Posted by simguy on 8/5/2005

Before: Nervy negotiations underscore tension of the match up - on again, off again fight finally going ahead as both sides continue to point fingers. "Jewel didn't really want this fight," Neve contends in prefight. "Every time we'd get close to signing - they wanted me to wear a red bikini or they'd come back with a totally new purse-split. It was always something - I never thought they'd let Kilcher go through with it." Jewel snorting at the notion of reluctance on her part. "Neve's terrified because she knows I'm going to march right through her and she won't have any excuses. Big fights always answer big questions, and fans want to know: who's stronger, me or Neve? That's really what's at stake here - finding out who the strongest puncher in the bantamweight division is. When Neve's lying face down at my feet, we'll have our answer." Neve in cerulean blue bikini - Jewel in navy bandeau with white trim, tight little battle bun.

During: Jewel detonates a swinging right off Neve's face: Neve right back with a hook/right hand on the face. Jewel pawing her jab, leans in close and jams another right to Neve's jaw over Campbell's left shoulder - Neve right back with a thick right hand flat to paunch and a clobbering left on the chops. Back and forth - girls taking turns rocking one another onto her heels, but both soaking up a terrific shot in mid-range power-stroking. Both girls settling into a relaxed crossed-arm, crouching at the waist and looking to wallop the other as hard as possible - some head movement from both, but basically it's just stand-and-deliver at it's beefy best. Dust settles: Jewel takes the points - both girls shiny-faced from crashing bombs in a raucous first.

R2: Girls getting a little closer - still showing crossed-arm for the most part, but it's shoulder to shoulder, strokes tightening up in rubbing, nudging work inside. Short, jerking right uppercuts, tidy swatting hooks ear and body - girls just busting each other vicious, stepping around to the right, grinding foreheads. Neve a little bossier, tugging on Jewel's paunch a nasty, insistent hook - she's got Kilcher's back to the ropes this round, forcing Jewel to dig down and brawl hard to move brunette back to midring. Another close, hamhanded round - both girls rung up - this time it's Neve getting the better of it.

R3: They've settled in - it's hardhearted, grinding, shoulder-to-shoulder bludgeoning toe to toe. Faces growing blank with concentration and hurt - they'll crowd each other with a shoulder, walking the opponent to ropes and feasting. Tight, close-cropped punching - gloves exploding off skulls, shoulders, chests with bright spanking impacts. Bodies cringing from licking, snapping hooks or slutty right hands wedged into ribs just beneath the heart. Jewel having the better of it - Neve's wide white back to the ropes as she bobs and weaves. Kilcher will swat a hook to Neve's ear, then double down HARD amidships, fitting that hook in snug behind the elbow. Jewel's combinations coming in chopping, clouting bursts - bashing against the torso and skull, rocking Neve back with spluttering expressions. Campbell hard pressed - arms crossed at the apron, fighting back in spots, but she can't back the blonde off in a strong Kilcher third.

R4: Oh, the punching. Crowd groaning and shouting as girls absolutely light one another up with one fight-winning blockbuster after another. Kilcher with a CRASHING right bends Neve sideways, loosening mouthpiece on teeth in a spray of sweat and water. Neve with a sickening right hand thick to midriff off her right foot, shifts weight and gets 100% chin with a clouting hook off the left foot. Both girls wobbly butt - curvy legs stamping, knees locking up as they brace themselves - it's mindless, mutual destruction. Form growing sloppy, ramshackle - Neve extending her arms while taking another smashing right upside the head: Jewel staring, stooped forward with arms crossed against her body as Campbell puts hooks and right hands together on chin. Final minute sees both beauties reeling with hurt, swaying in front of each other while pitching wallop from their hips - girls trade rights, back with hooks and JEWEL SITS DOWN! Kilcher unraveling, stomping in fence post holes before almost sitting cross legged in shock - Neve staggering to neutral corner as blonde pulls herself together for 8 at the bell. Break: Jewel's corner begging her for the jab and that tight frame defence - "Baby you're better than this - walk her down with your guard and jab her baby, come on now!"

R5: Jewel POURS it to Neve, trying to answer that knockdown. Campbell dominated along the ropes, covering up earmuff, turning her shoulders to present one side or the other as Jewel squares up and hammers away. Crowd screaming throughout as it looks as if Neve MUST fall, but all she does is keep soaking punches. Jewel pasting every square inch of Neve's torso and skull - pushing up brunette to stack, making Neve feel blonde weight then belting away with hamhanded vigor. Campbell open-mouthed, seemingly out on her feet - Jewel's bashing overhand rights to the back of Campbell's head, coming back ruinous hooks beefy to ribs, tummy, and chin. Unable to drop her foe, Kilcher contents herself with a rowdy romp to jug late, drawing the fight's first boozy clinch from a distraught Campbell as Neve hangs off blonde neck at the bell. Kilcher chesting up and taunting as ref works hard to separate - that round was ALL Jewel.

R6: Jewel continuing her mindless onslaught, laying on shellack at the ropes in big, beefy strokes. Kilcher clobbering away side to side and wide, taking time to shoulder-up or palm up on Neve, stacking and pushing her-to. Campbell throbbing, suffering, not answering back - Neve groggily moving her mitts from crossed-arm to earmuff and back - sometimes facing into destruction, sometimes turning away from it. Kilcher warned for repeatedly pounding Neve behind the head - blonde heedless, barely processing English at this point. Stroking, strapping shellack beats at Neve and beats at her - great gonging sheets of leather from Jewel and it all finally proves too much. Late the round, Neve sputtering, stooping forward - fists bashing off her skull and chest - she stumbles to all fours with a traumatized expression. Jewel's chest HEAVING with exertion - she manages an exhausted wail of supremacy before staggering into the neutral corner. Neve on her haunches, crying, achy, but somehow she fights off paralysis to BEAT THE COUNT! Neve swaying as a concerned ref takes a close look: devastation on Jewel's face as she felt SURE she'd stopped her foe in the sixth.

R7: Cringing, wince-making stuff - both beauties banged up well beyond repair, just trying to gut this thing out. They fall groggily into one another's arms, then galvanized by contact with the hated other's flesh, they struggle to body-walk each other to ropes. They brawl with open mouths and sleepy eyes. They slug and take with dopey stubbornness. They reach in under one another's arms and struggle to bull the other's back to ropes, pushing and bumping for room to punch. Midway through, Neve wrestling Jewel's back ropewise, shifts weight to her right foot and pulls a withering hook into Kilcher's midsection, gutting the blonde on the spot and crippling her. Campbell instantly sensing the hurt, clubs a short right hand behind Jewel's head, then jerks the left uppercut off the left foot. Another left uppercut, then a murderous hook to liver and JEWEL GOES DOWN! Kilcher sobbing forward, droops to all fours - Neve staggering back, staring down with dim hate - Jewel's turn to dredge up reserves of will to fight off that body shot and beat the count. Campbell wades in, hands at hips, mouth open, pressing in on Kilcher at the ropes, reaching under her arms to heave her upright, then Neve Campbell applies a thick, strapping dose of stroking rights and lefts. Jewel out on her feet as she's smashed upside the head, tortured to the ribcage and jug - Neve's fists just crashing side to side in unopposed sheets. Bell: Kilcher swaying, staring open mouthed - Neve staggering, arms numb at her sides - she starts crying without expression as she stumbles back to her corner.

R8: Corners helping both girls to respective feet with a heave off the stool - ramshackle, crouching approach as dumbfounded beauties wobble into each other. Right hands cocked under chins, left hands at throbbing tummies - they edge into each other shoulder-first, pawing jabs, seeking overhand rights and mop-up hooks in a painfully slow parody of the slugging pace both showed early. Jewel's missing her shots, Neve's landing in the groggy trade of rights and lefts. Kilcher's head snapping back and around - she backs to ropes as Neve's able to put ham on head - Campbell reaches in with knuckles on biceps to draw Jewel's arms away from her body. OH, the body punching! Campbell set on sturdy pins, rippin' righty up into Jewel's lungs, then bodying sobbing blonde into the ropes. Push-and-stroke left hook scorches Jewel's ribs - again Neve bodies up to press a pale, shaken Jewel upright. Back and forth - thick, strapping goodness - Neve just belting 'em in mindless, getting her body on Jewel, pounding the chest, ribs and waist with one bashing blow after another. Ponderous, cudgelling stuff - Jewel beaten into stupor - she's just tottering, drooping, helpless to prevent Neve from pulling her defences down, helpless to stop the punching. No one punch does it, but Jewel begins to crater in the second minute, eyes closed, face slack as she finally collapses in gradual stages to sprawl chest-down at Neve's feet. Campbell staggers back on her heels, crying fresh tears as she knows Jewel's not getting up. KO8 in heartpounding fashion - Neve Campbell!

After: Cue ambulances - both beauties getting a quick trip to Emerg for a routine check up: hard, hard fight drains both, but drains Jewel just a wee bit more. Neve answering her critics, regaining her perch as the most implacable come-forward girl at 120 for now - no quarter asked or given as girls simply smashed away until one was left standing. From her hospital bed, badly battered Kilcher mutters one word to insistent Tractorpull interviewee: "Rematch". Campbell tapped for comment as she's getting her ribs tenser-taped up - her wincing reply: "I'm not sure she worked hard enough. Lazy fighters shouldn't be rewarded, but we'll see what the numbers look like: if she comes crawling back to the table and is willing to accept crumbs in exchange for another beating, then maybe we can do this again. OUCH - careful there!"