Retro Bout: Ca. 1958

Posted by Simguy on 7/29/2001, 9:07 pm,

Before: Despite struggling against Gina Lollobrigida, Kim Novak entered the fight with Jayne Mansfield on a tremendous roll. If  Russell had collapsed against Novak, it was argued, the outrageously undisciplined Mansfield would also fade under Kim’s relentless powerpunching, Despite the consensus outlook in Novak’s favour, Mansfield’s slugging confidence could not be contained in the weeks leading up to the fight. Training on “cigarettes and champagne” Jayne joked, she would “show Kim up for the punk she really is.” Although wildly popular with audiences, Mansfield could find precious little support for her bold words. Jane Russell, a long time Mansfield nemesis noted, “Jayne can’t take what’s coming. She may hurt Kim early, but Novak will keep beating her and beating her. Mansfield’s talk is the toughest thing about her these days. Think I’ll keep my coat on for this one—no point in getting too comfortable.” Fought at an undisclosed sound stage in front of a sizeable crowd of studio elites—Mansfield wore a black and white tiger stripe hipster bikini, Kim donned a sturdy pink two piece.

During R1: Jayne went straight to the clinch on Kim, allowing Novak no time to get her feet set, and immediately pounded right hands to crotch, right uppercuts to chin in close as Novak stumbled back in under siege. Mansfield rammed her prey rough against the ropes, butting Novak’s left eye and the cudgeling was on as Kim slipped into stupor. Mansfield reached into he dark recesses of her long, brutal career, pulling out grim forearm shots to the ribs, crude laces to the eyes, skidding low blows that bounced off thigh and bikini bottom as the ref slapped at Mansfield’s brawny shoulder but did little to curtail the mayhem. Novak pushed her foe back and blinked in groggy pain as she sagged into the ropes—Jayne always waded back in, looping overhand rights, then holding and hitting as Kim wilted under the constant fouling and ruinous head hunting. At the bell, Novak was ransacked—cut over and under the left eye from vicious head butts, cringing from boy and trunk work—Jayne Mansfield strutted barefoot to her corner and gave a crooked leer to her loyal followers, nodding in satisfaction at her own efforts.

R2: Kim Novak hadn’t been prepared for this kind of fight and she got off her stool, her trembling legs and uncertain eyes revealed her predicament. All too soon, Mansfield was on her again, looping overhand right against that busted up eye, plowing in with her head and shoulders to stuff Novak into her corner, then pushing, elbowing and bodying up to keep Kim on her heels and vulnerable to blockbuster punching from either hand. Time and again, Novak lurched forward from flagrant low blows as Mansfield had her wicked way. Jayne mad have been soft, but she showed a terrific natural strength in palming Kim’s arms back and chesting the rival blonde into the ropes, draping Novak before plunging back in with her fists. At the end of the round, Kim sat ropeside, right hand dumb at her left cheek, left across her belly, just soaking up punishment as Jayne clobbered away at the face, arms and belly of the blonde. Jayne strutted back to her corner with hands held high, bellowing drunk on Novak’s pain.

R3: A badly battered Kim Novak finally got her torso tilted forward, her weight moving in against Jayne, and it was Manfield’s turn to feel the hurt. Jayne crossed her arms and hunkered down, picking off head shots with her open right mitt, but getting damaged downstairs as Novak’s rolling, compact blows slammed home with beefy impact. Pale flesh rippled as Mansfield’s sides and tummy bore the brunt of Novak’s methodical assault—Kim leaning side to side, jerking her punches in with all the power of her thick legs and sturdy hips behind them, Mansfield remained defiant at the bell, giving Kim a contemptuous shove, but Novak was on the board, and seemingly had steadied the ship.

R4: As the girls closed, cuffing one another with hooks, Novak appeared startled and never saw the short, jolting right uppercut that crashed off her teeth with butt-wobbling authority. The punch had Kim out on her feet with over 2 minutes left on the clock, setting her up for what many critics contend is the most pure punishment ever sustained by a celebrity in a single round. Mansfield had knocked out enough women to know when she had one hurt, and she immediately opened up with both barrels to close the show. Novak stooped forward, arms crossed and started blundering into sickening punches—thick, shivering body punches, crashing right hands off her face. Mansfield side stepped to allow the wounded fighter to stumble face first into the ropes, then took her time, palming Kim’s shoulders, laying in with clocking rights on the chin, or cramming rights to the breadbasket to draw vacant groans from her somnambulant foe. With ringsiders screaming for the fight to be stopped, Mansfield waylaid Novak with every ounce of jiggling power in her curvaceous frame, propping and punching with barbaric glee as the light in Kim’s eyes went out. Still Novak’s legs would not give way. Eyes fluttering shut, face blank, no longer registering hurt, Kim’s head lolled forward in between tragic blasts, her hands drooping to her chest. Big, pale bodies came together rime and again as Mansfield fell into her opponent with gaudy punches, bodied up, then pushed off. Kim Novak slouched forward, was bulled back and continued to take punch after punch after punch as Mansfield braced herself, loaded and pitched them in, Finally, with only seconds left in a round that had featured horrific one-sided abuse, a numbed and stupefied Kim Novak slid down Jayne Mansfield’s body to puddle face first at the big blonde’s feet. Stomping a foot down onto Kim Novak’s sweaty back—Jayne Mansfield cemented her victory with a showy pose—the KO4 victor in spectacular fashion.

After: Kim Novak, her aura of invincibility, had been beaten beyond recognition in this fight as Jayne Mansfield got cheap then got big to collect one of the biggest wins of her career. Novak never again showed the indefatigable heart she exhibited in the classic fourth round of this fight, as if the callous beating she had sustained had used up literally years of her fighter’s clock. “When she was undefeated,” relates a Colombia executive responsible for making Novak’s fights, “Nobody was ever better then Kimmie, but she didn’t handle losing well. Psychologically, she left a lot of herself in the ring against Mansfield, and even though we tried like hell to tell her it didn’t matter. She wasn’t special any more after that fight. I still liked Kimmie against a lot of girls, but if things got tough, we just couldn’t count in her to dig down. She couldn’t put that much of herself on the line again—it was easier to lose and tell herself she could have won, than give everything and still get beat. We never should have put her in with Mansfield so soon, and that was my fault. There; no telling how good Kim could have been.”

Posted by Simguy 12/31/09.