Lorenza Saldano vs Zoey Waters

Zoey knew she was in trouble seeing the Latino boxer drop herself lower than she was, she her punches were starting to get to Lorenza by how her knee came close to buckling. Zoey anticipated an uppercut or a hook but not two hard jabs to her stomach. Lorenza's fists made her want to spit out her mouthpiece. She refused to back off now, she wanted hurt Lorenza bad and now. If she were to back off now, she wasn't a boxer, she wasn't a fighter. Thus, she braved Zoey endured Lorenza's punches to the gut and followed through with her counter. She told herself body blows were just pain, which was a bit of a white lie, and she could fight through it.

Being as low as Lorenza accompanied some risk, being the taller fighter in this position. Zoey would throw out a savage chopping right at downward angle trying to force Lorenza towards the ring floor knee giving out a cry in effort.

Lorenza's fists slammed into Zoey's midsection, briefly pounding two craters in her taut belly before the flesh rebounded into its typical shape, with a pair of gradually-forming bruises just beginning to appear for good measure. The punches did not send Zoey to the canvas, nor did they back her up, as Lorenza hoped. Now, Lorenza might just be at a disadvantage, as the low angle from which she was attacking, those three or four extra inches which she had found by ducking down some, now put her at risk from attacks from above.

Lorenza could not look up at the round timer, but her mental clock had always been very precise. They were halfway home to the end of the round. Half a round of brutal pounding done, and half a round of devastating punches swinging in both directions to go.

If there wasn't a knockdown in this round, the audience in attendance would probably be surprised.

As Zoey's right fist came downward, chopping at Lorenza's head, Lorenza quickly brought her gloves up in a tight guard in front of her face. Zoey's glove came down on top of them, and Lorenza was forced even lower by the energy behind the blow, grunting as she felt her own gloves whack into her forehead and rub it the wrong way under the pressure. In an instant she was backing up, ceding some space to Zoey so that she could spring back up to her full height, not intending to remain underneath her for any longer than she had to.

But, as she retreated, Lorenza wanted to get one more shot in, and would throw her right hand at Zoey's belly, trying to ward her off from following too quickly with one more whap to her tummy!

Zoey grunted as she tried her hardest to put the Latino girl on her back but failed. She grunted as she took a few staggering steps back when Lorenza buried a right straight into her gut. The blow nearly made her spew out her mouthpiece. The Canadian girl retreated back as well breathing hard as an arm tended to her battered abdomen. Sweat was pouring down her back, down her thighs, between her breasts and down her face. It took a lot out of her to keep up that pace while taking damage. Still, she hadn't given up hope just yet as she would dance back and fourth, side to side. She lifted her fists, forcing herself to take long hard breaths.

She needed to play a little bit of defense at least until her lungs stopped burning like they were.

Even when she was retreating, and throwing punches that were more intended to warn Zoey off than to seriously hurt her, Lorenza could pack a powerful, very effective punch. She may have been getting a little bit older, but no woman in the history of the sport had been able to follow through more consistently over the course of a whole match than Lorenza Saldano, and, when she saw the mouthpiece nearly spew out of Zoey's mouth, the Canadian woman's eyes bulging as she, now, was the one retreating, Lorenza knew for sure that she had this match won, even if it went to a decision.

That tiny, naggling hint of a doubt which she usually pretended did not exist in matches like these? Gone for good. With punches like that, the champion of Tijuana was not about to lose to some pasty Canadian trash talker. A trash talker who was looking much the worse for wear right about now.

Lorenza had been moving back, but right now Zoey was scared into backpedaling, as well, opening up a wide gulf between the two of them. Lorenza had a guard up already, in a loose, relatively casual position, ready to tighten it in case of enemy assault. But Zoey now brought her gloves up defensively, hiding her fragile little head behind them, practically begging for Lorenza to make a run at her.

Lorenza could not resist an invitation like that. Her opponent was scared, and tired, and probably really starting to ache right about now. Lorenza would push off with her own slightly-less-than-solid legs and move toward Zoey, slowly but steadily, keeping a cautious eye out as she moved forward and tried to slow the pace with a testing left jab aimed at the other boxer's cheek.

"Heh." Zoey said as she evaded the jab with relative ease by circling away from her power hand. "For someone who's losing this round, you're playing almost as safe as I am. You that scared of me, Chica?"

Zoey cracked a tired smile, she took this time to take deep breaths letting the oxygen circulte through her body. There was no reason for her to pay offensively, she had landed more punches this round then Lorenza did. Although Lorenza seemed like she was doing more damage, Zoey was winning in points in this round. In addition, Lorenza had landed her fair share but the majority of her shots were body shots which don't score as high as headshots do.

As much as Zoey would love to stay back, running away would not reflect well on their score cards. She wanted Lorenza to hesitate to have her try and calculate how many punches did she take and how much she had landed. In a flash, Zoey would come forward and threw a jab feint, ducked her head anticipating a right cross counter. While she was lower to the ground, she stepped to the side and threw a right hand to her foe's ribcage. She would jump back and stand up straighter while leaning her head back.

Lorenza smirked at Zoey as the little girl tried to taunt her. The Mexican woman hadn't been afraid of her opponent or affected by her taunting to begin with, but wild claims like that one made by someone who was very clearly down on the judges' scorecards in both this round and in the match as a whole actually managed to tickle the normally stoic Hispanic woman's funny bone. She was the one who was in the lead, and if she wanted to slow the match down, she could. Being cautious would keep her from giving Zoey any kind of opening to come back and even up the round. With maybe thirty seconds left in this round, if that, Lorenza did not intend to lose her lead.

"You want to back up your big mouth with some big punches, you little puta? Come on, then. Come on!" Lorenza would reply, before Zoey came at her again. Lorenza didn't waste her time trying to calculate what she already knew. She was ahead, and, when Zoey came at her, she was ready with her counter. She stepped back, avoiding the jab which proved to be a feint and then using her backward movement to deaden the pain of the punch to her ribs. "Gnn," Lorenza would groan, as she felt the hot pain in her belly, but she immediately replied with a harsh combination aimed for Zoey's head.

The first, a wide left hook, slid by just in front of Zoey's face. But Lorenza was not standing still, as she took a big step forward, filling the space vacated by her opponent, and threw another punch, this one with her right glove, straight for her opponent's face, confident that it would hit and chasing it just an instant later with a left hook as she pulled her right fist back to protect herself.

Zoey smirked as she tagged her foe with a few solid punches and had moved well managing to dodge most of her opponent's punches by predicting what she'd do at every turn. She had jumped backed, she anticipated her opponent might come after her like this but not as committed as Lorenza was. Luckily, she had told herself to lean back just as Lorenza threw her right straight. With Lorenza coming forward so much, Zoey saw this as her chance to set up a counter punch. Yet, Lorenza kept coming forward which mystified Zoey as she didn't see the left hook coming.

Instead of leaning back in, Zoey, while still leaning back took a back step with her rear leg. She would blink and Lorenza's left hook grazed the tip of her nose.

'What awful boxing.' Zoey thought to herself in disgust. Lorenza might have been world champion but to Zoey, her skills and decision making were subpar. Once in a while she could see Lorenza's expierence and skills come into play but this was sloppy. Lorenza was just another boxer with some natural talent and power in both her hands and that bothered Zoey. It made her jealous and angry, she would make Lorenza pay for her greed for a knockout. Lorenza must have blood in her eyes as she threw both punches in such quick succession while moving forward like that. Using both hands like that, she knew everything was open and Lorenza had little no defenses.

Zoey would come in with a right uppercut to the latino woman's chin followed by a left hook to her temple and would finish her combination with a right straight to the latino's stomach. Zoey would then jump back again and side step away from Lorenza's power hand before getting cornered against the ropes.

No matter what Zoey thought of Lorenza, it was clear to everyone in the arena—except, perhaps, the overconfident Canadian—that the former world champion was winning this fight, having easily taken the first round of boxing and being well on her way to taking this round on all three scorecards, as well. Zoey seemed to be chasing phantom holes in Lorenza's guard, watching one punch come in and then, as Lorenza's other arm began to move, confidently believing that she could slip in an uppercut before the glove which had just skidded across her chin snapped back in place to protect the Latina's beautiful supermodel face.

Lorenza didn't even think that she was moving particularly fast. Sure, there were only maybe fifteen seconds left in this round, but she was confident that it would be a unanimous round for her on all scorecards. She didn't need to be reckless. She pulled one glove in and launched the other forward. Her hooks may have missed their mark, but she easily deflected that uppercut away from her face. Then, she bounced back a step. She could tell that Zoey wanted to come forward, and Lorenza didn't intend to get her legs tangled up with her foe's.

The hook to the temple was higher than Lorenza could adequately guard as she pulled both gloves in, and so she ducked and felt the glove skid across her temple, pushing her head to the side but not really snapping it in that direction. She grunted on the impact, which she was sure left a faint red mark on her skin, but she didn't have much time to think about that as the next punch came in. She pulled her arms together and let the punch hit her gloves, shaking her body a bit but not doing much damage otherwise.

Both of them had gone for big combinations just now, and both of them had whiffed almost completely. With time running down, they might have gone after each other viciously. But Zoey danced away instead, avoiding the prospect of being pinned against the ropes. And Lorenza would not try to maintain contact with her fleeing opponent. For a few seconds, they were separated.

Lorenza, shining with sweat, and with just a couple newly-forming bruises dotting her visible flesh, would grin at her foe and wave a glove to beckon her in again. "Come on, puta!" she would implore, wanting to get one more good look at tanning Zoey's pale hide before the bell rang.

Zoey smirked as Lorenza managed to get out of her combination and she managed to escape without much trouble. There was a brief time where both boxers took some time away from each other with so little time, Zoey thought she might as well take the moment to seal out the round. Zoey still had a lot of tricks up her sleeve, being a more technical boxer. She was going to keep changing the tempo of their fight and make it harder for Lorenza to see what's coming.

Zoey came forward and towards Lorenza as she began to shuffle her feet with the world famous Ali shuffle. It was gimmicky but it got a reaction from the crowd, it also allowed her to switch stances fighting deceptively without telegraphing it. In the southpaw stance, she also lowered her lead right arm quite substantially.

Zoey came forward and started throwing jabs but not from a traditional sense. She relaxed her lead right arm and would throw her arm out like a whip at Lorenza's face from a lower angle making them harder to react to without looking down. She'd throw her arm out fast and a total of three times utilizing flicker jabs. There wouldn't be any strength in these punches but they'd still score points, be faster but still sting.

Lorenza was sure that there were plenty of tricks up her opponent's sleeves, but she was a world champion. She was older than Zoey, her titles a couple of years behind her now, but if she hadn't retired and given them up she knew she would have still held them. Zoey was in her weight class, and so she knew, and Zoey knew, and everyone in attendance and watching at home knew that Lorenza was going to defeat Zoey. The only thing yet to be seen was how she did it.

It was probably not going to be by second-round knockout. The two of them only had a few seconds left in this round of their brawl, and, though both would surely land a few more punches, neither would likely be looking for a finishing blow. As Zoey tried to win over the audience, Lorenza would just keep herself loose and ready to react to her opponent's punches, shuffling in with a smile still on her face, gloves ready to absorb Zoey's next punch.

When Zoey flicked her glove Lorenza's way, the Mexican boxer would pull in her guard and defend. She didn't let Zoey keep punching for long, however—when the last jab came, Lorenza would parry it with her glove, then try to throw a quick left jab right at Zoey's face, arm crossing above Zoey's right arm as she tried to sneak a quick hit in and pick up some more points.