Frost and ice

Work on slick skills and a cold first contact

Let’s go to Munich and London. Sophie Schumann and Takara Oshima are busy in training camp to prepare for one another. The battle is looming.

Once critical of Sophie, Regina Halmich now wholeheartedly believes in her protégée. After the loss to Elsie Nadege, making the young blonde success is a personal matter to the coach. To the extent that the boxing legend dug out some old gear and picked a pair of gloves for sparring sessions.

Regina: “Alright. I want you to do two things with this fight. There is emotional motivation for you to defeat Takara and I understand that. It should be fuel for your ambition. But I want you to channel this emotion instead of letting it control you. Feelings should never get in the way of your game plan and technique. Clear?”

Sophie: “Yes. I understand. My hate for Takara won’t be a distraction. I swear.”

How to use legs

Regina: “Good. Now, you remember your camp with Nadia Monteil in France? She made you work on creativity and decoupling of the legs and torso for movement. We worked on it as well, and we will spar with a focus on it in this camp.”

Sophie: “Great! And I totally love your classic style, Regina! Looking amazing!”

The coach makes herself the main sparring partner during the whole camp, requiring Sophie to be clever and to box technically. The point is generating movement that the opponent cannot decode by looking at any part of the body. It’s the next step in Picasso’s evolution, and she handles it very well in camp. She further learns to fight with a hint of Zohana Patel tectics in her game.

Regina Sophie training

Regina Sophie training

Regina Sophie training

Taking the body

In London, months and months of work are in the books but coach Clifford Little isn’t an English legend without a reason. He’s not satisfied yet, and will only be if Takara can beat Sophie.

How to do it? For starters, not by boxing the way Takara did against Zohana Patel. The brutal knockout she took was caused by headhunting against someone whose mastery of her own body is so supreme that she ran circles around the challenger.

Clifford: “It looked, to me, like you never took the body before. We’re gonna do a hell of a lot of that in the weeks to come. Sophie’s a great fighter and the only way to slow down people like her is to go downstairs. Especially useful for someone like you, who is known for targeting the head all the damn time.”

Takara: “Yeah. I get it. I was too one-dimensional.”

They spend weeks refining Love Muffin’s ability to be slicker and less predictable when it comes to how high, or low, the punches are thrown.

Takara training

Takara training

Final Bell have decided to make the press conference a virtual one. Heidi and Veronica thought that a physical one would be too emotional and most probably physical enough to cause an injury after the Twitter war that the contestants waged.

Relevance

We go ringside now.

Esther: “Hello and welcome to the Lanxess Arena in Cologne for the main event of the evening. A much anticipated Lightweight contest between two of the division’s finest boxers.”

Anna: “That’s right. Takara Oshima against Sophie Schumann, respectively ranked number 2 and 9 by BOX! Magazine. Ten rounds, three minutes each in a division where rankings are expected to change in the January revision.”

Esther: “There is so bad blood in this case.”

Anna: “Indeed. Schumann has made her hate of Oshima loud and clear in press statements, on social media and verbally to anyone willing to listen. She never quite accepted how Oshima went into the right against Akane Watanabe when her own sister Naomi was plotting to make a sporting event crucial to make her lose the Japanese citizenship. The young German sees this match as an occasion to exact revenge.”

Esther: “Right. Oshima’s stake in this match is a different. It’s about relevance. She got destroyed by world champion Zohana Patel and bounced back against a journeyman a few weeks earlier. A win against Schumann would reaffirm that she is still among the elite of the division. Let’s get to the introductions.”

Esther Anna intro

Intimidation

Encouraged to get back to her fiery ways, Sophie staged her entrance to make the message clear. She enters to the intimidating sound of Deutschland, by Rammstein, making the arena’s walls vibrate with the video playing on screen. While the lyrics are critical of modern-day Germany, the music and video look frightening enough to anyone who isn’t familiar with the meaning.

Esther: “The Schumann sisters know how to make an entrance and Sophie is certainly sending shockwaves with hers.”

While watching that in her dressing room, Takara thinks. “This chick is nuts.”

Clifford is watching closely. He doesn’t like his charge’s body language at the sight of an aggressive Sophie.

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When Takara comes out, she doesn’t go for the same tactics. Simply a good Christian rock song, Legendary, by Skillet. It’s got a good energetic vibe to match the Japanese-born Englishwoman’s sexy flex.

“I’d give up on my wife and children for this girl,” says one guy in the audience.

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Esther: “Boxing nerds unite. Let’s talk about the battle points for the two fighters. I believe that you want Sophie to move away from her effective but classic style to be more dynamic, Anna.”

Anna: “Correct. Sophie came out of the amateur ranks as a pure puncher who learned to be slick as a new professional. In her camp, the next step is about making her creative to surprise the opposition and leverage the immense power in her gloves. If she can nail that as a game plan, I wonder if there is any boxer in her division who can survive the onslaught. It starts tonight with this match against Takara.”

Battle points Sophie

Esther: “Takara herself has to make adjustments after losing a title fight to Zohana Patel.”

Anna: “She has to make major changes. It all comes down to discarding her previous approach, which was about headhunting to score big knockouts. This doesn’t work against top opponents. She has to respect Sophie, who has enough power to knock anyone out, and diversify her punches more. Importantly, she cannot force the issue when it comes to scoring big punches. Box, let the game flow and use chances are they come up.”

Battle points Takara

Introductions

It’s showtime. Veronica Lillegard gets the spotlight as ring announcer.

Veronica: “Welcome back to Lanxess Arena for the main event of the evening. It’s time for violence! 10 rounds in the Lightweight division between Top 10 contenders.”

Intro Veronica

Veronica: “Introducing first, a young woman who is fighting out of the red corner. She is wearing orange and black, and she trains at Halmich Academy. She weighed in at a perfect 135 pounds. Her professional record stands at four wins, three of them by way of knockout, and one loss. A former amateur champion currently ranked at number nine by BOX! Magazine. From Munich, she is a Bitter Orange and her name is SOPHIE ‘PICASSO’ SCHUUUUUMAAAAAANNNNNN!”

The fans from Cologne have already had Sophie in action and they liked what they saw. They cheer loudly for their favourite.

Intro Sophie

Veronica: “Her opponent across the ring fights out of the blue corner. Wearing red, silver and black, she is trained by Clifford Little at The Fist Gym in London. She weighed in at 134 and a half pounds. Her record? 15 victories, 12 of them by way of knockout, and one loss. A former Japanese champion and current number two at Lightweight according to BOX! Magazine. From London by way of Tokyo, please welcome Takara ‘Love Muffin’ Ooooooshimaaaaaaa!”

Takara gets less of a reaction not only because she isn’t the local fave, but also because of recent bad press. Nevertheless, Takara stays focused.

Intro Takara

Veronica: “The third woman in the ring, in charge of the action from the opening bell, is referee Kanti Agrawal, from India.”

Intro Kanti

Just bouncing

Kanti gathers the contestants in the middle of the ring for the last formalities. Sophie bounces on her toes while staring at Takara, who stays firmly on her feet.

Kanti: “We went over the unified rules in the dressing rooms. This fight is scheduled for 10 three-minute rounds. There is no three-knockdown rule. There is no standing eight-count. You cannot be saved by the bell in any round. In case of an accidental head butt after Round 4, we go to the scorecards. If you knock your opponent down, you have to go to a neutral corner before I start a count. If you foul intentionally, I will deduct a point. Do it too many times and you’re disqualified. Protect yourself at all times. Obey my command at all times. Fight hard. Now, touch gloves.”

Takara offers her hands but Sophie keeps bouncing and staring.

Kanti: “I said touch gloves.”

The German gives the lightest of taps before going back to her corner.

Esther: “Schumann’s dislike of Oshima is intense enough to make her reluctant to observe the niceties before a duel. Any thoughts on that?”

Anna: “I’m not sure that anyone is morally right in this situation, and whether it should be the case anyway. What matters is having a good, clean fight.”

Sophie Schumann Takara Oshima touch gloves

Sophie Schumann Takara Oshima touch gloves

Sophie Schumann Takara Oshima touch gloves

Special guests

Esther: “On to our ringside guests. Schumann invited her friend Akane Watanabe, who is now a professional referee, alongside her sister Alesia, who is world champion a division above. They bring style and playful behaviour for the cameras.”

Alesia: “That skin is so soft. What do you put on it?”

Akane: “Mayonnaise!”

The Diva laughs.

Akane Alesia guests

Esther: “At Oshima’s guest table are two Lightweight fighters. German champion Leyla Abdul and world champion Zohana Patel. Two observers who are probably very interested in taking a first-hand look at tonight’s action. Patel knocked Oshima out brutally earlier in 2021.”

Leyla Zohana guests

Anna: “With introductions out of the way, action can commence in a minute. Stay tuned for Round 1.”

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Sophie Schumann Takara Oshima Rounds 1-2
Sophie Schumann
Sophie Schumann
The little sister of Alesia Schumann is a born troublemaker but supremely talented puncher. Former world champion at Lightweight.