BEFORE: Battle of the Movie Stars pits Rom-com queen Heigl against Action vixen Nichols in a high-profile affair. "It's great to be in a big fight, against a big name," Rachel grins. "I'm finally ready. A year or two ago, you couldn't have made this fight: now, Katherine and I are on a par in hollywood and it's almost MANDATORY that we square off. I don't think she can hold me back: I'm in better shape, I'm more versatile...Heigl's really going to struggle to keep pace with me!"
 

Katherine snorting at the notion that Rachel's any kind of threat, in OR out of the ring. "Look - painting a girl green, putting her in a bra and panties and giving her half a dozen lines doesn't make a girl a movie star," Heigl sneers. "Rachel's in big movies this summer, but she's not carrying them - you can't equate what she's done with how I'm revolutionizing the Romantic Comedy. That's one of the reasons I want to get Rachel beat: she needs to be slapped into shape! For her to think that she and I 'should' be fighting, tells you how distorted her thinking is. A long, punishing night in the ring is just what this girl needs to correct her perspective."

Heigl in baby blue lace push up with baby blue bikini bottoms sporting large white polka dots; white sneakers/white socks rolled down; white gloves; hair in ponytail with bangs framing face. Rachel in dark green lace push up with geometric print bikini bottoms in greens/yellows/mauves/blacks; black gloves; copper hair back in curly ponytail, ringlets framing face; black sneakers/white socks rolled down.

During R1: Nichols jabs Heigl's jugs to say hello - Rache with her right hand up as she's poking out lefts. Heigl stepping back, bringing mitts to brows, elbows in - then hopping forward: she wants to front on Rachel, walk her down, put beef on her. Nichols light-footed to her right, spritzing jabs jug and tummy, trying to fit Heigl for decisive right crosses up top. Kathy stepping in a thumping jab to Rachel's chest - locating her - then looking to hook off the jab or drop the right hand in. Pleasing stuff - big girls' jugs a-jumpin' as they hop and step around, each pumpin' out the leather at a healthy clip. Near the bell: RIGHT HAND RACHEL NICHOLS! Heigl's head spanked violently back - legs give way...she bounces to her buns in shock as steady Nichols' boxing paves the way to a stunning late right cross.

R2: Heigl back like a champ: she shakes off Rachel's power, gets after her hot. Stamping, ramrod jabs from Heigl - slamming to Rachel's chest, penetrating her guard...Nichols driven backwards, poked to ropes. Thunder to the body: Heigl squaring up, pounding right/left round punches to Rachel's ribcage, beating redhead breathless beneath her jugs. Nichols grimacing, shuddering under the shelling: she employs clinch-and-spin tactics to get herself off the ropes. Heigl persistent - always walking Rache down with the jab, then punishing her at ropes. Good bell-to-bell pressure see Kathy put those big-girl curves to good use.

R3: Rachel's right hand to the rescue, stymieing Heigl's pursuit midway through with pounding face-spank. Heigl covers up: Rachel goes body with hooks - digging in pairs to ribs and waist. Kathy chastised, grumpy: she's grimacing, sullen behind her raised guard, feeling the heft of her rival to the midsection. Nichols able to clean up - stepping Kathy around the ring with workmanlike lefts and rights pounding at beefy blonde breadbasket.

R4: Heigl keys off that thumping jab - driving a healthy right hand through to Rachel's heaving bosom, then threading the left arm under Rachel's right to secure her. Holding Rache close - pushing the left shoulder into her chest - Heigl plugs short, stuffing right hands into Rachel's stomach, bunching her up. Nichols forced to reply in kind - she slides her left arm in under Kathy's right, laying in blonde and digging at her righty. Ref letting the holding-and-hitting go so long as both girls are working in the clinch. Woman panting and grunting into one another's shoulders, just wandering around, absorbing and giving. Kathy proves a little brawnier - able to walk Nichols to ropes and push her down some: Heigl tucking in the extra right hands as a result of superior positioning.

R5: Similar slogging as girls spend a minute circling and sorting each other out jabs, then close with the left arm snaked in under the other's right to work in the clinch. Stuffing, tucking work to straining midsections and left hips - both girls jamming away righty in turns. Fight stumbles to ropes: girls struggle to reverse positions, taking turns rolling the other over into ropes. Beefy stuff - girls slicking up sweat, breathing hard, in constant contact with each other. Nichols a little more energetic, a little more determined to push Heigl into ropes: Rache banks the extra touches this round to take it.

R6: Heigl jabs Rachel into stupor early; cashes in stiff right hands throughout middle minute to pound Nichols wobbly-butt. Rachel staring, stumbling a bit: she's feeling Kathy's patient power here as blonde walks redhead down. Spirited final minute from Nichols denies Kathy satisfaction: Rache sliding back half a step just as Kathy's getting off, then digging at blonde midriff right/left as Heigl steps forward.

R7: Early fighting sees Rachel bury a huge right hand snug to Heigl's paunch: blonde bunches up stricken unable to punch. Left hook claps against Heigl's jaw; another one; short, blunt right hand pounds her face as Kathy's staring hurt and BLONDE GIRL DOWN! Chopping blows beat Kathy to her back...she's blinking, face pinched in shock; Rachel steaming past, glaring down all nostrils flaring. Heigl lurching up off her back, refusing to go out, but she's shabby goods at ropes. AFter 8, Rache wades in, knuckling Kathy's shoulders back to prop her, then it's Rachel on Kathy - BIG. Gorgeous, pumping rights and lefts take Katherine in her waist, doubling her forward with breathy gasps. Job of work, Rache: she stoops, reaches in under Kathy's arms to chest her upright, then redhead gets back to work. Slamming stuff: Nichols taking time to properly reduce Katherine's belly; working up-torso to bash at ribs and jugs; pounding away both biceps to reduce Katherine's guard. Bell: Heigl mouth open, dragging in gasping breaths; eyes bleak; blonde girl just now realizing she's taking loads of what she usually dishes as Nichols stalks away.

R8: Bitter fighting near the Krusher corner - Heigl fighting with back close to, but not on, the ropes. Girls in close quarters - heads and raised guard bumping: each just working short, heavy combinations, cuffing the gut to set up short-strokes up top. Grueling, bludgeoning stuff - girls just dug in, not moving around much - leather spanking out loud from beefy bodies in tit-for-tat patterns. Down the stretch, Nichols stays busy as Heigl covers up, stops punches. Rachel cuffing hooks in behind Heigl's right elbow, then ear - then jerking the short right uppercut to part Kathy's mitts. Bell: Nichols turning away brisk, business like; Kathy grimacing, taking two steps to her right and slumping down on her stool.

R9,10: Rachel steps to Kathy, attacking Heigl in or near the Krusher corner: redhead stepping up the pressure to give blonde 6 of the worst minutes of her life. Nothing fancy; Rachel simply squaring up as girls lean in with heads and raised guard, then redhead outworks blonde bell to bell. Heigl really busting up from Rachel's snug little uppercuts inside; blonde grunting, cringing as redhead cuffs, digs and swats at the body. Rache SO methodical, working up and down, side to side, beating all things Kathy to keep her stunned and hurting. Heigl's curvy legs prove inhumanly stable: time and again, Rachel rings Kathy up body/body/head, knocking Heigl into ropes, but unable to drop big blonde. Hard to watch: Heigl just stooping forward behind her mitts - taking it in her body, on her arms. Unopposed, Rachel's jerking in snug little left uppercuts, pumping at Kathy's breasts, then dipping down to hook her behind the elbow. All Nichols, all the time: she hammers Kathy without mercy or let up, to the final bell. Comes back UD10, Rachel Nichols.

After: BEAMING redhead just grinning, hugging everything in sight: huge win for her catapults Nichols into the limelight. "It's SUCH a huge step for me," Rachel bleats. "Girls don't step to Kathy Heigl and beat her down - Taylor Cole couldn't do it, for instance - so getting her done like this is just such a thrill for me. She was all used up at the end - too stubborn to quit - but there was nothing left. I just worked her over and kept her hurt 'cause I was pretty sure she wasn't gonna go out." Heigl battered, sullen, but in days to follow she's quoted in BLONDE! Magazine as saying: "That was Rachel's moment - her time in the sun. She doesn't know it, but it's already over for her. I won't rest until she's back where she belongs - fighting for table-scraps with the other extras."