxing world talking
Boxing news? The lovely Anna Schwartz has you covered. She goes on the air to deliver the latest action from the Box TV studio in Berlin.
Anna: “Hello and welcome, fight fans. We have a round of fight results once again as it’s been a busy time in the Lightweight and Super Lightweight divisions.”
Early lead
Anna: “Taylor Grant went to London to fight against Delara Salimi in a most interesting Super Lightweight contest. Respectively number three and six in the rankings, Grant and Salimi had what we could call a battle of the green leather and mouthpieces. According to our sources, this took place in London to generate the biggest possible payday for both fighters. How did it go?”
Anna: “Salimi, a Brit with an Iranian background, started the match by putting pressure on Grant in the first three rounds, which looked like the right approach to unsettle a woman who has the fastest hands in women’s boxing. She was broadly successful in landing punches against the American, and I had her leading at that point.”
Serious comeback
Anna: “However, Grant staged a majestic comeback. She let her hands go with the kind of speed that most men can’t even generate in the boxing ring to gain the edge in the middle rounds. She intensified pressure in the last three rounds to make it, in our opinion, a clean sweep for most of the fight.”
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Bad scores
Anna: “Almost everyone at ringside, and at home, had a shock when the scorecards were read by the ring announcer. All three judges, every one of them British, scored the bout 97-93 in favour of Salimi. As an indication, I scored it 97-93 for Grant, who I didn’t see dropping a single point starting from Round 4.”
Anna: “Right after the match, Grant was livid. She said, and I quote:
This decision is the biggest piece of shit I’ve seen in boxing in a long time! I scored the best punches through most of that fight and deserve the win. Do these judges have any idea what we go through as professional boxers? You sweat, you bleed, you get injured and suffer to become a top fighter. What did those beer-belly judges do to get seats on those official chairs? Yeah, they got there because they knew someone. It’s got nothing to do with our sacrifices!
Anna: “My colleague Esther Schouten and I, at Box TV, consider this decision as a robbery.”
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Anna: “The Super Lightweight division’s world champion, Alesia Schumann, weighed in on Twitter minutes after the action. She didn’t mince her words about the judging for that fight.”
It’s war
Heidi Becker and Veronica Lillegard, respectively CEO and Vice President at Final Bell Boxing, both watched the fight from their living rooms. They had a quick call to agree on what to say, and Veronica made it known.
Anna: “The folks at Final Bell Boxing, the biggest promoter in the world, applied tremendous pressure on Britain’s governing body in the hour that followed the match. We have yet to know what will come out of this case, but were this threat carried out, British judges would be locked out of the most interesting boxing events in the future. I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this story yet.”
Easy work
Anna: “Back to Germany. Two notable fights took place in the same evening in the lovely city of Dresden. In the semi-final of the program, Melanie Spitzer defended her German title in the Super Lightweight division against Hilda Bastian. A voluntary defense granted to the policewoman, who never had a title shot before.”
Anna: “There was no robbery this time. The woman from Magdeburg had no problem dealing with the part-timer, starting slowly and progressively displaying her power as the rounds went. She went all-out for a strong finish in Round 6, forcing referee Zelda Deniz to stop the action as Bastian was not defending herself anymore.”
Anna: “After having improved her record to 8 KO wins and two defeats, Spitzer claimed that she is one of the best fighters worldwide. She asked for a world title shot against Alesia Schumann for a German supermatch. Sources tell me that the Diva said:
Don’t call me, I’ll call you. If I want.
Seasoned veteran
Anna: “Before that match, Steffi Slater went in the ring with Selena Martinez. The Mexican wanted to brawl but the American denied her the opportunity to turn the match into a slugfest. Slater worked behind a stiff and punishing jab to slow the action down and dictate the pace from a distance. She moved well with clean, effective punching on her way to a unanimous 98-92 on the scorecards. A convincing for the veteran who is a contender to the world title.”
Anna: “That’s it for today’s results update. On the other side of the break: our gossip and interviews segment.”
Some scorecards really do make you wonder if the judge was dropped on their head as a child… or if they’ve just straight up taken a bribe. The worst part is that these kinds of blatantly poor decisions happen far more often in combat sports than you would think. Good to see you’re keeping up with other talent on the rosters.
Well done on the renders as always.
lol. It happens in real life as well. Incompetence and favouring the locals is a thing in the sport.
Alesia,
I always like your updates from the other fighters in your stable,really cool!
Taylor Grant definitely got robbed by the British 🇬🇧 judges. Delara Silimi is a really good fighter, and she gave Taylor a run for her money early on. However Taylor proved to be the more resilient fighter and used her speed to punish Delara. However, hometown favoritism was alive and well. Another testament to the realism of your narratives, awesome!!!
I was glad to see Melanie Spitzer back in the ring👍🏻! Her sassiness, sexiness, and punishing style in the ring are always exciting to watch. Poor Hilda Bastian, although a fighter with skills, was essentially a punching bag 👊🏻 for Melanie. I must admit, hopefully a fight that may come to pass, will be Alesia Schumann vs Melanie Spitzer!! Alesia is annoyed with Melanie and wants to put her in her place. I have a feeling that if they were to fight, Alesia would not be so quick to knock her out, she would take her time and punish her with a prolonged beating. That would be one hot and exciting fight!!! Payback for what Melanie did to Anna Schwartz!! I definitely would not want to be Alesia Schumann’s shit 💩list, especially if I would be standing across from her in a boxing ring!!!
And we come Steffi Slater, one of the sexiest fighters in your stable 😍! Always a thrill and joy to see her pounding sense into a younger boxer (in this case Selena Martinez) that underestimates her. Kudos to your narratives yet again!! And as always your artwork, exceptionally and realistically illustrated fighters!🥊🥊
Mike
Thank you. I try to keep it real to a certain extent and I believe that this post does it once more. Taylor will have to see if the boxing world can back her up for the bad scorecards.
Melanie surely wants Alesia, but she doesn’t control the agenda. She has to have the champion offer her a voluntary defense if they are to get in the ring.
Haha. I know that you like Steffi. The veteran still has something in the tank and she enjoys the luxury of not having to work too hard to make weight anymore. More energy when fighting!
First of all, Taylor definitely deserved to win that fight. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she gave it to Delara in SPADES! Second, I say that Alesia should fight Melanie next. After all, Melanie is the reason why poor Anna had to retire from boxing in the first place and I’m sure that Alesia is itching to give it to Melanie without even giving it a frickin’ second thought! Although, I’m interested to see how much shit will hit the fan after those judges give the victory to Delara instead of to Taylor as well as where things go for both ladies from here on out.
Taylor has fully bounced back from her defeat against Alesia, and you can bet she gave Delara the business. Being robbed by the judges only makes it annoying for her since the efforts didn’t give the expected result on record.
Melanie is most likely to have a fight with Alesia. The biggest question on my side is timing since there are many interesting opponents for her.
Ah the boxing world can be unfair when you have stupid judges pulling some bullshit or protecting the home fighter. I hope that situation gets sorted out, Taylor was definitely robbed of that. Kinda reminds of another fight like this that I’m still not satisfied of.
And it looks like Melanie had an easy win on an easy opponent, just as delusional as Tanille. She’s not ready for the big guns lol. Though seeing Alesia knock her out would be nice right about now.
It’s also good to see Steffi getting in some good wins as well 🙂
Bad decisions and delusional fighters? Damn. Crazy stuff is happening here 😆
I am thinking about the follow-up to that decision. There will be consequences, whether Final Bell implement their ban or the locals get their act together.
Steffi has to be pretty happy with her current status. Getting nice wins, wearing stylish gear… what else can you ask for in boxing?
Nice to see some real world BS can even happen here. Good recap of the offline fight action 🙂
Thanks!
Can’t even escape the pitfalls of real life boxing on here. A well timed post given that it comes after the shocking scores in the Mayer-Hamadouche fight (even though I know that the post was planned beforehand :D). Taylor gets the ‘visitor’ treatment from the British judges, who know that their jobs are contingent not on well balanced, well thought out scores, but on making sure the promoter’s main girl gets the nod, regardless of the action in the ring. Tale as old as time in boxing. Sadly.
We get the usual recrimination from the losing fighter, who suggests that judges sacrifice little while making her hard work go away at the stroke of a pen. It’s strongly worded, but…we’ve heard this before, sadly.
But what is different is that Final Bell sees one of its fighters getting the wrong end of the decision and goes ‘Okay, well enough of that, we are going to take action.’ British judges are now banned from any Final Bell event. That is if not a declaration of war, it’s at least a declaration of intent. Final Bell has taken a stand, lets see where this goes.
Elsewhere we see a pair of potential future opponents for Alesia in the ring. Melanie Spitzer looks in good form in dealing with the tough, but overmatched Hilda Bastian.
Alesia: Don’t call me, I’ll call you. If I want.
😀
Taking on a more difficult challenge is Steffi Slater, who takes on the tough punching Mexican, Selena Martinez. Super Lightweight seems to agree with Steffi – who cruises to an easy win. Time is not on the American’s side. I wonder if she’ll get that last big fight that she surely dreams of.
The Mayer-Hamadouche outcome is a very timely coincidence that connects fiction and reality. Things you don’t even need to plan for!
Now pressure is on the British federation in this story, and they risk losing face as well as access to many shows if they refuse to react. Let’s see how that turns out.
Steffi is finding out about the realities that boxers face as they get older. Moving up in class can be necessary to be at your best in the ring since making sacrifices to make weight can drain you. A convincing win against a credible Selena is a nice reward.
Melanie performs decently, but she isn’t liked by her division’s world champion. Although I bet that Alesia dreams about knocking her out at times.
A lot to digest. Do I believe the judges might have been biased for their fellow national boxer and/or racist against the American boxer? I believe so, yes. All 3 judges being British is a pretty suspicious thing as that common trait will want them to favor their fighter to increase up the rankings in such a big ranked bout like this. I hope Final Bell gets to the bottom of this, but sadly Grant’s rank has to take a hit for now. While she goes down, it does mean Steffi Slater goes up. Her decision victory proves her comeback is becoming more and more legitimate as it seems like her and Sky remain as good contender options for right now. Poor Hilda. A policewoman as a boxer, it sounds like she would be good friends with someone like a Sonia Fox due to that policewoman/firefighter connection.
Bias is clear. Racism? Not impossible when you think of it. Boxing judges have a history of being silent and delivering scorecards that reflect anything but the action in the ring. They may face consequences this time.
With Steffi and Melanie making cases for themselves, Alesia has an embarassment of riches to select her next opponent.
Creator’s notes
Boxing isn’t always fair. The “main event” of this post shows Taylor Grant being given the unfair treatment by three local judges, which is typical in Matchroom and Top Rank cards. She did what it takes to win, but the judges refused to give her the points for it.
Just like in real life, it’s not necessarily the promoter that wants to see it that way. Unlike in real life, Final Bell won’t let this one go down without a fight. They say “change your ways or we will use our market power against you”. There is most likely a follow-up to be done on that.
Steffi? She confirms her improved fortunes at Super Lightweight. Melanie defends her German title successfully. Things are running smoothly for both, who wouldn’t mind getting a call from Alesia Schumann. Let’s see if either gets it.
Side note
While this site’s looks haven’t been overhauled, I have made a series of small design adjustments in colors, spacing and typography. I hope that it looks better across devices, and please let me know if you run into any glitch.