Rachele Brooke Smith vs Lily James
(Writing: LMW / Results: Lookout!)

Rachele Brooke Smith
(33, 5’6, 2-10 FCBA, The Fighting Academy)

Lily James
(32, 5’7, 4-0 combined, League of Mighty Women)

Pre-Fight: The Fighting Academy’s Rachele Brooke Smith will be looking to break her losing streak as she faces the League of Mighty Women’s Lily James. Rachele had a tough start to 2021 after having a losing record in the previous year as well, so she desperately needs to turn things around soon, hopefully with this matchup. Lily, on the other hand, has been doing well this year as she won two in a row with her new stable and got to raise the International Cup trophy last month alongside her teammates from the Team Rest of the World, so she will be looking to bring that confidence into this match.

Rachele is first to address the audience as the pre-fight press conference starts. “Losing back-to-back fights to Kennedy (McMann) left a bitter taste in my mouth, so nothing personal Lily, but I’ll take my frustration out on you!”
Lily doesn’t look concerned by Rachele’s words as she takes her turn to speak. “Rachele, you are fit and strong, which I respect, but that’s all you got. Unlike you, I tasted success lately and you can’t stop me from having more of it.” The press conference comes to an end with an intense stare down, but both sides keep it civil otherwise.

Rachele comes out first to the arena with her coach, Kelly Hu, beside her. She waves to the fans cheering for her as she walks down the aisle and she starts shadowboxing after entering the ring.
She is wearing a white sports bra with black trim, matching trunks, gloves and shoes, while her hair is in a ponytail.

Lily comes out next accompanied by her coach, Ali Landry, as she waves and blows kisses to the crowd as they cheer for her. She enters the ring and goes through her warming up routine as she listens to Ali’s final instructions.
She is wearing a dark blue sports bra with red trim, matching trunks, gloves and shoes, while her hair is also in a ponytail.

Both fighters come to the center of the ring to listen to the referee’s instructions. They touch gloves afterwards and step back to their respective corners. We are now ready for 10 rounds of lightweight action!

Fight: Round 1: Rachele comes out with an aggressive approach at the start, similar to what she did in her second match with Kennedy, which worked for her early on. Lily looks a bit surprised by this approach as she is forced to take a defensive stance right away. Lily lands a jab, but it is nowhere enough to stop Rachele advancing as she gets to the inside and starts working on the Brit’s body with a couple of hooks to the ribs and a straight right on the abs. As Lily flinches and lowers her guard to protect her body, Rachele goes up top with a lead uppercut and follows it up with a cross-hook combo. Taken aback by the effectiveness of her opponent’s early offense, Lily starts to retreat, but Rachele follows her closely as she continues to throw jabs and straights.

Rachele forces inside exchanges for a couple more times in the round, in which she clearly gets the upper hand as she does some damage to Lily’s midsection, while Lily’s body shots don't seem as effective against Rachele’s impressive abs. It is a big win for Rachele in the first round, which gives her the early lead on the scorecard.

Rachele looks confident and pumped up after that round as Kelly tells her to press home her advantage. On the other corner, Ali urges Lily to relax and reset as she gives her pointers on what to change in her strategy next round.

Round 2: Seeing that her aggressive style paid off in the first round, Rachele goes on the attack with the start of the round again. Lily is on the defense again, but she is keeping it more mobile this time as she steps aside when Rachele tries to get inside and hits her with a right hook to the jaw. It doesn’t stop Rachele for long though and she continues to come forward. Looks like after exchanging body shots in the first round, Lily doesn’t want to do that again, so she keeps circling the ring and Rachele happily adapts to this high movement style, which she also likes employing. She also realizes Lily’s hesitancy to engage in inside exchanges, so she keenly looks for creating such opportunities as they continue hitting each other with jabs, while circling the ring.

As we are getting into the second half of the round, Rachele’s desire to get inside gets her into trouble, because as she dips her head and steps in, Lily hits her with a lead uppercut that briefly stuns her. That brief moment is all Lily needed to put together a combo though, so she forces Rachele back towards the ropes with a jab-straight-hook combo. Lily keeps driving back her opponent to the ropes with jabs and straights, but Rachele tightens up her guard now to block these punches. Still, she gets a bit overwhelmed by Lily's offense once her back is up against the ropes, so Rachele clinches with the Brit to take a breather.

Not much action for the rest of the round after they got separated from the clinch, so Lily ends being the clear winner of the round and ties things up on the scorecard. It’s Kelly's turn to calm her fighter down between the rounds and give her instructions on how to adapt. On the other side, Ali praises her fighter, but she also warns her to keep her focus and not get careless.

Round 3: Both fighters seem to be content with moving around in the ring and only throwing single punches at the beginning of the third round. Looks like Kelly told Rachele not to force the issue with getting inside as she got caught doing that last round, so she is playing the circling around game for now. She is still the more aggressive of the two as she tries to cut the angle and get close up without risking a counter punch.

Rachele finally gets the angle she is looking for in the last minute of the round. She eats a jab on her way to the inside, but then she punishes Lily with some shovel hooks to her midsection, followed by a couple more hooks to the ribs. Instead of staying there and returning fire, Lily backs up and goes back to circling, so the rest of the round finishes without any more excitement.

Unlike the first two rounds, this one was close, but that last effort brings the round to Rachele, who once again goes up top on the scorecard.

Round 4: More of the same in this round as both fighters are still cautious of each other and keep circling the ring to find the right moment and angle for their offense. Rachele is still the aggressor in this round, but Lily starts to get more assertive with her combinations as Rachele tries to step in. She doubles up on her jab and follows them with a cross that stops Rachele in her tracks.

Rachele fails to force any inside exchanges that she tends to win so far. Without the threat of the inside exchanges, Lily keeps engaging from the outside with short combinations, which favors her style in this matchup and she ends up winning the round with a small margin to tie things up again.

Round 5: Rachele makes a fast start to this round as she ducks under Lily’s jab and gets inside to land a couple of hooks to her opponent’s ribs. Lily wants no part of this exchange, so she gives a little push and then steps back. Rachele throws a hook up top, but only gets a glancing blow as Lily gets away.

After a few exchanges on the outside, Rachele finally gets inside again as we are entering the second half of the round. She lands a barrage of hard shovel hooks to Lily’s abs, which causes her to wince and step back. Rachele gives pursuit, thinking that she hurt her opponent and wanting to finish what she started. Lily moves around and uses a defensive jab to keep her distance though and succeeds until we enter the last minute. Rachele steps in aggressively to not let this opportunity go before the end of the round, but she ends up walking right into a straight. Her nose gets bloodied by that strike and she looks stunned as Lily follows up with a left hook that lands on Rachele’s chin and makes her sway. Lily goes for a right hook this time, which also lands on the chin and knocks Rachele down! Lily quickly goes toward the neutral corner as the referee begins the count. 1…2…3... Rachele lies on her back with her eyes closed 4…5… she starts blinking her eyes to clear her vision 6…7…8… she sits up and gets ready to try to get up 9…10 she fails to go further than that and remains seated as she gets counted out!

Official Result: Winner via KO in round 5, Lily James!

Post-Fight: Lily raises her fists in celebration and then does a fist bump with Ali, who comes to congratulate her. On the other side of the ring, the doctor checks up on Rachele, wipes the blood off her nose and gives her some time to recover. After a moment, Rachele gets checked again and receives the thumb up, so she slowly moves over to her stool. Kelly consoles her fighter and applauds Rachele’s effort. Lily also comes over and they share a quick hug and exchange a few words to show their respect for each other.

After getting her hand raised, Lily takes the microphone to address the fans. “Rachele is fit and strong. There is no denying that and let me tell you, her abs are rock hard! But, at the end of the day, I was the better fighter. I said it before the fight and I’ll say it again. I tested success with our team effort at the International Cup and I now want more of it!” She waves to the fans with a big smile on her face and then leaves the ring.

It was a good effort by Rachele, but she failed to win again, which makes it seven losses in a row and puts the fit beauty in a tough spot. Lily, on the other hand, is now on a five match winning streak, but she is yet to face high level competition, so it will be interesting to see if she can replicate this performance at that level as well.