[EllenShaw]

I know what you're thinking. That Ellen Shaw. Her stories are like buses, you wait ages for one and then two come along at once. Well this one isn't quite as long as my epic Final Battle story that you'll find in the wrestling section, but it's a story I was working on at the same time and it takes place the following day, so it makes sense for me to post it now.

Anyway, this one is for BB and the lovely Lesley. I hope you enjoy it, don't expect another one any time soon  .

Saturday, April 2, 2022 – the morning after the night before. I lay in bed in the state of euphoria reflecting on the events of the previous evening and my 60th birthday celebrations. I had my last ever fight at CLAWS and defeated my old friend Sian, the woman I had taken the CLAWS title from many years before. My sister Carrie had been in my corner during that final fight and had given me her blessing to continue fighting for as long as I wanted to. I still decided that my time in the ring at CLAWS was over. Although I had no immediate plans to, I was sure would fight again. But only in Sian’s barn, never in the CLAWS ring. Best of all, my beloved Erica had arrived to join in my celebrations.

As I lay in bed, I became aware of voices the chattering of my houseguests in the living room. I got up and wandered out to greet them. Sian and her daughter Shannon were listening to Erica telling them excitedly about her new venture running the CLAWS operation in her native Germany. Shannon was also bringing Erica up to date about events at NBFC, the club that she and her mother ran in the north of England. Erica had, of course, accompanied me to Sian’s farm for my fight against Mitzi and had passed through on a number of occasions on business, so they knew each other well.

That evening, I had an invitation to Lesley’s fighting house to watch her take on Blake Mitchell. I called Lesley and checked if it was okay before inviting my house guests to join me. Shannon and Sian both knew Lesley quite well but Erica had never met her before, being away at the time when I had taken her on in private CLAWS during the lockdown.

There are several groups of topless boxers around the world and they don’t all fight using the same rules. CLAWS has probably some of the most strict and sophisticated rules with matches taking place in a ring over six 3-minute rounds, a team of three judges awarding points, standing counts and low blow rules. By contrast, Lesley fights in an organisation known as the League of Fighting Friends. These ladies travel to each other’s venues to fight, with the rules of a match being set by the host. Sometimes they are in a ring, sometimes just fighting on mats. Sometimes there are rounds; sometimes it’s just a fight until one gives up. Sometimes there are rules about hitting below the belt, sometimes not. Attire also varies depending on the host’s preferences.

In Lesley’s case, while the fights are topless and usually take place over six three-minute rounds (the same format used at CLAWS) there are no judges, no low blow rules, no point scoring and no standing counts, just a ten count for a knockdown. In the event that both fighters are still standing at the end of the sixth round, the decision is made by the referee alone. But on some occasions, and tonight would be one of them, there is no limit to the number of rounds and the combatants would fight until one was knocked out.

At the NBFC the rules are even more lax. As well as fighting naked, NBFC rules include fighting to the finish, again with no standing counts or low blows, over an unlimited number of rounds. It was interesting to see that Blake had agreed to fight each match of her tour using the house rules of the place she was fighting.

The encounter between Blake and Lesley was scheduled for 8 pm. We arrived at the fighting house around 7:30pm to find Blake and Peggy already there along with Terri, obviously looking to learn more about her opponent, and Suzi Lomax who had come to referee the match.

Sadly, the ring was already set up when we arrived. I had hoped to show Sian how much easier to erect Lesley’s ring was than hers. But, of course, ease and convenience mattered less to Sian than the sentimental attachment she had to the ring she had rescued from the boxing club that had been the NBFC’s first home.

This fight would be the fourth on Blake’s ‘grand tour’ of Europe. After defeating me some five weeks before she and Peggy had travelled to Spain and Portugal and, along the way, had spent time with Christine Bennett and her lover, Sonia Lopez, both former fighters at La Cantina in Andalucía.

Sonia, a former contender for the world topless boxing championship, and someone who had faced Blake twice before, was on Blake’s bucket list of opponents. Christine, who had a global reputation as a wrestler but had only ever boxed at CLAWS, wasn’t – but that didn’t stop Blake from challenging her as well, and beating, both of them.

Peggy confided in me that she had also taken the opportunity to wrestle Christine again. The pair had last met in the CLAWS senior tournament nine years previously, when Peggy had beaten the former champion by three falls to one, a feat she had repeated at La Cantina two weeks ago. I congratulated her on her win and expressed my surprise that she was still happy to get in the ring at her age. Her response caught me off guard:

“I’ve still got it, Ellen. Any time you’d like to confirm that just let me know, I’d be happy to whip your ass as well.”

The American duo had returned to the UK a few days before my final fight at CLAWS but, with this fight already arranged, they had declined Jay’s invitation to my ‘retirement’ bash and watched me take on Sian on the live feed from the comfort of their hotel room.

Lesley and I had fought what I thought would be my last ever boxing match just a couple of months before and I had come out victorious, much to Lesley’s annoyance. It was watching that match on the live stream from Florida that led to Blake challenging me and the fight we’d subsequently had. News travels fast in the fighting community so I wasn’t entirely surprised when, just before she entered the ring Lesley, approached me and said:

“Ellen, you owe me a rematch and don’t give me that bullshit about how you’ve stopped fighting. A little bird has told me that, although your days at CLAWS are through, you still intend to carry on.”

Dammit! I cursed myself. I should never have mentioned that Carrie had relented on her demand that I gave up fighting and that I would be getting back into the ring albeit only Sian’s NBFC. I guessed what was coming next. In front of her other guests Lesley was about to challenge me and there was no way I could back down. Sure enough, she continued:

“Blake is going to be facing Terri at the NBFC in a couple of weeks. I know you’ll be there and so I have a proposition for you. If I beat Blake here today, will you fight me at the NBFC boxing with NBFC rules? “

I could feel the hand of Jay and Gabi in this. Among the other things she’d done during her visit down south, Sian Ryan had signed an agreement with Tigress Productions to allow them to produce and distribute the fight videos from the NBFC. If there was one thing that Jay and Gabi loved it was a good competitive match between two evenly matched fighter. I had no doubt that one of them had told Lesley of my intention to continue fighting and suggested that the NBFC might be a venue for a rematch. I’d been stitched up again. There wasn’t really a way that I could back down from this. I nodded meekly and said:

“Okay Lesley, you’ve got your rematch but only if you can beat Blake.”

Lesley seemed happy with this and she made her way to the ring, ready to take on the American. Unlike me, Lesley had faced Blake in the past, most notably when they faced off for the world topless boxing title in 1993, a match which Blake won. But Lesley had also had her successes and was currently leading the American by three wins to two, all three of them knockouts.

While Lesley was challenging me, Blake and Suzi were already in the ring. Sui was dressed in her regular referee’s outfit of black sports briefs and a black and white striped t-shirt. Blake had slipped off her blue satin gown to reveal the same outfit she’d worn in her fight against me; red boots and gloves and a cut down pair of satin blue boxer shorts.

Once in the ring Lesley slipped off her gown to reveal the fact that she was wearing nothing but emerald green gloves, emerald green boots and a tiny emerald green thong that disappeared up her bum crack so effectively that she looked naked from behind.

Lesley is not one for formalities. We all knew why we were there and the tale of the tape was irrelevant, this was a pure woman vs. woman battle. It would continue until one woman emerged victorious.

Lesley looked at Blake across the ring, tapped her gloves together and said: “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

Then she nodded at Peggy to press the button that started the timer. Ten seconds later the bell sounded and the fight was on. From

There was none of the usual cautious feeling out. Right from the opening bell these girls were going for it hammer and tongs. Both attacked hard and both landed good solid blows as the action swung to and fro for an action packed three minutes. I was frankly amazed that the two women made it to the end of the round without being knocked down.

The frantic pace clearly wasn’t sustainable and both fighters adopted a more defensive approach at the start of round two; covering up, feeling each other out and looking for that elusive opening that would give them the edge. It was Blake who scored first, just over a minute into round two, when she broke through Lesley’s defences to deliver three solid blows to the Irish woman’s left breast. Lesley dropped to one knee, cradling her abused mammary, and took a count of six before getting back to her feet.

The action resumed and the pair remained evenly matched for the next couple of minutes but then, in the closing seconds of the round, everything changed. One of Lesley’s strengths is her extremely powerful right hook and Blake got to feel the full force of it when a deflected left jab left her exposed and Lesley clocked her hard on the jaw. Blake went down in a heap clearly unconscious.

Lesley stepped back into a neutral corner and Suzi began counting over the fallen American. For a moment it looked like the fight might be over but, much to Lesley’s annoyance, the bell went when the count was at seven, saving Blake from an early defeat.

Peggy was quickly in the ring to aid her fallen companion and it wasn’t long before Blake was sitting up, albeit a little dazed. With the seconds of the break ticking away Peggy help get to her feet and guided her back to the corner. Peggy did her best to revive the busty brunette until the buzzer sounded for ‘seconds out’ for round three.

Blake clearly hadn’t recovered when the bell went for the start of the round and, from the outset, it was decidedly one-way traffic with Lesley attacking and Blake retreating. The ring at Lesley’s fighting house is smaller than most other venues, making it more difficult to escape from your attacker. Had they been fighting under CLAWS rules Blake would’ve been substantially behind on standing counts alone as she repeatedly sought to escape Lesley’s assault only to find herself trapped in the corner. As it was, with no standing count, she simply received a pounding from the Irish woman until she could escape again. Things definitely weren’t looking good for Blake but she survived to the end of the round.

The break provided another opportunity to recover and regroup but Blake had taken a hell of a beating and when the bell sounded for the start of round four it looked like the fight was already lost. Once again, the traffic was all one way as Lesley battered the shorter woman from one side of the ring to the other. Whenever she could Lesley kept close to Blake and used her own body to keep the American on her feet, denying her the respite of a long count on the deck.

It wasn’t long before Blake had given up any pretence of fighting back and, just like me a year earlier, was waiting for Lesley to knock her down and for the fight to be over.

The inevitable end came halfway through the fourth round when another right hook to the jaw put the American down again. Things didn’t look good for Blake as she doggedly stumbled drunkenly to her feet, just beating the count. Suzi checked her over and then waved Lesley back.

Lesley was straight back on the attack, pummelling the American and pushing her back into her own corner. Blake was helpless and, under Lesley’s rules, the referee could not intervene. There would be no standing count, and despite her being trapped in the corner, Lesley continued to pound the American’s defenceless breasts as she slumped against turnbuckles, her arms limp by her sides. Finally, tiring of using Blake’s tits as punch bags and aware that the round was coming to an end, Lesley stepped back and delivered a right uppercut directly to Blake’s love box.

Blake sank to her knees before pitching forward; face down on the mat and out cold. Suzi moved in and began counting. It was a formality. Blake was completely out of it and made no attempt to get up as the count slowly rose to ten. Lesley was victorious; like me a few weeks previously, Blake had been beaten by the superior woman on the day.

Peggy was quickly through the ropes and soon had Blake sitting on a stool in the corner, albeit somewhat the worse for wear, while Suzi followed protocol by telling us all what we already knew:

“Ladies, after two minutes and twenty seconds of round four, your winner by a knock out, Lesley O’Dowd!”

We applauded politely as Lesley show boated and Blake sat looking dejected on her stool. Much as I wanted to feel sympathy for Blake all I could think was: ‘Oh shit, Lesley’s done it. I’ll have to fight her at Sian’s now.’

“Well,” said Sian, “it appears that Miss Mitchell has put you on the spot. I was wondering how long it would be before you got back in the ring. I honestly didn’t expect it to happen this quickly. I look forward to welcoming you back to the farm in a few weeks’ time. By the way, I’ve been talking to Peggy and we think it would be a good idea if we could put a whole match card together for the evening. You’ve already added a second fight but we’ll want a couple more. I’ll say no more now but suffice to say I have a few ideas.”

I wondered what she had in mind but I didn’t pursue it, my mind was already on Lesley and how I was going beat her under NBFC rules. To be honest I didn’t fancy my chances much.