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Despite the Merseyside model having more fights on her resume, she can't be labelled as a clear favorite, in fact most of the experts see this bout as the closest on paper of all the nine undercards tonight. Fight is scheduled for ten rounds in the welterweight division.
Alex Curran wearing a white and red schemed bikini and black gloves. Jessie J wearing a black one-piece swimsuit and red gloves.
Round 1:
Jessie with an aggressive charge, peppers the model's head from mid-distance much to the blonde's surprise. Jessie's very quick on her feet, repeatedly closes on the blonde rival and keeps her buried under an early series of jabs. Alex tries to break through this storm, but can't match the singer's intensity and has to jump away to the ropes. Jessie leaps after her, continues to throw more jabs to the face and Curran ducks and weaves in frustration, unable to stop the momentum. It's a very lively start especially considering the welterweight division which usually tends to be a slow starter. Jessie obviously ignites a lot of speed and keeps the blonde struggling along the ropes until the bell.
Round 2:
Brunette causes more trouble with her speed across the ring, she easily leaps to the blonde model and slaps her in the ribs a couple of times before jumping away and smiling back at Curran's response which only cuts through the air with no effect whatsoever. Alex tries to move in, but Jessie keeps her at distance, and countering with another quick leap and Curran's ribs are bashed again! More dancing in the ring from the singer, Alex barely grazes her in the arms, her longer reach proves worthless so far. Jessie ends the round with a good combination to the head and the blonde just takes this in, completely stunned by Jessie's lively demeanour.
Round 3:
Slow circles from Alex, is she teasing the brunette into a kamikaze move already? Jessie has none of that, leaps and lands a couple of jabs to the stomach before jumping away and Alex is rooted to the spot, her eyes getting smaller as she's got that scowling look of utter disgust. Jessie comes in again and she makes Alex looks sluggish, peppers her in the ribs, but the model lands a left hook in the chest, the singer was slow in retreating for once but a follow up combination to the head misses by a mile, Jessie was long out of Alex's reach. Curran comes forward but makes little impression on the brunette who bunny hops around the ropes and fakes a few punches herself, but easily prevents the blonde from closing the distance. Frustrated shout from the Merseyside girl at the bell and who can blame her?
Round 4:
Jessie with a quick jabbing sequence inside the opening seconds, but Alex covers her midsection and lands a crisp uppercut to the jaw, testing the singer's guard for the first time and the test has failed. Jessie's head was snapped backwards, but she jumps away as Alex nearly stumbles flat on her face as she was eager to deliver a follow-up. Jessie tries to take advantage of Curran's lost footing and nails her in the head, bending forwards but a desperate lunge from the blonde enables her to clich and push Jessie to the ropes. Brunette catches her in the ribcage with a couple of low jabs but Alex responds with a hook to the head, that slides onto the ear. Jessie moans in clinch and Alex slaps her from the right in the ribs, chaotic struggle takes place, Alex leans on her rival, almost pushing the brunette out of the ring alltogether. Ref steps in and separates them and Jessie's back to her dance routine along the ropes, Alex ducks and weaves but cannot reach her again and resigns into moving away herself.
Round 5:
Alex burst out of her stool and immediately nails the brunette with a big right hook; then follows up with a jab to the guts from the left and Jessie wobbles on her feet. Curran piles on with the aggression, heavy blows to the midsection throw the singer to the ropes but she bounces into the clear and avoids another flying hook from the blonde. Alex much more agile though, jumps straight after the stunned rival and lands more jabs to the head, Jessie almost stumbles over as she tries to weather the storm and a big hook to the guts catches her in the middle of the ring. She's rooted to the spot, gasping for air and Alex whacks her with a left hook, black hair fly everywhere and another low jab to the stomach and down goes Jessie J flat on her back!!! Totally against the run of play, Jessie gets counted to six before getting up, that knockdown came literally out of nowhere, but she's OK to continue with ease. Garnet Gunners' corner urges the singer to work her footwork again, but Alex jabs her from both flanks and Jessie's struggling to engage in any sort of exchange, circles away, jumps to the side and desperately tries to avoid more damage. Curran with mean intentions, switches up a gear, jabs ferociously and traps the brunette along the ropes and unloads another attack. But there's the bell and Jessie catches a lucky break after a very poor round.
Round 6:
Curran with another aggressive approach, but Jessie has learned her lessons and bides her time along the ropes. Alex tries to jab her in the face, misses a couple of attempts and gets locked into a clinch as Jessie looks to break her guard as both girls struggle for supremacy. Ref separates them and Alex lands a good hook to the head, but Jessie drives forward with a low combination to the stomach and the blonde has to cover up. She succeeds but the singer whacks her in the jaw with a sharp uppercut and follow up with a jabbing sequence to the breasts. Alex jumps away and avoids another hook as Jessie leaps up to her and catches in the midsection with low jabs. Wild hook from Curran misses the brunette's head and more chaotic jabs from Jessie end up doing likewise. Girls quickly lose their breath after those frantic efforts and circle around, still looking to tame each other but to no real effect for remainder of the round.
Round 7:
Alex's face is flashing red colours, she looks in a slighly worse shape then Jessie who breaths heavily but keeps that nsty spark in her eye. No time to wonder much about the stamina limits as Jessie jumps up to her Merseyside rival and bangs her in the face with a solid straight jab. Alex's guard is broken and she gets nailed straight in the face!!! Jessie follows up, with crisp low hooks to the ribs and that makes Curran moan in pain as she's stranded in the middle of the ring, just absorbing some heavy punishment. Jessie doesn't have that killer strenght behind most of her shots, but repeated pounding takes it's toll on the blonde model who covers up and sinks further down on her knees. Jessie's run ouf of steam though and after being unable to send Curran down on the canvas, she falls into a clinch as both girls struggle for air. Pushing and shoving goes on until Alex backs Jessie to the ropes and allthough the brunette whacks her ribs few more times, the blonde model shows no signs of letting go!! Blatant pulling from Alex and the ref finally shoves her away. Jessie unleashes a couple of single punches, but she's feeling it too and Alex matches her across the ring, the speed advantage seems to have evaporated for the Gunners' girl.
Round 8:
The tempo has dropped significantly as we enter the eight round. Alex circles around Jessie who tries to square up to her, but can't catch her in time and only grazes her arms with weak jabs. Curran hides behind her guard and fakes a few punches but merely stretches her elbows rather then causes a serious threat. Jessie bunny hops around her and lands more shots, but neither of them catch the blonde in the face and the judges won't be much impressed by them either. Another clinch follows and the ref shoves Alex to the ropes where she remains for few seconds, teasing Jessie into coming forward. Indeed she comes, throwing a big hook to the face, but there's a deke to the left and a countering hook from Curran which catches the brunette in the ribs. Jessie moans in pain and takes another hook in the ear before literally throwing herself onto Alex and backing her to the ropes. Curran drags her low and Jessie almost ends up on her knees as the ref steps in again. Finally the bell sounds and both women walk slowly into their corners.
Round 9:
The will to dominate their opponent is still there from both girls, but the physical aspects take over. Alex has gone the distance twice before but there were some questions of her preparations for this fight since her husband, Liverpool FC living legend Steven Gerrard was injured lately and kept Alex out of the gym and into the family bedroom instead. Jessie's pushing her limits in only her second fight and now she looks painfully slow, breathing heavily and out comes Curran lacing her in the nose seconds into the ninth. Solid follow up catches the brunette in the ribs and Jessie can only look for a clinch but before she gets there, Alex nails her in the chest and throws onto the ropes again. Small leap and Alex throws chaotic blows from both sides as Jessie leans on the ropes. Two shots to the guts and one to the nose make her wince in pain but the Merseyside blonde misses a straight jab to the jaw as it skims off the brunette's guard and finally Jessie clinches, trying to lace her rival in the back. Alex just leans on her, spins her to the corner and pins against the corner post. Ref shakes his head and warnes Jessie to let go off the clinch!!! She shouts at him over Alex's shoulder, but then gets laced in the ribs again and sinks on her knees, almost going down on her backside. No way she's got anything left in the tank but Alex is also struggling and the stalemate is ended by the bell and neither girl believes she's got this one in the bag.
Round 10:
Jessie just remains glued to the ropes, she's gassed out of her senses. Alex moves on her slowly but there's reaction from the brunette. More slaps from the model now, single punches cause more harm, but she's also nowhere near top fitness and there's little strenght behind those shots. Jessie tries to respond with single jabs and allthough there's no footwork to speak of from both girls, the crowd still look for a late knockout. Alex targets one big punch to send her rival crashing down, but hesitates too long and the chance goes begging as Jessie nails her in the ribs and sidesteps to the corner. She follows her and throws more single jabs but they crash off the brunette's leather as Jessie waits for the final bell. Still more fruitless jabs from Curran and she's got nothing left as well, Jessie's guard withstands those attacks and the girls clinch until the bell much to the crowd's displeasure. Ref doesn't even bother to separate them as Alex jabs the aching Jessie in the ribs in the dying moments. There's the bell and Jessie slides down in the corner, with her eyes closes. Give her some oxygen now! Alex's face is almost purple with exhaustion and she walks back to her corner very slowly, too much sleepless night with Steve?
After ten rounds of boxing we go to the scorecards. It's an unanimous decision on all three cards 97-97!!! The fight ends in a DRAW!!!
Post-fight:
Muted response from both girls after the verdict, neither of them was convinced of winning immediately after the fight, but now they're both disappointed after coming up just short of success. Alex's knockdown wasn't enough to give her the edge as she found herself with too much work to do after a very poor start and Jessie looks somewhat relieved that a very poor ending didn't cost her a late KO instead. Her physical fitness was badly exposed in the closing stages and if Alex spend more time in the gym rather then family bedroom, then she might have - and really should have - punished that obvious weakness.
Final result: Alex Curran vs Jessie J (Draw).
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