Serena Light vs Claire O'Doherty

As the countdown began, Serena backed away, cluctching her stomach. The blows were much harder than she had imagined, and she nearly got knocked down again. Even as the ref was counting, she barely managed to keep standing, if anything her knees were shaking badly, signalling that just a second ago, she had come real close to being knocked down by Claire.

As the ref started counting down, she continued to hold her stomach, hoping to numb the pain a bit. She needed to focus on the match knowing that it wasn't enough to keep Claire down. Still she could only pray and hope that when Claire gets up again, she would be exhausted or so, because she was at the moment.

Clare got to her feet at six. She wasn't fatigued, but she was getting beaten up. She decided to go back to the drawing board, the smaller girl was the better brawler, that much had been made painfully obvious. Her pride couldn't afford her another knock down, she had to admit that she went into this fight a bit over-confident. Not that she doubted Serena in any way, but Clare had maintained a perfect record, and a loss this soon in her pro career would be devastating.

Now on her feet, Clare was put back in her corner, asked if she would like to continue. Her eyes remained on Serena, and without hesitation she nodded. She automatically began sizing up her opponent once again, the size advantage she did have wasn't all that large, they were equal in speed, strength and she might have even been outclassed in skill. That made things interesting, as Clare never completely boxed by the book, she was an unorthodox fighter. She would move to meet Serena without doing much, not even a full guard, it was time to get the more tired girl to punch herself out. She would crowd Serena, but maintain enough dodging room.

Serena managed to get over the pain somehwat during the time Clare was down. It was a good thing and somewhat needed. She hadn't expected Clare to actually be such a good fighter or so, thankfully she hadn't understimated her, it gave her the advantage.

She wasn't in the least bit surprise that Clare was backed on her feet. She too resumed her stance, and came closer. She could tell that Clare was hoping for something, but she wouldn't do that, she circled around Clare, maintaing dodging room. She was tired, so she couldn't recklessly attack. She wasn't sure if she could take another set of power pack punches like earlier.

Clare got testy, the minute Serena decided to be equally as defensive. She saw through the ruse. The more this fight dragged on. the more she just wanted to take a risk. To run off her fighters instinct and just see who naturally fought better. That was a a big risk to take though, Serena's attributes were solid, her punches stung, they came quick and she knew where to throw them. Then there was her dreaded defense. Clare decided to throw two right jabs, testing the defenses, and getting her guard high, while she used her powerful left to once again rip against Serena's rib and cause her pain to re-intensify.

Serena immediately raised her guard up, attempting to block Clare's powerful left which she did. She couldn't allow herself to take more hits like that, or it would be over quickly. She didn't dare to risk a counter attack not yet. Instead, she advanced forth with both hands guarding her face as she suddenly attempted to shove Clare back towards the ropes. Attacking now in her condition was dangerous, it would be best to hold back and await an opportunity.

Serena didn't seem eager to take any more punches. That was a confidence booster. She was playing cautious, but what she didn't realize was that she could still make a mistake, just like on offense, only she wouldn't have done any damage to Clare. That was fine by the Irish girl of course. The less beaten up the better. Clare saw her wanting to shove Clare back, get some distance. Clare didn't take kindly to it, She shoved her weight forward at Serena so that she could repel the force and stay on her. The minute she was sure she could stay close, she feigned a straight to the stomach, hoping to coax her guard low and then let in to Serena with her lethal left hook, hoing she could render her vulnerable and punish her some more.

Clearly Clare didn't kindly to her shoving her back, and returned by shoving her own weight forward. As she came closer, she saw Clare shoot a straight at her stomach, she quickly ducked low hoping to guard it, but as she did, Clare suddenly changed directions and threw a lethal left hook, she tried to raise her guard, but it was too late, Clare left hook punched her cheeks hard spinning her face to the side.

She closed one eyes as the impact hit her cheeks and she stumbled back a little dazed from that cheap shot.

Clare wasn't surprised that Serena was still playing the evader, she was likely looking for a big counter punch, which meant that Clare would punch smartly, not throwing anything that would render her vulnerable. When her hook hit though, she felt nothing but satisfaction in the shockwave that ran up her arm. She could tell Clare was dazed, so Clare figured she'd exploit it and hit Serena where it seemed it would hurt. Not wanting to fall victim to whatever Serena would try to do, Clare kept perfect form, only throwing one fist out as she closed in on Serena. She jabbed the closed eye, twice. Both jabs were fast and strong, but she wasn't willing to overly commit to anything bigger, not until she got the better of Serena and saw and knockout inbound.

As Serena stumbled back, she knew that she was in trouble, she had focused so much on protecting her stomach, that she left her face open. She cursed herself inwardly for making such a stupid mistake. As she stumbled back, she barely managed to open her eyes in time, only to see two heavy punches coming her way, both punches slammed into her face sent her stumbling back even further again. She was in big trouble now, but she was struggling to hold her ground, her knees were shaking barely even able to stand straight. She needed to find a way to recover quickly, otherwise she was going to lose.

Clare knew she had weakened Serena enough now, Clare was recovering a bit, it felt like she was absorbing Serena's health with each blow, as her confidence came back. Clare dance in, leaning to the side and throwing a left straight at Serena, hoping to further stagger her with a head punch, if it did the job of backing her to the ropes, she'd give it her all to put Serena out. She'd send a heavy right hook at her head, a quick stomach shot, and then a brutal uppercut, hoping it would be jolting enough to shock her with the fast, well aimed flurry. Serena was giving her the fight of her life, and Clare wanted nothing more than the victory here, along with it, she didn't mind causing Serena pain, things had gone bitter between the two off and on. If anything she wanted Serena to see that she was every bit as good as her, and then some.

If Clare could put her on the canvas right now, she figured that would help in her conquest to prove herself.