Ring Kings and Star Sports 2 have announced an addition to their Toronto card schedule for July of 2022. ‘The Canadian Cobra’ Virani MacVicar (12-5-1, 11 KOs) will face off against American Featherweight champion, Sonia Fox (7-3, 2 KOs).
The fight will take place over 10 rounds of two minutes each.
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The local favourite, Virani MacVicar is fighting again in Toronto after knocking out Zoey Whittaker in January. The former wold title challenger is renown for her fast paced fights that rarely last the distance. In fact, only twice has MacVicar had a fight go the distance.
The clear underdog, Sonia Fox is the American Featherweight champion. Durable to the extreme, she is a hard working fighter both inside and outside of the ring, where she is a firefighter.
Tickets for the event start at $50 for pre-sale and are redeemable with the Final Bell app.
Contentious Matchmaking
It’s the early afternoon in Toronto. Today’s session at the Cobra gym is coming to a close. At the end, Virani is called over for a chat with Emma and Sandra.
Sandra: “Good work today. It’s time to get in the ring again.”
Virani: “About damn time.”
Sandra: “We’ve got Sonia Fox lined up for your opponent. She’s the American champion.”
Virani: “She’s also a complete no one, and the last time we saw her she got dropped by Tanille Taylor.”
Sandra: “She’s tough and that is what we need. It’s actually hard to do matchmaking for you, because you just knock chicks out too quickly. To win a world title, I need to see how you handle making adjustments and going late in fights. Your fights tend not to get there.”
Virani: “So bring her in for sparring.”
Sandra: “No. This is the fight we are making. Beat her, and I’ll certainly get you someone better next time.”
Virani: “Emma gets to fight Takara Oshima, but I get to fight a firefighter? Who is the former world title challenger here?”
Emma: “Hey! I knocked OUT Takara Oshima, thank you very much.”
Sandra: “Virani, I am trying to clean up the holes if your game in low pressure fights so that we don’t have to find out what you can and cannot do in a world title fight. Is that too hard to comprehend?”
Virani: “This is the last useless chick I’m fighting. I can’t win a world title by fighting bums. At this rate, Emma’s going to be higher ranked than I am.”
Sandra thinks: Maybe Emma deserves it. But saying that would only invite strife.
Sandra: “Do you want to go to work? Emma’s got some film for you.”
Virani: “Nerd. Okay Emma. Let’s go to your place and we can hang out.”
I remember the Fox/Taylor fight vividly and all I can say is that Virani better be careful. Underestimating the opposition hasn’t worked out well for her in the past and Fox is the ‘get stronger as the fight goes on’ kind of boxer ,low-profile or not…
Sandra’s bluntess is VERY refreshing here. No beating around the bush with this coach.
Virani is rarely careful, that’s been part of her problem :D. You are right that she often overrates herself and underrates the competition. But Sandra’s very blunt. She’s clearly got a plan in mind for how to build Virani, and she hasn’t missed yet.
This is a really interesting matchup. Of all 4 main characters, Virani has developed the least and hit a real barrier when it comes to the top of the world. She’s also underperformed against people she was supposed to dominate.
Sonia on the other hand is a really hungry challenger that desperately wants the respect she deserves and to become a full time fighter.
Now that brings up Emma. Emma is really coachable and has reached the point of being a very legitimate threat to Virani if they ever fought for real.
And for a bonus, Emma sparred with Sonia before, so maybe she can help Virani in preparing for that style.
Virani has been around the longest but has been the most stagnant probably, and the one that hasn’t fulfilled her potential to the highest extent.
Sonia has nothing to lose and is hungry to get a level up, which a victory over Virani would no doubt provide.
Virani v. Emma? Hmm, that would be very interesting indeed 😀
Oooh, this will be an interesting showcase of USA vs Canada! Virani might have to be careful about not believing Sonia is tough enough though. Tanille didn’t think she was tough either and I am sure she probably regretted that deep down 10 rounds later. A knockout over the American champion might be good for Virani’s rebuild, but as we just saw with Emma vs Takara, sometimes that rebuild can turn into a deeper downward spiral at any moment if a national champion is involved.
A classic rivalry, at least for Canadians :D. Not sure if Americans really call us a rival!
Sonia is clearly very tough and anyone watching that fight against Tanille could tell you the same. If Virani is able to stop Sonia, which Tanille was not able to do it would indeed showcase something.
Sonia’s not an opponent to take lightly. She’s tough, she’s got skills and she knows there’s nothing to lose.
First things first. That’s one of your best posters. Simplicity is surprisingly effective in design.
Virani may not think much of Sonia but this chick ain’t no bum to me. She’s a good step up after dispatching Zoey to dreamland earlier this year. The American champ is a tough cookie because she took Tanille’s combinations, came back for more and only fell short of time in their fight. There’s a chin and an engine. It makes for a boxer who is hard to take down.
This could be a test of Sandra’s strategic thinking.
I can just imagine Emma having lined up five videos to watch, and making sure that Virani can’t get out of her apartment until they’ve all been analysed 😆
Coming from the Queen of posters, that is appreciated. Thank you for the little modification you made to push it over the top 🙂
Virani certainly is dismissive of Sonia, but Sonia is a domestic level champion and we saw her endure and survive against Tanille, only to dish out some brutal punishment near the end of the fight. Chin and an engine is right. This won’t be an easy night. No quick KOs coming in this one.
I am sure Emma has a powerpoint presentation with embedded Youtube clips waiting to go :D. Though she may accidentally put in a clip of her own knockouts just to needle Virani a little 😀
Funny that I mentioned that V needs to get back into the ring to finish her rebuild and then we get this lol.
It’s not the fight that I was expecting to happen but hey this will be a good opportunity for V to rise again. And even though Sonia lost to Orange head big mouth she still got good shots and hurt her especially near the end, so this should definitely be a good fight.
To bad V doesn’t think the same way, Jesus be happy with what you get girl, she does not hold back either with what she says, but I guess I can’t blame her since she’s hard to match make.
Boxing stuff outside the ring like match making and politics can be a headache.
But as unhappy as she is she should be happy that she’s facing anyone.
I feel Sandra is making the right choice choosing her opponent cause I can tell you now if it was Thomas it’ll be V who would pick her opponent, but Sandra is the one in charge and she’ll make sure that Virani won’t make a stupid mistake. If she can helps Emma get to where she is she can do it for V to. The cobra just needs to stop being so impatient. Just one more fight and she should be good!
Sandra thinks: Maybe Emma deserves it. But saying that would only invite strife.
Yeah…It’s probably best she doesn’t bring that up lol XD
It’s Canada day, of course I need to announce a new Virani fight :D.
It’s not the fight that Virani wanted necessarily, but it’s a fight against a fighter that promises a bit more of a challenge than I think Virani thinks it is. But Virani’s always been ambitious, she of course wants to get to the top quickly.
Sandra has a plan in mind. It’s a slow build, but she’s choosing these opponents with a reason. Sandra’s proving her worth with Emma, I just think Virani doesn’t trust as easily as Emma does.