Ebanie Bridges retained her IBF bantamweight world belt by stopping fellow Aussie brawler Shannon O’Connell in a spiteful bout in Leeds on Sunday morning.
It was the first time Bridges, 36, had fought to defend the title she took from Maria Cecilia Roman in March, and she handled the occasion with class.
The same couldn’t exactly be said for her opponent, who engaged in a bitter war of words in the lead-up to the fight.
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They first faced off in a fiery online interview in November, and then in the days before Sunday’s bout O’Connell labelled Bridges “a fat c—” and a “skanky stripper”.
But it was Bridges who did the talking with her gloves, dropping O’Connell twice before finishing the job in the eighth round via referee stoppage.
O’Connell, 39, looked solid early in the fight and almost certainly won the opening round, using a powerful right hand to stun the title holder.
But Bridges’ toughness and tenacity shone through as she finished much stronger and ended it with a flurry of punches which left O’Connell beaten and bloody.
The victor then used her ring interview to fire back at O’Connell for the personal barbs she had thrown before the clash.
“Not bad for a skanky stripper I must say, not bad for a skanky stripper,” Bridges said.
“I’m not usually disrespectful to my opponent but she was so disrespectful to me the whole time. So I can’t really give her that much respect – she can hit but. She can bang.
“She came, she was hungry, she was fierce. But I was better, and that’s why I’m the champion.”
Bridges – a former mathematics teacher from Sydney – now resides in Leeds and has become a local hero of sorts in her adopted English city.
But she proudly acknowledged her Australian fans and gave a nod to boxing fans back home.
“I hope the world, I hope Australia is proud of me now,” she said.
“We know who the queen of Australian boxing is. I knew it was going to be the hardest fight of my career, and it was.”
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