VICTORIA’S SECRET BODY SADDLE TOURNAMENT

PRELIMINARY ROUND

Originally posted by Simguy on 1/12/2006, 11:44 pm

(Figure some weeks after PPV—to allow Lilly and other combatants time to recover. This article from BLONDE! Magazine recaps the first round of the VS Body Saddle Challenge Tournament).

BLONDE! MAGAZINE ARTICLE—VICTORIA’S SECRET SADDLE-BOXING TOURNAMENT—PRELIM ROUND

--BY CHARLIZE THERON

When I first proposed the notion of a Victoria’s secret Saddle-boxing tournament to my management team, I felt the ideas was fresh and would find an audience. Fighting is sexy-hot—it has a racy side and I felt like the time was right to explore that—but I had no idea how big the concept would grow, or how hard the fighters would push me. In contest after contest, the best fighters ion boxing hurled themselves against me with more intensity and determination than I had ever before experienced. I broke many of these women—Cat bell fell before me; Stacy Keibler succumbed; Jennifer Connelly’s greatest wasn’t enough—on and on—but in the end, four of these warriors did get past me.

It was with tremendous anticipation that I took a ringside seat of honor to witness these four pair off. It is always extremely difficult for me to watch an even this—every instinct I have tells me to get in that ring and dominate—but I was also thrilled to see the women I had tested, test each other. I love going to the fights, and I consider myself a student of the game, so this was a real treat. I had my favourites coming in, but I couldn’t bring myself to place a bet on any of them. To me, it was a wide open field, and I didn’t want to get locked in on one of them, because I knew I might have to fight any of them.

EVANGELINE LILLY VS JENNIFER GARNER

Jennifer’s a good fighter, I’m just not ‘admitting” that, I’m stressing it as a fact: Jennifer garner is damn good at what she does. That said—she’s by far—by FAR—the most overrated fighter in boxing today. If you look at every fight we’ve had, you’ll see that I’m generally in control and dominating the action. Jennifer’s good enough to capitalize on sudden scores, and that’s what she’s done against me, but I don’t feel like she’s the boxing meat-grinder that Tractorpull has made her out to be. That’s the reason I want a concentrated series of fights against her, to expose this woman for what she really is. She looked good in her black bra and panties for this fight—not movie-star good—but good for a  MILF next door.

Lilly’s a great fighter. I share a gym with the best bantam fighter of her generation in Jaime Pressly, but Jaime wouldn’t have a prayer against me with gloves; Lilly beat me in a prize fight, and I’ll never forget it. Its true that when I fought Evangeline, we were still trying to get the Saddle-boxing concept over, and it was felt that I should make weight at 120 pounds to make the fight competitive. In retrospect, that was a mistake: Lilly deserved to fight ne at my best—it cheapens her victory to know that I was dead at the weight, and I hate that we took that away from her. Nevertheless, I knew that she could handle herself with Jennifer Garner, and potentially even defeat her. Evangeline wore a sporty forest green bikini top with pink surfer-chick bottoms. Scrumptious.

Jen came out pumping her jab. It was heavy, thudding—nothing exceptional Lilly wad forced to weave and be very careful coming in. Evangeline jabbed out of her crouch, trying to slip her way in: she was very tenacious about getting to jen’s chest, just the way she had been against me. Garner was willing to fight shoulder to shoulder, and the two traded good short-clipped clout toe-to-toe—but Jen was pretty smart about stepping out and resetting behind her jab, It was a good peppy start, but I thought Jennifer was in control after the first.

60 seconds into the second round, Garner was on the canvas, and I was on my feet with everyone else in the arena, screaming my fool head off. It was a crunching straight right lead/double left hook to jaw that dropped big J—and I could see the shock in her eyes as she picked her head up off the canvas. “Get ready for a long night, Jen.” I thought: Lilly had come to fight.

Lilly too the third fighting off Jen’s chest at the ropes, but in the fourth Garner regrouped and started popping that jab overtime. She also picked up her footwork a notch, stepping  to her left and turning Lilly. Covering the gap was getting expensive for Evangeline: Garner doesn’t panic, and the knockdown hadn’t rattled her. I’ll give her credit—Jennifer executed flawlessly through 6 rounds, pounding Lilly with the jab, steering her around and tying her up whenever Evangeline got insider.

But just as I thought Jen might have impo0sed her will, Lilly managed to win position and outpunch Garner in the 7^th, Evangeline was penetrating, positioning on Garner’s clavicle and outworking her to the body. Jen was effective in pulling back and walking Lilly into the hook—but Evangeline was willing to take that clout to get back on.

The action actually picked up in the 8^th and 9^th, with both girls reversing roles on occasion. Once in a while, Jennifer would shoulder-up on Lilly and clout her temples, bumping and slugging to good effect inside. Lilly would occasionally reach in the tummy jab and sidestep-pivot Jen, turning the bigger woman before edging in on her. It was marvelous, blistering, technical action, and I can’t help but feel partially responsible for putting these two fantastic fighters together.

GARNER/LILLY conc.

Originally posted by Simguy on 1/12/2008, 11:45 pm.

Lilly had been taking tremendous punishment over the last half of this fight, and in the tenth, I noticed that her lefts were looking sluggish. She was getting pushed off, and staggering slightly, and even though you couldn’t see it from her expression, I could tell she was fighting dizzy, Garner’s jab was busting Lilly up; Garner was walking Lilly into clouting hooks and uppercuts inside; Garner was shoving Evangeline back outside to  make her walk in all over again. It all added up, and down the stretch, Jen hooked Evangeline very hard in the belly—stepped back from her, then dropped a right hand to Lilly’s cheek as E blundered forward. Lilly stumbled to all fours, and I felt my heart sink a bit for her/ I knew Jen had won the fight right then. Lilly would shake off the KO and stumble to the finish line, but sure enough—the decision cake back for Jen. I was happy to see garner mount up on Lilly: wasn’t sure Jen had it in her, but she clearly was starting to get into the spirit of things as she rode Evangeline about the ring at the stagger. One of these days, Jen’s going to put a boot I some girl’s ribs—you watch!

Reposted by Archer 7/28/09.