Jillian Russell defends her title against Maria Lopez. by jillian37dd@yahoo.com This is the third story in this series. My wife, Jillian, had lost the welterweight title to Darla Christensen in a brutal fight, then regained the belt in her last fight. She will defend her welterweight title against another university student who is originally from Mexico and who is also the junior welterweight champion. The ladies will fight for both titles. A word of clarification here, junior welterweight is up to 140 pounds and welterweight is up to 147 pounds, therefore both ladies have to come in under 140 pounds to qualify for both titles. I had watched Maria demolish the former 5' 10" junior welterweight champion, Robin, who had to be carried from the ring after being knocked out in the 2nd round. Maria who is only 5' 1" is a southpaw or a lefty with devastating knockout power in her left hand. Jill has trained against lefties but has never fought one so is understandably nervous. The fact that Maria is considerably shorter than most other opponents were or that Maria had annihilated Robin so quickly didn't help the situation. Again, like Jill's last fight, there has been a lot of publicity for this fight, so it will be held in the larger gym facility at the university and again televised and shown on closed circuit TV at the local gym. There are also large screens in the university gym above each side of the ring. The club has a standard ring dress code so both ladies will be wearing ladies style "Title" boxing shorts and a lightly padded bra with no hard inserts. The ladies style shorts are lower rise, thus exposing the belly button, and have shorter legs than men's boxing trunks. The weigh-in was held in the university field house the evening before the fight and was a gala event. My wife's title defense would be the main event so received top billing. Jill wore a new red silk bikini to the weigh-in and stole the evening. I noted that Maria was very well built and thought that she'd be no easy win for my wife. Jill was in a foul mood the day of the fight, no one could do anything that pleased her. I drove her to the gym about 7 PM and escorted her to her dressing room. I stayed with her as her trainer, Dave, and her second, Kathy, helped her prepare for the fight. It was her typical pre-fight routine, beginning with a massage by her trainer, getting dressed, hands being wrapped, early warm up, final trip to the bathroom before having her gloves laced on and more warm up until being called to the ring. I normally play around a bit to ease the tension but this time Jill asked me to leave. I kissed and told her to have a good fight, then left to find my seat in the arena. The MC, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the fight you came to see. The ladies will enter the ring shortly for our main event. This bout will be 10 rounds and will decide the "Junior Welterweight and Welterweight Championships. The current junior welterweight champion, Maria Lopez, will enter the ring first. Maria, who is 22 years old, is from Mexico and a student at this university. She is 5' 1" tall and weighed in at 139 1/2 pounds. Maria has a record of 16-0, with all wins coming by way of knockout. I might add that some were devastating as we saw here a few months ago when Ms. Lopez knocked out Robin Clarke to become the champion. We have the other lady for this bout just about to enter the ring. She is the current welterweight champion, Jill Russell, who is also a professor and coach at this university. Ms. Russell is 34 years old, 5' 8" tall and weighted in at 138 1/2 pounds. Jill has a record of 17-2 with 9 knockouts. This will be her 10 defense of the welterweight title, losing once to Darla Christensen but regaining the title in a rematch. This has the makings of a great fight. My advice is to stay in your seat. If you leave for a minute, this fight could be over. Obviously both ladies have knockout power with the edge going to Ms. Lopez. Ms. Russell has never fought a lefty before or anyone as short as Maria, so could have some problems." George, "Both ladies were wearing satin shorts and bra. Maria looked very intimidating in black, her shorts had a picture of a devil and her name in white. Jill was wearing silver satin shorts and bra. The bra must have been very lightly padded as my wife's nipples were visible." Round 1 The ladies touch gloves. Maria begins quickly going to Jill's body with a couple of firm punches. The shorter Mexican lady catches the taller redhead with a blistering left uppercut that lands just below her belly button, maybe a little low. Jill groans as she is hurt by the punch. Maria is quick and continues aggressively going to Jill's body with some very firm punches. Ms Russell seems confused by the style of this shorter southpaw and can't seem to muster an attack or a defense. Jill clinches but even in the clinch the Mexican lady continues to bang away at Jill's breasts and ribs. The referee pulls the ladies apart. Maria forces Jill into the corner using her shoulder and unleashes a flurry of body punches. I'm about 6 feet from the action and can hear the leather gloves as they hit Jill's bare mid section and the agonizing groans of the redhead as she endures the pain. A left, make that a very low left crashes into Jill's groin. Ms. Russell emits a scream as her mouthpiece is expelled and she doubles over going to her knees. Maria stops punching and steps back as the referee moves in. Jill is curled in the fetal position holding her groin. The referee sends Maria to a neutral corner and indicates a time out. The referee rules the foul was accidental, which means that Jill has up to 5 minutes to recover. She must remain in the ring and cannot be assisted by her corner. That one hurt. I don't care if you're male or female; a punch to the groin area is devastating. Ms. Russell appears to be in utter agony. This bout may be over. I think that Jill almost went to her corner, which would mean that she wouldn't continue, but our gutsy champion is trying to walk off the pain. She has told the ref that she will continue. The referee tells her that she has another minute. The referee asks Jill if she's ready to continue and she nods yes. The referee waves time in, the ladies touch gloves and they're boxing. Maria advances as Jill covers up her abdomen in a defensive posture. The young Mexican bangs away at Jill's head forcing her to raise her gloves, then brings a right hook into Ms. Russell's belly button. Jill cries out, as she drops to her knees. The redhead's mid section is noticeably reddened and obviously very tender. Jill takes an 8 count on one knee before standing to fight. The referee cleans her gloves and motions for the girls to fight but the round ends before a punch is thrown. There is no way that this fight will go 10 rounds. Our local champion seemed confused and unable to block Ms. Lopez's body punches. Ms. Russell was completely ineffective against the shorter Mexican's left-handed stance and thusly took a beating to her body. The low punch certainly caused the champion some pain and it will be interesting to see if she has the stamina to take the fight to the Ms. Lopez in round 2. George, "My wife's corner works feverishly on her but there is little they can do to relieve the pain from Ms. Lopez's body shots. Jill is going to have to put the pain out of her mind and go out to win this fight, not an easy task." Round 2 Maria comes out aggressively again going to Jill's body with some very firm punches. Jill still hasn't figured out how to stop this shorter southpaw. Maria blasts a left hook into Jill's trunks, causing the redhead to double over in pain. Maria slams a combination into Jill's head knocking her to the mat. The lanky redhead goes down on her shapely bum with her beautiful long legs thrashing in all directions. This fight may be over. The count is 5 and our redhead is still on her bum leaning against the ropes with a very dazed look on her face. It was just a brutal left to the right side of Ms. Russell's head and her lites were momentarily out. A very disoriented Ms. Russell is up and will continue but can she survive. The referee cleans her gloves as she stands with a astonished look on her face and tell the referee that she will continue. The referee calls "box" and Maria blasts inside Jill's guard with another low left to Jill's shorts. Jill in desperation clinches to tie up the shorter lady but even in the clinch Maria bangs uppercuts into Jill's breasts. The referee separates the ladies. Maria continues her onslaught while Jill defensively backs away, trying to survive the round. Maria forces Jill to the corner as the ladies exchange punches. Jill staggers the Mexican lady with a right but Maria answers back with a left hook to the open right side of Ms. Russell's face. Jill squeals out as she grabs Maria in a clinch. I think that Jill has been cut. There is blood running down the right side of Ms. Russell's face. It appears to be a cut above her swollen right eye. The champ is hanging on in desperation trying to stop the attack of the young Mexican. The referee pulls the ladies apart and calls time as he checks the cut. He calls time in and tells the ladies to box. The bell ends an exciting round 2. Ms. Russell barely survived the round and is still hurt as she sags onto the stool in her corner. The right side of the champions face is badly swollen, a testament to the power of Maria's left hand. Jill's right eyebrow is indeed a gruesome sight, the cut appear to be deep, probably to the bone and over an inch long. Will the tall lanky redhead answer the bell for round 3. George, "My wife is gasping for air as her cut man works on her damaged right eye. She took numerous heavy body shots and is undoubtedly sore. She gets advice from her trainer but I can't hear what is being said. Jill's corner complains to the referee about Maria's punches being too low." Round 3 Jill moves out quickly from her corner. Her cut man has done a good job of stopping the bleeding from the cut on Jill's eyebrow. Maria continues to pressure the taller redhead. Jill keeps her gloves high to protect her eyebrow but the young Mexican hammers away at Ms. Russell's bruised body. Jill lowers her guard to deflect some of Maria's body shots and the Mexican snaps a brutal left hook into Jill's right eye. I can see blood spray into the air as cut above Ms. Russell's eye splits further open. Blood is streaming down the redhead's face as she attempts to clinch but Maria keeps punching, a right, then another big left into Ms. Russell's right eye, that splits her cheek open below her eye. The tall redhead has her back against the ropes and is hurt as the young Mexican senses the end is near. Maria drives a right into Jill's belly causing the redhead's long legs to buckle and her hands drop. Ms. Russell's once beautiful face is wide open and Maria drives a brutal left into the redhead's nose. Jill screams out as she slumps onto the second rope, blood streaming from her nose and running down her cleavage, staining her silver bra. Our beautiful redhead is a mess. Simultaneously the referee restrains Maria as Jill's trainer, Dave, tosses the towel into the ring and follows to aid his agonized fighter. Ms. Russell's face is a bloody mess with a cut on her eyebrow and another just under her eye on her swollen cheek. Blood is flowing profusely from her nose. The doctor and her training attend to her in an attempt to relieve some of her pain. Jill is helped back to her corner but then it's decided to take her to the dressing room. The official end came at 1:03 of the 3rd round when former champion, Jillian Russell was unable to continue. Your winner by TKO and new champion is Maria Lopez. George, "By the time that I made my way through the crowd and got to the dressing room, the doctor and Jill's trainer, Dave, had striped my wife down to her bikini panties and had her stretched out on the table. Dave was applying ice packs to the bruised portions of Jill's body. The doctor had already injected her with a painkiller and a sedative. The bleeding was almost stopped and Dave and Kathy had sponged up most of the blood so Jill didn't look too bad. The two wounds were nasty gashes and I must tell you almost freaked me out, as I had never seen her cut this bad before. The doctor wanted to move her to the hospital to x-ray her nose and suture the two wounds. We wrapped her in a robe and took her to the hospital where she spent the nite." Jill, "I was really hurting when I left the ring but don't remember much after that until the next morning. I awoke and was starving for something to eat. I had never been injured that badly in the ring before and I spent a couple of painful weeks but everything healed ok without any scars. My nose wasn't broken, just badly bruised. George and I weren't getting along that well but he stayed with me for a couple of weeks while I recuperated and then we split up. I returned to boxing with a new manager/trainer and 6 months after the first fight, I stepped in the ring to face Maria again but that's another story.