FIGHT 2 REVIEW –EVENT 16
Fight 2- GINGER “Honey Girl” SNAPP vs. LISA “The Knockout” MOZZON
Records/Votes: Ginger – 0-0-0/19 Lisa – 2-3-0/29
Description: (6-Rounds) Anticipating this second fight of event 16, my admiration for Lisa Mozzon went ballistic. Here was one of the most active boxers in the DWBL accepting the challenge of one of the debutants in the DWBL. Why would she do this, I asked myself? She had nothing to gain with a victory over this skilled but untested newcomer. If she won, it was because she was out of this challenger’s league in skill and experience. If she lost, what humiliation would result for her future aspiration to ascend in the rankings? My conclusion was that this gracious woman was just a competitor who would never turn down any sincere challenge to do battle. She saw in this brazen young contender a woman who was confident and talented beyond the expectations of her boxing experience and wanted to test her mettle early with the best competition available. Ms Snapp and her trainer had consented to fight their first professional outing over six-rounds as recompense for the opportunity Lisa had given them. I couldn’t wait to see what came of this most perplexing match-up. It had a feeling of expectancy that I knew I could not resist as a life-long supporter of the pugilistic art.
As the fighters entered the ring, each woman exuded an aura of graceful power. After the ceremonial preliminaries, they stood in their corners focused and eager for the commencement of competitive fistic fireworks. Honey Girl streaked to the attack quickly with blasting golden mitts exploding toward the menacing presence of Ms Mozzon. It was immediately apparent that the ebony battler was very fast of hand and foot. Lisa blocked, and countered this bold attacker with jabs and counters that were swift and powerful. Ginger seemed early to anticipate these blows before they were thrown, managing to either evade or escape from the full-effectiveness of their power. She was able to land her own shots with greater frequency than the Knockout, but they did not appear to disturb or hurt the Italian pugilist. The fast-paced action of the first round made it seem all too quickly over. The session appeared to predict the coming match-up as a classic boxer versus slugger confrontation. Ginger received my favor as the winner of this opening round.
Between rounds, the corner must have enflamed the Italian knockout. With the pealing of the bell, she hurdled forward into the fray against her debuting foe. Lisa’s white-gloved fists sped through the up-raised gloves of Ms Snapp, jolting her head back with two well-thrown jabs. Utilizing the momentum from those punches, Ms Mozzon followed with an overhand right to the nose, and a left-uppercut to the sternum of the speedy scrapper. Hit with this combination of hard blows, Ginger responded with her own counter attack. She had taken the hardest punches thus far in the fight and reacted with the instincts of a much more experienced professional fighter. Lisa continued to pursue her shifty opponent, walking through the counter-shots, and hooking off a well-timed jab to the head of her feisty adversary. At this stage, Ms Snapp’s avenues of escape were blocked and she had no place to run. Setting herself just feet from the neutral corner, she prepared to stand and deliver with her own arsenal of punches. Now squared up against each other, the fans were treated to an exciting punch-out between these two determined battlers. Lisa did her best to punish the body of her cornered foe with hooks and uppercuts that struck with wrecking-ball force. The Honey Girl was not intimidated, matching in volume the incoming barrage with punishing returns of her own. They continued to whale away at each other, neither giving any signal of retreat or exhaustion until the bell sounded, and they walked briskly back to their corner. Lisa had learned in this stanza, that her opponent wasn’t going to be overcome quickly or without putting up a good fight. Ginger on the other hand had gotten her official welcome to the advanced class of hard socks.
Apparently, the lessons of hard socks didn’t discourage the Honey Girl, as she moved quickly out on the attack against her ever-willing foe. Lisa met the on-rushing battler with a trio or twojabs to the head, and a left hand shot in the breadbasket. Proving her abs were also in top condition, the spotted-trunked brawler answered with a double hook, landing to both the body and head of the Knockout. This was just the game Ms Mozzon liked best, rock’em-sock’em boxing action to the max. Her partner was willing to participate to the delight of the fans in this packed arena. White and gold gloved fists flew, with impacts that elicitedgrunts and exhalations that accompanied the sounds of leather battering body parts with forceful velocity. It was exhausting just to observe the physical exertion of this pair, but their output never faltered. Each fighter would record more than 100-punches delivered within this two-minute span, most of them power shots. At the bell ending this third session, the fans were in need of the rest break probably even more than the fighters. The action was unbelievably torrid. As the fighters sat on their stools, the battle bruises displayed on each confirmed the severity of their fighting efforts. It was an even round, on my unofficial score sheet, but one that I’d recall long after this evening’s event.
The bell for round four sounded, introducing some strategy changes, but no let up in the action between these willing pugilists. Ginger was circling, whipping out a snappy left jab. Her punches had some pop on them, too. As the gloved fists landed, Lisa’s head ratcheted back, and perspiration spattered from her face into the air. The Knockout wasn’t idle during this assault. She threw lefts and one-two combinations that were coming less frequently than that of the Honey Girl, but were equally damaging. Her movements were deft and skillful, as she attempted to restrict the operating space that her opponent could use. Ms Snapp took advantage of every foot available to her, darting in and out of punching range while peppering her opponent with a varied assortment of head and body blows. She was proving to be an equal opportunity punisher, leaving no unguarded body part punch-free. This observer was impressed in equal measure by the attack of the neophyte boxer, and the steady, determined pursuit by the more experienced Ms. Mozzon. The fans were unable to relax for a second as this game of fistic cat and mouse played out before them. I chose to believe the mouse, Ms Snapp, had won this round by a narrow margin, and evaded calamity from a potent pursuer. The corners worked with efficiency to prepare the women for the next round, as each fighter glared across the ring at her adversary.
Early in the fifth round, Ms Mozzon scored with a rapier-like left hand, right cross, that temporarily stunned the evasive Mississippi Miss. She didn’t go down from that double shot of powerbut probably heard bells sounding in her head. Lisa was quick to assert her momentary dominance, with two gut-busting shots from the left and right gloved fists. Ginger doubled over, and blew her mouthpiece from between her teeth on to the ring apron. That body movement, allowed a missile like right jab, marked “ knockout-express”, to pass undelivered over her head. The momentum of her forward motion sent Ginger sprawling to the ring mat on her hands and knees. Ms. Mozzon had scored the first knockdown of the fight in this fateful fifth round. Reflecting her ring smarts, Honey Girl did not attempt to arise immediately. Squatting on her haunches, she took the full-eight seconds to revive, and re-focus her facilities. When the referee cleared the way for continued fistic action, Ms Snapp was moving and firing punches as she made a strategic withdrawal from her pursuer. No further meaningful damage was recorded in the time that remained before the bell clanged – concluding the round. Lisa’s corner looked expectantly forward toward the coming sixth and final round, ready to take care of business with this daring adversary. Neither fighter seemed ready to admit defeat; each anticipating the decisive punch yet be landed that would most convincingly decide the winner of this give and take battle.
Fans and fighters readied themselves for the sixth and final round. When the gong resounded, it was like the percussion of a starter’s gun at the hundred-yard dash. Actionexploded under the glaring ring lights. Ginger blasted off the first salvo of golden-gloved shells with a pulverizing one-two on the face, and an arching left hook to the ribs. Returned just microseconds later, the knockout replied with a stabbing left jab, right cross combination. That initial jab brought the head of Honey Girl convulsively backward, clearing the trajectory of the dynamite-loaded right cross, which barely grazed the chin of the targeted spice-warrior. She was stopped instantly from her forward movement, rocked back on her heels, unbalanced and vulnerable to further incoming fisted clouts by the advancing Ms Mozzon. The white-skirted Italian boxer instinctively sensed this temporary opportunity, igniting a three-punch volley that sped straight away to the head and body of her wheeling foe. The reactive impact of each projectile convulsed the head and torso of the ebony boxer like a victim shot with a high-powered revolver. She shuddered, first upward on her toes, then spun to one side, and pushed finally backward on her skirted-bun. Ginger sat down hard on the canvas, looking upward like the victim of a football block. Looking stunned but aware of her present circumstance, she watched as the ref waved her tormentor to the neutral corner, and then turned to face and count over her. Before the count reached six, she rose to her feet, extending both gloves for the inspection of the official, while shaking her legs as if to awaken them from sleep. There was a determination in the posture of the Honey Girl, which declared with crystal clarity that this fight was not yet over as far as she was concerned. The Knockout was ready when cleared to resume her aggression, setting herself to produce the finisher with bombastic finality. There was a surprise in store for her, asthe intended victim responded first. A right glove hit the startled Lisa smartly on the nose, and then a left fist arched from below to first the solar-plexus and then her chin. As quickly as that sequence occurred, the roles of warfare reversed themselves. Now it was Ms Mozzon who gazed skyward and was propelled immediately downward onto the ring floor. More shocked than injured, the fighter was in upward motion before the opponent could be directed to the appropriate neutral corner. The referee turned to find the woman erect and ready to reenter the fray. Her gloves wiped and condition checked, the two combatants were signaled to resume their struggle. Like two colliding train engines, the women warred on with punches too quickly thrown and countered to recount. The crowd’s voluminous roar was so deafening, the bell had to be repeatedly battered before the engagement was finally halted by the ring arbitrator. What a fitting finale to this epic confrontation. Both women embraced quickly, each offering congratulatory comments to her foe for a well-fought engagement - then each returned to her corner to await the official decision.
Decision: Judge scoresheets were announced with the following results; 56-59 –Mozzon, 57-57- Even, 55-59- Mozzon. Lisa Mozzon wins a majority decision over Ginger Snapp in this most entertaining six-round shootout. This fight was an outstanding effort by both combatants, demonstrating anew that the DWBL has one of the most talent-filled boxing leagues in the world of pugilism.
End of Review prepared by Two Rumble 06/03/05