Originally posted by Simguy on Thursday, 11-Feb-99 08:38:47.

Before: Hunter looks like the second coming of Sonny Liston in training, beating up sparring partners, whacking heavy bags with punches that make men wince. Shields to be commended for taking this fight—despite the long lay off; Rachel looks like a fighter to be avoided. Still, opponents for Brooke are hard to come by, and the thought is, better to fight Hunter now before she gets the rust off, than later.

Brooke wears grey cotton lycra stretch pants to the knee, with pale blue thong and pale blue jogbra, hair lightened and curled. Rachel wears black full supprt bikini, bra style top—hair up.

During:

R1-3: Brooke has eyes like saucers, giving her a frightened look in the ring, but she wins all three rounds as Hunter is clearly limited in terms of her skills. The vicious pounding jab that kept Brooke’s trainers up nights is missing from Rachel’s attack—she hold her gloves high against her head, and simply walks into Brooke. Shields retreats during these rounds, poking her own stiff jab between Rachel’s gloves, then clinching on the inside. Brooke with walk Rachel around a bit, then swat her with short hooks inside, or digging left to the belly. The idea is to move Rachel’s feet before punching her—Hunter can’t get her big body set, and really isn’t very busy in these rounds. Brooke still has to be wary however—She lands a beautiful right cross in the first round which Hunter gobbles up without even flinching.

R4: Rachel wins a round as Brooke forgets to jab, clinch or move. Hunter goes forehead to forehead with Brooke and simply outmuscles the big brunette, walking her to the ropes and slugging ponderous hooks and uppercuts inside. Hunter repeatedly shoves Brooke back over the top ropes to show her power.

R5.6.7: Brooke remembers what made the fight easy, and goes back to it. Rachel is rendered almost completely ineffective by the simple tactics, and Brooke, to her credit, executes the fight plan perfectly. Hunter continues to plod forward, but the jabs are swelling up her face, and Brooke’s ponderous body shots are starting to make Rachel cringe every once in a while. Hunter’s corner screams at her to “PUNCH!” but she continues to lean in on Brooke, wrestling up top with the brunette, and allowing Brooke to walk her around. Shields starting to loosen up, throw one-twos to the firm gut of hunter, and even push her back once in a while to score with some jab/cross combinations.

R8: Rachel knows she’s pissed away several rounds and comes in hard this round. She leans forward over her legs, putting her head on Brooke and banging the brunette’s body with long lefts and rights. Brooke eats this up for 2 minutes, but in the final  minute, a crisp short right uppercut clips Hunter’s exposed chin and the big red head stumbles to all fours, She rises, but her body takes a pounding as Brooke fionally opens up with full leverage on her shots to the bell.

R9: Rachel starts jabbing! The clouds melt away as Hunter begins to pound that stunning jab onto Shields’ face and suddenly Rachel is a world beater. Brooke, in retreat, is badly off her game, unable to cope with Hunter’s new tactics. Rachel follows up with lancing overhand rights to the gut, and works well on the inside, shoving Brooke back to slaw one-twos to the midsection. Shutout for Hunter.

R10: Hunter continues to roll behind her jab, as Brooke actually turns and skips away at times this round. Shields holds on the inside, knowing she has the fight won and not wanting to get hurt late. Hunter wins the final round, clearly the stronger fighter, but she’s been bamboozled. Rachel drops a unanimous decision to Brooke, as outsmarted as she was outfought.

After: Brooke didn’t win many fans with this cautious, safety first fight, but her ability to execute a fight plan is significant. If she can box a fighter, and fight a fighter as needed, she just might go on to be one of the best big women in the celebrity game. Hunter has the tools, but needs seasoning to recognize when she’s being outmaneuvered in the ring. Bad positioning exposed her to the knockdown late, and a more committed puncher could have stopped her. She’ll need to tighten up in all areas to realize her potential.

Reposted by Archer 4/26/09.