(Written by Girls Friday/Results BBU)

(Team Canada vs Free Agent)

Intro:
The second to last bout of the night sees Kim Poirier return to the ring after a 5 year absence to fight Laura Whitmore here in Vancouver.
Kim made her debut against the inexperienced Helen Flanagan and battered the youngster in a 4 round demolition.
Now she's 36 and looks to beat a girl 5 years her junior in Laura who comes into the fight herself with 2 losses to her name.
So the fight was set by Amanda Tapping as she looked to get Team Canada back on track in the fight stakes.

Coming into the fight, both girls only spoke to the media once as fight preparation took most of their time up in the build up.
Kim told journalists in an interview "Laura doesn't faze me at all, she's lost her first two fights and when she tastes my power, there is only one way she is going!"
Asked why it's been so long since she fought, she replies "I have a career outside of boxing that has taken all my attention, Amanda understood my situation and allowed me to stay training with the girls and come back to fight for real when I needed to, so Laura has earned my first victim status"
Laura meanwhile was calm in her interview, even after reading what Kim had to say about her in her own interview.
She told Journalists "Kim can make calms of my demise already all she wants, come fight night I won't be some kid like Helen was when they fought, I will be an ass kicking warrior coming for her head!"
Asked why her career had gotten off to a bad start, she answers "Christine as much as I am not her biggest fan, I have to admit she is a good fighter, so was a hard starting point and I took the Sara fight too soon after when my head wasn't in the right frame due to my first loss"
She continues by saying "but I've had time to step back, look at what I did wrong and find a way that I believe will lead me to winning my future fights"

Fight night and Kim is out first to a loud cheer as the proud Canadian girl pumps her fist to the crowd, as Nicole waves the Canada's flag behind her.
Kim is wearing all white gear, sports bra, trunks, shoes and gloves, while her hair is up in a ponytail.
Entering the ring to a round of applause, Kim bows to each side of the ring and has an award winning smile on her face before she goes to her corner.
Out comes Laura now with her coach waving a Republic of Ireland flag behind her and the Irish blonde looks focused on the job ahead as she heads straight towards the ring.
She is wearing all dark green gear, sports bra, trunks, gloves and boots, her own hair is tied into a ponytail to complete her own look.
Entering the ring to boos, Laura heads over to Kim and tells her face to face what she thinks of her as the coaches step behind the girls before the fight begins.
The referee gets both fighters to stand in the ring centre to tell both the rules, both seem more interested in telling the other what they think of each other.
Asked to touch gloves, they bang their gloves together while glaring at each other.
Returning to their corners, both get their gumshields in and final instructions from their coaches, the referee signals for the bell to start 10 rounds of Bantamweight action.

Round 1:
Out come the fighters quickly, Kim getting caught early by her younger opponent with her jab snapping out to the face of Poirier.
Kim catches Laura though with a right hook and shows her power has disappeared after all this time and she barrages Laura back towards the ropes to a loud roar from the crowd.
In tight, both fighters slug it out to the others body with Laura looking to be getting the worst of the action as her eyes shut in pain.
Laura latches on to Kim and wrestles her onto the ropes, before banging away to the body of the Canadian to start making her yelp and the crowd boo.
Kim shoves Laura off of her and slugs the Irish girl to the body with a left hook that winds Whitmore and then powers her to the opposite side of the ring.
It's sloppy action as each girl is trying to punch a hole through the other as they work in tight, Laura is actually holding the right arm of Kim on the opposite side to where the referee is so she can land the harder punches and it takes Kim complaining to get Laura to let go.
Separated off the rounds, Kim again slams a straight through the gloves of Laura to shove her back a step and this is looking more of the same for Whitmore as Kim keeps on the attack.
The bell rings with Laura knocked to another set of ropes and looking pissed off that she has been put through the ringer by Kim.
Kim returns to her corner with a stoic look on her face as she stares over at Laura, who stares back with hatefully feelings being exchanged in those glares.

Round 2:
Kim comes out strong bullying Laura back, Whitmore struggling to stop the raw aggression of Poirier.
Laura manages to pull Kim onto the ropes and starts slamming hooks to the body of the Canadian as the fight is becoming who can batter the other worse.
Kim shoves her way off the ropes and snaps the head of Laura with a jab, followed by a right cross to knock her back across the other side of the ring.
Laura sidesteps Kim and lands a good counter shot to snap Kim's head off to the side to knock Poirier back a step.
Back and forth goes each girl as forces the other back, Laura seems to be finding the better angles to work from as she slams away to the body of Kim and it is clearly affecting her.
But Kim lands an overhand right that knocks Laura down to all fours, the crowd celebrate what they hope is the finish to the fight.
The referee is counting Laura as she shakes her head to clear it as she starts pushing herself up to beat the count at 8.
Kim shoves her way forward to try and finish the fight off as Laura protects herself as best as she can under the onslaught and pulls her rival into a clinch.
The referee pulls the fighters apart as they are screaming insults at each other, the ref tries to calm things down but both girls just want at each other.
Laura manages to stay out of trouble till the bell rings, Kim holds herself back from rushing her opponent but both still glare at each other before being ushered back to their corners from their coaches.

Round 3:
Laura seems to realise that she can't just bulldoze through Kim and instead starts to use her height and speed to win this fight.
Kim is starting to miss as Laura uses her flexibility to lean out of the way of haymakers and then counter punch to hurt her opponent.
The Canadian has to think for the first time in the fight and as she slows down, Laura digs two body shots in before escaping in time from a hard hook from Kim landing.
Laura cracks Kim with a right hook that knocks her towards a corner, both fight in the tight confines but Kim now can't load up her punches, allowing Laura to work with much more ease.
It forces Kim to clinch after her body takes a beating and the referee has to get between the girls as Laura shoves her left forearm under the chin of Kim.
As they separate, the referee warns Laura to keep it clean before he let's the girls get back at each other.
Kim manages to end the round stronger with some hard shots but it's Laura who is controlling the pace with her cleaner shots.
As the bell rings, It's Laura who raises her gloves that gains the ire of Kim, who bodies up to Laura and the two start shoving each other till the referee gets between the girls to try and calm things down.
Both return to their corners and don't look in the mood for advice as their coaches try to reduce the puffiness of the fighters faces and Kim gets an ice pack on her stomach to numb her soreness.

Round 4:
Laura keeps control with her hand speed as Kim looks to drive forwards to end this but is instead being caught straight onto her face.
Kim steps back and Laura senses a weakness in her opponent as she now steps forward behind her punches to work Kim back now.
Two hard hooks to the body puts Kim down to her knees as she spits her gumshield out to breath more easier as she rubs her stomach.
Laura is shoved by the referee back to her corner as she tries to get at Kim, allowing the Canadian extra time to catch her breath.
As the count begins, Kim makes sure to milk it and rises at 9 to beat the count, as the ref checks her over, he orders her to get a new gumshield in.
Laura is buzzing as the order to fight is signalled and she tries to wade in again to end this.
But Kim is more recovered then she should have been as the antics of Laura and her own tricks have given her time to get her air back.
Now both are trading shots and Laura finds herself back on the retreat as Kim slams hooks to get body and over hand shots to make the Irish fighter stumble towards the ropes.
Both fighters slug it out near the ropes, again they wrestle as they get too close to each other to land effectively till the referee gets involved.
The bell rings with both girls still swinging at each other and both sets of coaches have to pull their girls away try to calm their girls down.
Both girls look sore as they sit down on their stool, Kim has bruising forming on her body, while Laura's left eye is starting to swell.

Round 5:
Out come the fighters and while Kim looks ready to try and take back control but Laura slams into her with a right hook that wobbles her knees.
Kim stumbles back to the ropes as she holds the rope with her right hand, so she doesn't see the next hook that cracks her in the same spot as before.
Down gets Kim in a heap as her eyes shut and it looks to be over as the referee begins his count over her fallen body.
The count is up to 5 as Kim seems to slowly start stirring but the count reaches 10 with Poirier staring at the ceiling of the arena as the fight ends around her.

Winner: Laura Whitmore KO Round 5

After:
Laura falls to her knees and begins crying as she finally breaks her duck by getting her first win in her career as boos rein around her.
Kim is helped onto her stool and sheds tears for a different reason as she can't believe she has lost to someone like Laura.
Each girl looks through tear streaked eyes at each other and the glare at each other as it looks like they are going to bolt for each other.
But the doctor goes to check on Kim, which seems to distract her from Laura as the Irish girls coach helps her up and hugs her.
He tells Laura that they can celebrate in the back as he knows that if Whitmore over celebrates here, then she might never get invited back here.
Kim meanwhile is given the all clear and is helped up by Nicole as the crowd seems confused how to react to her loss.

Kim leaves in silence, which seems to upset her even more as tears run down her eyes and Nicole tries to comfort her.
Laura meanwhile tells an interviewer backstage "I told you I would win and I can still see the confused look on all those peoples faces out there that I did"
Talking of Kim, she says "I admit she has a big punch but I have been crawling my way through hell to get to this point and finally I can say I have won in that ring"
Finishing up, she says "I will have to see what's next, if Kim wants a rematch, I welcome it as I can kick her arse over and over again!"
Laura goes off to celebrate, while reports suggest that loud banging sounds were heard in the Team Canada locker room and shouting that sounded like people trying to calm down someone.
Kim tells journalists later in the night "Laura will certainly see me again, first I'll get back into ring shape by pounding someone soon enough and then I will search her out, mark my words, you're mine bytch!"