Berenice Marlohe's comments about Malika Menard spending too much time in the Foxfire Atlantic VIP suites over the past twelve months were spot on however much to most of the lightweight roster's dismay, the former Miss France has accepted the recent inactivity damages her otherwise high-profile prospects and made the decision to finally grace the BBU rings again. Her first opponent after the long hiatus is a tough one though, the Canadian blonde Alaina Huffman who was also once touted as future champion before couple of big losses to Jessica Schwarz and Krystal Forscutt dwarfed her invincible status.

This is also a rematch for the January 2012 clash where both were still undefeated and about to take over the BBU by storm. Back then Malika Menard knocked out the blonde in round eight and now looks to establish the superiority over her once and for all even though Huffman breaths nothing but revenge in pre-fight interview with Charlie Webster to the crowd's visible delight. It's always good to witness couple of hard-hitting ladies going at it instead of random journeywomen andt there's no doubt both Menard and Huffman are pure class in the ring!

Malika Menard wearing a light blue one-piece swimsuit and black gloves. Alaina Huffman wearing a black basque top, white knickers and red gloves.

Round 1:
Huffman storms out of the corner, jabs at the brunette's body and prevents any slow start to this fight the French pageant was allegedly hoping for; strong leather bounces around the elbows before Malika finds her composure and locks the low guard but Alaina switches high and clips her jaw, follows up over the top and keeps pushing the brunette on the back foot. Menacing hooks swing around Menard's head before she can mount a comeback but only grazes the blonde's rack with a mostly wayward effort; Huffman spikes her on the eye late on instead and whips more shots on the head as Malika's forced to cover up to prevent further assault but the blonde still sends her shots with great intensity and looks annoyed she couldn't really hurt her opponent in more impressive fashion.

Round 2:
Another charge from Huffman who's really keen to avenge that painful defeat from almost two years ago and she buries Menard under a barrage of leather early in the second again, low jabbing bounces off the brunette's midriff and staggers her in the middle of the ring; Alaina goes for the uppercuts and slices the arms as the French pageant still looks suspiciously cumbersome and just allows the Canadian to make her moves; Huffman peppers the midsection down the stretch, fails to trap Malika on the ropes though and looks annoyed again as she gets clinched in the final minute with Menard showing next to nothing from her impressive past, seemingly unable to shrug the ring rustiness yet and losing another round in comprehensive fashion with Alaina throwing triple the leather and hardly getting tagged herself instead.

Round 3:
One-way traffic continues, the Foxfire mansion leisure is over but really hurts Menard's performance as Huffman snaps her head back with immediate striking over the top; she drops the midriff assault and swings upstairs, takes Malika for a quick roundabout avoidance trip but still nails her between the mitts, crashes off the nose with a left hook approach, follows up with a right on the temple and sags the brunette on her knees, swings another hook form the other side but misses and Menard whacks her on the chest instead, leans on the blonde and rips into her guts, catches the ribcage with a jabbing series and makes Alaina gasp for air but the Canadian eventually jumps away to safety and prevents more damage; Menard reaches after her and tries to follow up but can't quite match the blonde's footwork and eats a sharp left hook over the top couple of seconds before the bell with Huffman determined to land the final punch and piercing the brunette with a steely look, Malika adjusts her hair instead and keeps it strictly business but she's been put to shade by the blonde's aggressive stance so far tonight.

Round 4:
Malika still on the back foot, seemingly waiting for the Canadian to wear herself out according to the pundits as her laid-back approach does look a bit pre-planned by now; Huffman sends more low jabs on the tummy to keep the pressure up but bounces off the forearms with her uppercut efforts and eats a big hook on the temple instead as Menard fights from behind the guard and dekes to the side in avoidance with Alaina chasing her down but settling into a mid-range leather exchange. Malika doesn't yield an inch and answers the slugging in the middle of the ring, goes around the elbows herself and cracks a couple of heavy shots around the liver area, weaves back and drops her arms to tease the blonde even more and finally makes her look sluggish as Huffman struggles to properly nail her for remainder of the round and the ammount of leather doesn't cut it anymore especially when the brunette flicks an overhand hook on the nose and signs off the round with a big jab on the temple that wobbles the Canadian right at the bell.

Round 5:
Huffman's visibly annoyed by that previous round but keeps missing her shots and fails to match the pageant's footwork, falls into a jabbing series in close range as Malika jumped at her and bounced off the chest to wobble her to the side, big left hook lands on the blonde's temple and staggers her on the spot as Menard whips rack punishing jabs thereafter, drills the blonde's chest for few seconds before shoving her further away; Alaina covers up as she loses the footwork for good and soaks up a spirited jabbing combo; the guard holds up for a while but she retreats back towards the ropes and Malika switches low, peppers the liver area again and finally opens up in full flow, buries the Canadian under a barrage of leather and slices the mitts repeatedly in the final minute, snaps the head back as Huffman starts to moan in discomfort; Cardiff Arena has waited a long time for the pageant's charge like that and they cheer her on as she cracks another big hook on the temple with Alaina bending forward and seeking a clinch to no avail; Menard finds another uppercut though and sends her onto the ropes again as the ref must charge in at the bell to haul a rampant brunette off her opponent and it's Malika's turn to give the blonde a proper death stare but Huffman for all her troubles in this round doesn't seem so affected mentally which bodes well for remainder of the fight.

Round 6:
Malika flips the switch and charges at her rival, beats the blonde for an overhand hook on the jaw and staggers her with further jabs on the mouth as Alaina's guard crumbles and forces her to seek cover along the ropes. She's too slow for the brunette though who keeps firing away and traps Huffman against the turnbuckle, shifts low and targets the navel as Alaina bends and weaves on her feet but can't escape from the striking zone, opens up and tries to bash her way back into this one but eats more leather on the mouth instead as Menard slices her mitts with ease now and pushes butt-in-ropes after striking her away from the turnbuckle and looking for terminal damage. Huffman seeks a clinch, gets cross-hooked on the face again and just swamps against the ropes; Malika drops the tempo slightly in the final minute, tries to set up a leathal blow but still keeps her foe in turtle-like defence and just soaking up punishment, more jabs bounce off the blonde's nose and leave a dark patch on the ridge, quick left hook nails the aching Canadian on the eye just as she raised her head and it's non-stop onslaught from the French pageant in the final few seconds, she pierces the blonde's stomach to leave her moaning at the bell and the Cardiff Arena roars in support as they've seen a clinical display from the brunette which might have turned the tables on this bout for good.

Round 7:
Alaina's visibly hurting after that relentless barrage from the previous round but the Menard comeback continues as she gives the actress no respite whatsoever and bashes at her tummy to dominate the close range, flicks couple of uppercuts on the jugs but misses a put away hook on the nose as Huffman wobbled away into safety by accident and caught the brunette cold. Malika's quick to adjust and leaps at her but bumps against the forearms and a seemingly wayward hook blasts her on the jaw to send trembling to the side! Huffman's biggest punch since the early rounds came out of the blue but the blonde just doesn't have the fresh breath in her lungs to make the most of it, she circles away rather than go after the pageant who answers in similar fashion and tries to shrug that haymaker off. Pace settles down for a change but Malika eventually jumps into another charge in the final minute, lacks rhythm and precision though and gets trapped in a solid clinch, decides to see out the round in low-key fashion with Huffman pleased by that situation as well and still looking to recover her breath.

Round 8:
Fitness preparation comes to the fore in the late stages of the bout and while Alaina shows more agility after couple of very difficult rounds, she still looks inferior to the French pageant who sends a flurry of shots on the head not only to impress the judges but also to force the blonde into more defensive circles and subsequent energy loss. Perhaps Malika wasn't just leisuring to the extreme at the Foxfire Mansion as she splits the Canadian's mitts on the minute mark and cracks a half-uppercut on the jaw, snaps the head back and reels her towards the ropes, leaps into Huffman with rack mauling jabs and uppercuts her jaw again; Alaina squeals in pain as she wobbles badly and would have landed flat on her back but for the ropes coming to her rescue, she leaps to the side just in time as Malika was flying with a haymaker of her own but only skimmed off the shoulder instead and frantic jabbing to the ribs slows the brunette down with Alaina now yelping in exhaustion but still determined to halt her opponent's charge, a good series to the ribcage forces the French girl back, overhand left hook grazes the hairline and Huffman pours in with a sudden hooking combo, clips the jugs and finds the chin again, snaps Menard's head back to dominate the final minute but the rounds remains inconclusive to most of the pundits.

Round 9:
Huffman still believes she has a chance to knock the brunette out despite a somewhat fortunate end to the previous round; finds more confidence and leaps into an all-or-nothing leather barrage in the middle of the ring with Menard clearly surprised by this tactics as she had the blonde trembling beyond the limit at one point but now eats vicious jabs on the ribcage and as she tries to slice her mitts again, gets pierced on the liver area and finally feels the heat again, staggers to the side and loses her overhand ideas, must cover up and clinch with Alaina raging... more hooks on the liver cause the brunette to moan and even though she clinches the blonde, gets shoved into the ropes; Huffman almost screaming in her efforts, leans on the French girl but works on the tummy anyway, ref separates them as Malika gave him an angry look despite being the culprit of the clinch, overhand hook swings and misses as Alaina cracks a right hand on the jaw, keeps the brunette trapped on the ropes and pours in with more jabbing, finds the temple and bends a suddenly aching Menard to the side, slices her arms apart and pounds away at the rack, sinks the wincing pageant on her knees and has to be dragged away by the referee at the bell as the fight goes down to the wire and it's actually still anyone's for the taking; Huffman just refuses to let go here in Cardiff!

Round 10:
Nobody's certain of the scorecards anymore with Huffman finding the second breath almost out of nowhere and now dwarfing Menard's physical shape but perhaps even the mental one as well according to Charlie Webster and she wins initial approach by tagging Malika's jugs and shattering the arms apart on repeated basis. Menard's very tired all of the sudden and has no answer for the blonde's relentless body assault in the first minute, tries to clinch her but endured more rack maulling and just freezes in the middle of the ring and covers up as Alaina whacks her over the top and looks for a late KO. Hammer and tongs against the pageant's flesh but Malika just won't cut her no ice and stays upright which finally bursts the blonde's tank as she reverts into single striking around the elbows. Exceptional punch resistance on display, both girls suffered badly at various times but avoided knockdowns and delivered what everyone in the Cardiff crowd hoped for, a gruesome contest that has the Arena on their feet in the last minute as Malika finds some uppercuts to push the blonde away. They've finally accepted the looming scorecards in the dying seconds though, Alaina tries to close the French girl down one more time but has nothing left in her lungs anymore and just stares at her waiting for the bell, mutual respect shown afterwards with both vixens giving each other a lenghty hug and this will go down to the scorecards and neither camp looks particulary confident of victory. What a coin-flipper!

After ten rounds of boxing we go to the scorecards... And we have a SPLIT decision... Judges score the bout 98-95 for Alaina Huffman... 98-95 for Malika Menard... and 98-96 for your winner... ALAINA HUFFMAN!!!!

AFTER: Blonde shakes her fist in delight but just can't celebrate this extremely hard-fought success in more lavish style and once again offers the French pageant a lenghty hug, she raises Malika's hand in the air and acknowledges her performance and that's really rare to see in the British boxing rings. The mutual respect between these two continues but in wake of Huffman's successful revenge, there are immediate talks of a third and deciding clash somewhere in the near future.

Meanwhile the camera switches to Berenice Marlohe in the crowd and she looks anything but pleased. Despite losing to Huffman, her fellow compatriot still looked fairly impressive in the ring especially after she decided to switch into higher gear following a slow start. Suddenly Marlohe's punchout of Micaela Schaefer isn't the talk of the town anymore as the Huffman/Menard clash threatens to overshadow even the upcoming title bout between Miranda Kerr and Rochelle Humes. And that really makes the Bond girl upset. "I will get her one way or another", she hoofs back to Charlie Webster but the BBU TV reporter confrims Malika wins the bragging rights on the night. "That must hurt Berenice to the bone; Malika loses on her return but still steals all the headlines. I know we're up for one huge grudge bout once these two French vixens collide. And that's a great news for all the BBU fans around the world!"

Final result: Alaina Huffman def. Malika Menard - Split Decision.