RETRO BOUT: CA. 1967

Posted  by Simguy on Friday, 21-May-1999 22:38:07

With the departure of Raquel Welch from Hammer studios to the Hollywood fast track, the stage was set for Martine Beswick to finally to come into her own. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, Beswick remains one of the most mercurial of all celebrity fighters—one if the classic underachievers of all time. Her 1967 clash with Hammer stable mate Ursula Andress was to be a coronation of sorts, but secretly, friends and studio execs doubted her ability to claim that brass ring. Andress was often considered the very best celebrity boxer Europe ever produced, and while she wasn’t particularly quick or clever, she did possess heavy hands and relentless accuracy. Fought on a hammer sound stage. Ursula wore her white diving bikini, while Martine wore a tiger print bikini, bra style spaghetti straps and top knot pony tail.

R1: Ursula set the tone early with her numbing, single jab to the face, sticking the blow in between Martine’s gloves to turn Beswick from a hungry-eyed tigress into a blinking kitten in a heart beat. So dramatic was the turn in Martine, that she literally stood and took punches from Ursula for almost 2 minutes. Andress worked her heavy jab in on Martine’s face, punching intermittently but with pin point accuracy. Having drilled Beswick into compliance, Andress aimed deliberate left hooks hard to the side and sternum of the brunette, and by the final moments of the fight, had Martin reaching forward and bending over to clinch. With a cool Nordic detachment, Ursula completed the wreckage, ripping a thumping left hook hard to Martine’s ribs and putting the brunette on her hands and knees with seconds left in the round. A punishing, most discouraging opening for the supposed heir apparent to the Hammer crown.

R2: By the second round, Martine had come to her senses, and began to fight the way everyone knew she could. Engaging Ursula in toe to toe brawls all around the ring, Martine proved the quicker fisted girl, often scoring cleanly to Ursula’s perfect jawline with short rights and lefts. The problem was Ursula seemed unaffected, and midway through the round, she harmed Martine with a buttocks wobbling left hook to the solar plexus that had Beswick in serious trouble, Martine fought cleverly on the inside, tying and leaning on Ursula to the bell, but once again, she returned to her corner in bad shape.

R3: Ursula returned to her patient jab, calmly walking around Martine and sticking I the punch every few seconds, landing cleanly, and seeming to suck the life out of Martine’s legs little by little. Beswick’s punches were tepid, and tentative. And her tanned face began to show the wear of Ursula’s continual leather.

R4” Martine found courage this round, walking through the heavy, but predictable jab to get at the firm meat of Ursula’s rib cage. For the first time in the fight, Andress’ stoic face grimaced in pain as Martine threw beefy hooks from both hands in close. In the final minute however, it would be Andress doing the hurting, as she took the best Beswick had to offer, then pounded her chest with short right hands to leave Martine sagging on the ropes at the bell. Both women staggered to their corners, but Ursula clearly looked the stronger woman during the break.

R5: A disheartening beating for Martine Beswick this round. Her thighs jiggling from the damage done in the fourth. Beswick seems shocked to see Ursula striding confidently towards her, and the brunette’s knees buckled as the blonde confidently stepped into her first right hand to the chest. The rest of the round featured Ursula at her bullying best, hammering Martine to the hips, and even using an illegal thigh punch to raise ugly bruises and stiff charley horses in Beswick’s legs. Short left hooks to the chin had Martine swimming again, and at the bell, her soft body was defenceless as Ursula pounded away with both hands.

R6: A battered, wobbling, and thoroughly disappointed Martine Beswick staggered out to her doom this round. Anyone could see that she would never make it past this round, but she laid into Ursula with determined salvos to make the first minute interesting. Andress stood her ground and simply beat the fight out of Martine, pushing her back with the left hand, and jamming brutal right crosses to the girl’s chin at arms length. Absorbing an endless series of right hands, Martine Beswick finally crumpled to her backside, sitting in dazed pile as Ursula strutted away., not looking back as the referee counted 10. A heartless beating from Andress, and one of many heartbreaking moments in the star crossed career of Martine Beswick.

Beswick would go on to be a stalwart force for another 10 years, but this fight was symptomatic of her failure to cross over into greatness. For Andress, it was a perfect exhibition of her cruel efficiency as she battered Beswick as badly as any woman ever had. Hammer had its new queen, and boldly proclaimed her the equal of any star in Hollywood.

Reposted by Archer 12/31/09.