Katy Perry vs. Tricia Helfer

Front Street Stable vs HMK Productions
(Lightweight Title)
(Words: Front Street / Results: Lookout!)

BEFORE:

A solid amount of respect on both sides in the prefight, as there's no personal animosity here. Helfer, most likely the best pure boxer in the FCBA north of 120, and maybe the best, period, cool as usual. "Katy's a complete fighter now, no question about it," she says with a nod. "She's in my class. No question about that, either. But, I'm better. I'll prove it. And I'll walk out of here with the belts."

"I can't wait to test myself against Tricia," Katy says with a smile. "She's the kind of girl people have always said I couldn't beat. 'Good boxers are poison for Perry'. That's been the stock line. Well, they don't get any better than Tricia, and, when I beat her, the stock line is going to have to change.

ROUND ONE:

Tricia using her reach advantage early. She's three inches taller than Perry and wants to bring that to bear with the long left jab. Helfer uses it to locate and create space, the goal being to keep the brunette out on the end of her punches. Perry, however, is having none. The athletic singer keeps the hands high and the head moving. She bobs and weaves, works forward into range, and makes with the thumping leather. Helfer's more than willing to fire back when Katy initiates heavy exchanges, but these terms are more to the champion's liking than the challenger's. Tricia's plenty sturdy, of course. She holds her ground with no problem. And she scores plenty. But, Katy scores more. Perry's able to put punches together, work body and head, and get a good percentage of shot on target. She gets more and more comfortable as the round goes on, slowing pulling away from Tricia to claim the first and the 10-9 lead.

ROUND TWO:

More Perry. Katy's solved Helfer's defenses in record time and is taking full advantage of the gaps, as small as they may be. The champion's quick feet and athleticism are the difference. She can work past Tricia's long poke and get inside her guard, and get to work with a minimum of fuss, and that's exactly what she does. Katy gets both hands home and with plenty on the punches. She works mostly upstairs again, but she begins banging a little more body in the second, investing in the older woman's frame, looking to reduce it if at all possible. Helfer's in the round, mind. She scores plenty with her skill and accuracy. If there's an opening, she puts leather through it. But, again, these are Perry's terms and the champ isn't going to be beaten on them. She's doing her thing from bell to bell, and, when the second officially enters the books, Katy's extended her lead to 20-18.

ROUND THREE:

Aaaannnd, cue the bewitching. All of a sudden, things change, and quickly. Helfer begins picking Perry off as the champion tries to work forward. Instead of working past Tricia's guard, Katy's now being stopped by it, left outside and vulnerable to Helfer's follow ups. Perhaps its a bit of ring rust coming off Tricia, or, perhaps it's a slight adjustment made by the former champion, but, whatever it is, the result is an absolute sea change in the fight. Katy remains game. She keeps working hard and moving the feet, but she can't get to where she wants to be. Instead, she constantly ends up exactly where Tricia wants her, where the blonde can square her, put punches together, and pile up points. By the end of the round, her forward momentum completely gone, Perry's getting picked up in a big way and is actually wobbled by a hard right hand in the final seconds. When the bell rings, Helfer's won the round wide and cut Katy's lead to 29-28.
       
ROUND FOUR:

The bewitching continues. It's all come together for Helfer and it's become clear that the issue in the first two rounds wasn't rust, but simply time, time to adjust to Perry's style, quickness, and strength. And those adjustments have been made. And Tricia is now rolling. Everything is working. The accurate jab, the quick, snake-like right hand follows, and the defense. Perry can't get any leather home. She's short, she's late, she's even early. What she isn't is on target. Tricia, however, is, with both hands, in combination, repeatedly. She's piling up points, picking off and frustrating Perry...and then she ROCKS her with a quick right hand! Perry stumbles and then is DROPPED TO HER KNEES by a short left hook! Perry's on all fours as the count continues, but manages to get back to her feet at eight. Tricia goes to work immediately, and gets some serious clean up on in the remaining minute of the round. When it ends, Katy's survived, but Tricia now leads 38-37.

ROUND FIVE:
 
Tricia right back to work. Perry's legs are back, but it doesn't matter. Helfer's locked in and giving the champion a pasting. This is the fight you'd have seen had these two gotten in the ring a couple of years ago, when Katy was all about brawling and could be picked apart by a good boxer. But, this isn't that Katy. This is the Katy who's developed into an excellent boxer, the Katy who ended Strahovski's run...and it doesn't matter. Because, Tricia's casting spells as well as she ever has. She has Katy off balance, wrong footed, swinging at air, taking punches she never sees coming. It's beautiful to behold, unless you're in the Front Street corner. Then, it turns ugly. It's one punch. But, it only takes one. A straight right. Squared up. Head snapped back. And DOWN GOES HELFER! Blown to her back. Gobsmacked. Again there's a count. And, again, it's beaten. Helfer struggles to her feet, also at eight. On comes Katy. And the heavy leather comes out of storage. Katy gets her own clean up on in the final 30 seconds. Tricia takes the licking and keeps on ticking, however. She's still on her feet when the fifth ends, but Perry's leapfrogged back into the lead 47-46.

ROUND SIX:

Things get interesting right away. Perry very aggressive off the bell, testing Helfer's 40-year-old legs. But, this is Tricia Helfer. Who's in incredible shape. And her legs are juussst fine, thank you. She picks up Perry and begins peppering her with solid shot. Katy adjusts. She gets the guard up. And changes levels. A quarter crouch. Mitts at ears. bobbing the head. She's giving Tricia tiny windows of space and time, making Helfer be as fine as she's ever been to get leather on target, picking off her punches, dodging them, slipping inside her guard and working that body. Perry wants to invest heavily, scooping up all available shares. It ain't pretty. But, it's effective. She crowds Tricia, muscles her with the shoulders, roughs her up, backs her up. Helfer holds her own, even on those terms, stopping the champion's forward momentum with some hard shots, but it's Perry who, narrowly, claims the points and increases her lead to 57-55.

ROUND SEVEN:

Remember way back, oh, five minutes ago, when this was beautiful? Those were the...um...minutes. Because "beautiful" would not be the first or the millionth word to come to mind to describe round seven. Brutal? Check. Vicious? Absolutely. Ferocious? No question. But, beautiful? Not hardly. Because, what round seven becomes is round six writ large. Perry's still got the mitts at the ears. She's still crouching and moving head and shoulders, still working forward to crowd the rangier Tricia, still intent on putting the physical to the blonde. And, while Helfer isn't exactly able to prevent Katy from getting those terms, what she can do is make her pay a pretty price for enforcing them. And, that's exactly what Helfer does. For every hook Perry plants to her body, Helfer smites the brunette with a hard, quick shot to the head. For every good right Katy lands upstairs, Tricia puts one in Katy's midsection. And, for every step Tricia is backed up by a Perry punch, Helfer regains a step via a hard shot of her own. Both women get their proverbial bells rung, and more than once. Neither, however, is willing to back up or back down. It's about imposing will now, and refusal to allow will to be imposed. And, when, after three remorseless minutes of back and forth barbarity, the bell finally rings, nothing has been imposed on anyone, and not a sliver of ground has been gained or lost. Something, though, has been gained somewhere, and that's on the scorecards, where the challenger, having narrowly pulled out the seventh, has cut the champion's lead to 66-65.

ROUND EIGHT:

This can't continue for three more rounds, nine more minutes, can it? It's carnage. One would call it mindless, except  that it's anything but. Both women have, consciously, committed to do what they're doing, Perry to counteract Helfer's awesome boxing skills and Tricia to hold Perry at bay and not allow the champion to force her to the defensive and claim the initiative. So, mindless it isn't. It's calculated. And measured. There's no wild bombing going on here. Each punch is set up, and it has to be, because both fighters are showing excellent defensive skills despite the close quarters and relatively high work rates. Punches are blocked, dodged, ducked, deflected, rolled with. But, with so much shell flying, plenty of it connects. Yet both fighters ship it and keep on firing. Until Helfer backs Perry up with a nasty right hook. Tricia then steps forward into a follow up left. Which never lands. Katy's right hand counter is already on its way. It sails over Helfer's advancing left and explodes on the blonde's chin. Tricia crumples to the mat, face down, at Katy's feet. Perry doesn't bounce to a neutral corner. She doesn't walk. She trudges. But she gets there, and the count begins. Tricia eventually pushes up to her hands and right hip, but that's as far as she can get. The mind is willing, but the legs won't work. The count passes the blonde by, and your winner by KO8 and still lightweight champion is Katy Perry!

AFTER:
 
Helfer shoves away the helping hands from her corner. She gets the legs working, gets to her feet under her own power, and exchanges a respectful hug with Perry, a hug that, more than anything that's happened in her career to this point,  demonstrates that Katy Perry has officially arrived in the club. And the champion's post-fight comments clearly show how much she appreciated that acknowledgment. "She's the best boxer I've ever been in against," says the girl who's beaten Theron and Strahovski. "She can do things no one else can do. I mean, I'm pretty quick and I can move, but she gets going and you aren't quick enough and you can't move fast enough. Everything you do is wrong and every move you make gets you hit in the face. I had to get away from that and just try to muscle her. It was a risk, because she can hit, but it was one I had to take. It was that or get picked apart, because she is that good."