Anya Taylor-Joy vs Jennifer Love Hewitt
(Writing: LMW / Results: Lookout!)

Anya Taylor-Joy

(24, 5’7, 5-1 FCBA, League of Mighty Women)

Jennifer Love Hewitt

(41, 5’2, 54-75-1 FCBA, Free Agent)

Pre-Fight: The crowd is buzzing with excitement as it is now time for the main event of the evening here at the TD Garden. League of Mighty Women’s young star Anya Taylor-Joy will be facing an experienced former champion, Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Anya made a great start to her FCBA career, but she hasn’t been as active as anticipated since then and she will be making her return to the ring after an extended break. Her new stable has high expectations from her, so her first showing for them will be an important one. Jennifer on the other hand has been keeping herself busy, even though her career might be in decline lately. She had mixed results in cougar bouts, but struggled against younger opponents, so she would definitely want to change that in this fight.

Before the match, both fighters had a quick chat with the FCBA Network reporter Layla Anna-Lee. Let’s hear what Anya had to say about her return to the FCBA first. “I’m very excited to be back and I’m grateful to the League of Mighty Women for putting their trust in me. It has been some time since my last match and I’m returning to face a former champion, so I have been working hard to prepare for this match and I will keep working hard to improve, regardless of the result.” Asked about her opponent's antics, she replied “Jennifer is a very experienced fighter, who can exploit any weakness you show in the match, so it’s very important that I keep my focus on the match no matter what happens and I’m planning to do just that.”

Jennifer has a more serious demeanor as she discusses her recent status in the FCBA. “I might be transitioning towards the cougar division, but I’m not done with regular competition yet and these new kids are getting too comfortable with challenging me. I think it is time that I send a message to them, so I’ll make an example of this one!” When Layla asked her about Summer Glau coaching Anya for the fight, Jennifer laughed and said “They are aware that I knocked her out twice, right? What would she even teach her? How to stay down? Actually, that might be a helpful lesson for the kid!”

Anya comes out to a loud cheer from the fans, so she starts waving to them as she walks down the aisle with her coach Summer right behind her.

She is wearing a baby blue sports bra, matching trunks, gloves and shoes, while her hair is in a ponytail.

As she enters the ring, Anya raises her hands to acknowledge the crowd and gives them a quick wave before going over to her corner to warm up as she listens to Summer’s instructions.

Jennifer comes out to a mixture of cheers and boos. She makes a dismissive gesture with an unimpressed look on her face as she continues walking toward the ring with her coach.

She is wearing a white sports bra, black tights and also black gloves and shoes with her hair in double Dutch braids.

Jennifer enters the ring looking confident and then she looks past Anya to make eye contact with Summer and give her a nod with a smirk on her face.

Fighters come to the center of the ring to hear the final instructions of the referee and then Anya goes for the touch of gloves, but Jennifer ignores it. They are back at their respective corners now and we are ready for 10 rounds of bantamweight action.

Fight: Round 1: Anya starts the fight cautiously, trying to keep her distance and utilize her reach with jabs to keep her opponent at bay. Of course this leaves Jennifer the role of aggressor, which she takes on happily as she is known for her relentless attacking style. This might have been Anya’s plan all along though, as she keeps hitting Jennifer with the jabs every time she tries to close the distance.

Frustrated with her lack of chances, Jennifer decides to barrel through a couple of jabs to get inside as we are getting close to the end of the round. She blasts her opponent’s body with a few punches, but then Anya counters with an uppercut. This creates an opening for a double jabs-right cross combo as Jennifer gets pushed back with this surprise attack before the bell rings. Anya was already winning the round, but that last exchange puts it beyond doubt. She is all smiles heading back to her corner, while Jennifer looks frustrated.

Round 2: Jennifer closes the distance right away as the round starts, looking even more aggressive than before. Anya couldn’t stop this advance and she pays the price by receiving a strong three-punch combination to the body. Jennifer is also prepared for the counterpunch threat this time, so Anya ends up having to step away and eating a hook up top as she does so.

Not willing to let Jennifer inside again, Anya keeps her distance for the majority of the round and throws jab-cross combos to discourage her opponent. However, Jennifer cuts off Anya’s angle and catches her with a big left hook to the ribs and pushes her to the ropes, before the end of the round. Anya scores with a good right hook to the side of the head, but it doesn’t deter Jennifer, who continues her assault to the body. With her back to the ropes, Anya lowers her arms to cover the sides of her body. Instead of changing levels, Jennifer keeps blasting the body for another 20 seconds until the bell rings. Jennifer didn’t score many clean punches there, but it looks like she vented out her frustration and she seems happy with how she forced Anya to defend.

“You must have felt so smart with that little combo of yours last round, but I’m onto you now! You are going down, silly girl!” says Jennifer and obviously waits for a response as the referee separates them after the bell, but Anya only gives her a quick, forced smile and goes back to her corner. It was a closer round, but Jennifer ties up the score with it.

Round 3: More of the same in this round. Anya keeps utilizing her reach advantage as she scores with jabs and straights outside, while Jennifer continues landing jabs and hooks to the body once she gets inside. Jennifer Love Hewitt didn’t get a chance to put out a display this time as she did towards the end of last round, but she was still the busier fighter, so she looks content with going up on the scorecard as the bell rings.

Round 4: As the bell rings, Jennifer comes out attacking again, but her pace seems to be slowing down a little. Close to the minute mark, Jennifer gets to work on the inside again, but similar to what happened in the first round, Anya counters with an uppercut followed by the double jab-right cross combination. However, Anya’s right cross lands square on Jennifer’s nose this time and she takes two steps back unsteadily before falling on her back with a thud!! Anya quickly heads towards the neutral corner as the referee begins the count. 1...2...3...4… Jennifer gets to a sitting position and slams the canvas with both hands as she is getting ready to get up 5…6…7…8… Jennifer is up and ready to continue, so the ref wipes her gloves and we are back to boxing.

Jennifer still looks a bit tender after that knockdown, so she has her guard up tight. Anya spends the rest of the round throwing one-two combos from the outside, but only a few of them lands cleanly as Jennifer doesn’t experience another scare in this round. Still, it is a big round for Anya as she ties things up once again on the scoreboard.

Round 5: Looks like Jennifer started to respect Anya’s power after that knock down as she starts the round with a more defensive stance. However, Anya seems unsure of this new dynamic as she looks very cautious when moving forward. This leads to a mostly quiet round. Anya scores with a few jabs and some body hooks, while Jennifer continues attacking the body, ending the round in a draw.

In Anya’s corner, Summer tries to encourage her to be more aggressive: “You had her in the last round, but now you’re letting her off the hook. It is time to press forward, don’t give her more time to recover. Let’s go!”

Round 6: Listening to her coach’s advice, Anya starts the round with an attacking mindset as she pushes the pace and circles around Jennifer, looking for openings. As Jennifer started to struggle with the pace, those openings that Anya was looking for started to reveal themselves. For almost two minutes, Anya uses those openings to double up on her jab and then rotate between going to the body and the head with her hooks.

Right after the two minute mark, Jennifer decides that she can’t take this for too long, she goes on to the offensive once more. This might be a bad decision on her part as Anya seems ready for it. As soon as Jennifer steps forward, Anya blasts her with two strong hooks to the body. Jennifer grunts as she drops her guard… Anya lifts her opponent’s chin up with a nice lead uppercut… the experienced fighter is in trouble… a beauty of a right hook from Anya connects right on Jennifer’s chin and she goes down!! 1…2…3… Jennifer still on her back trying to roll to her side unsuccessfully 4…5...6… she finally rolls over and gets up on all fours 7…8… Jennifer tries to push herself up but she loses her balance and falls down to her side again with a groan 9…10 as Jennifer just lies there and she is counted out!

Official Result: Winner via KO6, Anya Taylor-Joy!

Post-Fight: Anya looks relieved as she raises her fists and heads over to her corner to celebrate with her coach Summer, who looks ecstatic. Gillian also joins the celebration as they help Anya to take off her gloves. In the meantime, Jennifer’s coach helps her to sit on the corner stool. She looks a bit shaken, but the doctor examines her and quickly gestures that there is nothing serious.

Anya comes over to check up on her in a respectful manner, but Jennifer is not having any of it as she says “You got lucky, kid! Now, get out of my face!” Anya looks unfazed, but not willing to escalate the situation; she just turns away and heads towards the center of the ring, where she gets her hand raised by the ref to make the result official.

Anya is all smiles as she addresses the crowd. “I’m very happy that I was able to make a successful return to the ring and I’m glad that I was able to conclude the night with another win for our stable that has given me this opportunity. No matter how she behaves, I still respect Jennifer Love Hewitt as an experienced fighter and it was nice to get a victory against a former champion like her. I would like to thank our whole team, but coaches Summer and Gillian especially helped me prepare for this match-up, so I would like to dedicate this win to them!”

Soon, the rest of the LMW roster and staff join Anya to celebrate in the ring. Ali Landry takes the microphone for closing remarks. “What a night! On behalf of our stable, I would like to thank all the fighters for accepting our challenges and being a part of our first night here in the FCBA. I would like to thank our staff and my fellow coaches for making this event possible with their hard work. I would like to thank our executive director Sharon for not only leading us through her management, but also joining us in the ring and leading the way for our victorious night. I would like to thank and congratulate our girls for their victories. And finally, I would like to thank you, fans, for your support and for making it an unforgettable night! Thank you! Tomorrow, we will go back to training, sparring, and analyzing the tapes to continue improving ourselves, but tonight, we celebrate!”