RETRO BOUT: (Early 1950's)

Posted by Simguy on 7/24/2001, 7:41 am.

Before: While Hutton strutted it up in the wake of victories over Dorothy L’Amour, an aging Betty Grable and lesser known starlets. Gaynor actually pushed for a match with the rugged little blonde. As Mitzi recalled in her memoirs, “All I saw was a little bully—talking as if she were Jayne Mansfield and trying to intimidate everybody. And it worked—nobody wanted to fight her. I kept telling my matchmakers—‘let me AT her’, because I was bigger, stronger, and faster and I knew it. I thought we’d never get it together.” In the end however, the fight was made, in a Warner Brothers’ soundstage before perhaps 20 studio elite. Mitzi in black bandeau hipster bikini, Hutton in orange and red floral print halter top hipster bikini.

During R1: Conscious choices were made this round as both women tried to impose their will, Hutton charged the ring and immediately began slamming away with both fists to stance, deliberately stood flat footed, soaking up the beating, moving her head and blocking well upstairs, and significantly, never taking a backward step. Not much offense from Mitzi this round as Hutton’s churning punches bashed off arms and ribs with a pelting rhythm, but whenever Betty rammed in with her shoulder, the legs of Gaynor held ground, and it was Hutton forced to back way, reload, and wade back in at the bell.

R2: No other way to say it: Mitzi Gaynor victimized Betty Hutton this round. Betty was predictable, coming in strong, often wide with her punches and always trying to press the opponent backward—Gaynor understood this all too well. shoulder to shoulder, Mitzi would let Hutton push as hard as she could, then niftily pivot, letting Hutton fall forward and clipping her with hard counter uppercuts or hooks. Mitzi’s footwork in close was exquisite, allowing her to take advantage of Betty’s momentum and punch after punch ripped home to a wide open Hutton gut or chin as she stumbled into abuse. By the final minute, Hutton was staggering, tentative—Gaynor up on her toes, bounced in to hack short right hands against the left side of Betty’s face, bounced to the right to snap off the hook against the mouth. Hutton’s face was pulverized as she turned sleepily, taking punches, and getting her head repeatedly jolting this way and that. Shutout Mitzi Gaynor.

R3: Once again, Mitzi pressed up on Hutton midring, crossing her arms and putting he weight on the smaller woman, and for the first time in the fight, Betty Hutton collapsed under the pressure. Gaynor’s bigger body and thicker legs were too strong, but more than that, her handspeed and clever feet exposed Betty time and again whenever the blonde trying to get strong. Gaynor walked her girl back, snapping quick punches out of the crossed arm guard—lefts under the elbows, right onto the left eye—Hutton hit the ropes in a daze and clearly had no conception of what to do with her back to the strands. Gaynor pressed up close with her left shoulder and jerked little right uppercuts in tight—snapping short blows, over and over to the Hutton chin as Betty stood in stupor and accepted them like gifts. After a murderous series of hammering connects, Betty’s legs gave way—she spilled down Gaynor’s body to all fours as Mitzi stepped back with a happy grin. Betty Hutton could not go on—KO3 Mitzi Gaynor.;

After: In a precursor to what was to come for Hutton, the blonde brawler was stopped in her tracks, broken down, backed up and ultimately stopped by the size and tactical acumen of her lesser rated foe. The loss to Gaynor would not hurt Hutton’s reputation much, which has the unintended effect of preventing Betty from having to deal with the lessons Mitzi had taught her. Betty’s style would never evolve fully into the new era and as Gaynor had down the way, others would follow—Hutton would suffer horrendous beatings in some fights, dish out catastrophic punishment in others and never make the adjustments she could have throughout a career marked by very low lows, very high highs.

Reposted by Archer 12/30/09.