TESS VALMORE

The June PPV was huge with a record breaking fifty fights. All four titles were up for grabs. I must admit that I was disappointed that Decker retained her title. I’m still peeved about her first title defense. I also have to admit it was a great fight and that final knockdown justified her winning. Not only that, but she won by a decision. I don’t know how long it has been since that happened in a title fight. I was surprised that Ren was able to beat Swift and retain the title. I have to finally admit the Ren is the real thing when it comes to being a champion. Portman won her eleventh flyweight title courtesy of Olivia Holt, who managed to pull off the dumbest stunt ever seen in the FCBA. It’s idiomatic, you don’t turn you back on a opponent. Couple that with a roaring crowd and ignoring the referee and you have the epitome of brainless. She set a record for stupidity even surpassing Jenny Mac, who nearly did the same thing. Mac can now be considered a genius when compared to Holt. Speaking of Mac, she became the oldest fighter to compete in a title match breaking Theron’s short lived record. Mac had her moments, but it was not to be, particularly when Mac was caught fouling twice.

I thought there were three big upsets in the PPV. The biggest was Taylor Hill’s knockout win over Kendall Jenner. I’ve been saying that Hill was one of the up and coming lightweights, but never expected her to beat Jenner, who is probably best of class. The second upset was Naomi Scott’s win over Scodelario. I knew that Scott was a promising bantam. Well, I guess she is more promising than I thought. The third upset, although not as big in my opinion as the two above, was Huntington-Whiteley’s win over Sophie Turner. Looks like I am going to have to live with that nineteen digit name for a while. Needless to say, Hill, Scott and HW are going to see a big jump in the rankings.

Not surprising, there was not a lot of action in the welters. There is no pressing challenger to Decker.  Rhoda won, but it was expected. Beating Patton is no big deal for a much younger fighter. Decker can now take a chance and choose any of the remaining top five or more than likely hold the title almost forever fighting the remainder of this weak division.

In the lightweights, DiDonato and Peregrym were the only top ten fighters in action outside of the Jenner/Hill fight Missy had a mismatch and DiDonato faced a rookie, although a promising one. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ren took the next PPV off to see what develops.

In other bantam action, Lopilato, a sometime lightweight, sometime bantam won as did Bella Thorne, Dobrev and Lilly. Lilly and Thorne are recent title holders, so that probably leaves them out of the title shot race. Larson’s chances were hurt with her loss to Thorne. I would say that Bennet, Ratajkowski or Dobrev should be in consideration.

In the flyweights, six of the top ten were in action and Portman wasn’t one of them. Only one lost. That was Johansson, who lost to Michelle Williams. Watson, Lavigne, Fox and Collins all won and any of them would be a good candidate for a title shot, but with Michelle Williams beating the number four flyweight, Scarlett Johansson, I would think that she would be the logical choice. Both fight for the Consortium. They have fought eight times with each winning four, however none of those fights occurred while both were fighting for Hawkeye, so I don’t know how he would feel about an intra-stable title fight. It would be a good one though.