By Charles Brun: In a grueling battle from start to finish, Shannon Courtenay (7-1, 3 KO) wore down Ebanie Bridges (5-1, 2 KOs) to win a 10 round unanimous decision t capture the WBA World Female bantamweight title on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London.
Two of the judges’ scores were embarrassingly bad in giving Courtenay the win by a 98-92, 98-92 score, while the third had it 97-94. With scores like that, Bridges never stood a chance with these two judges. Just based on those godawful scores, there should be a rematch.
Boxing News 24 had Courtenay just nicking it with a 97-94 score. She was taking a lot of punches, even was getting the better of an exhausted Bridges in the 9th and 10th.
Through the first seven rounds, the fight pretty even, but Bridges wore down and had nothing left after the seventh. Nevertheless, Bridges was still landing some beautiful uppercuts, one of which snapped Courenay’s head back at the end of the ninth.
Bridges followed that with a left hook that caught Courtenay just as she was throwing a shot of her at the end of the round. The punch seemed to hurt Courtenay, but she was fortunate the round had ended.
The 34-year-old Australian Bridge’ left was badly swollen towards the end of the fight, and it appeared to be closed.
“I have genuinely turned my life around,” Courtenay said after the fight.”I boxed nicer, I have cuter shots, I landed the jab every time. She just tried to knock me out. My jab won me the fight. Her eye shows that. I want Rachel Ball next!”
The harder puncher of the two was Bridges, and she had better overall skills. What she didn’t have was the same conditioning that the younger 27-year-old Courtenay had and that was the telling factor in the contest.
Despite being seven years older than Courtenay, Bridges looked like the younger person of the two. The only thing that indicated that Bridges was older was the way she gassed out after the seventh round. Other than that, she was more the stronger of the two.
“She was unlucky to lose the Rachel Ball fight. I’m proud of her. Respect to Bridges too,” said Eddie Hearn about Courtenay. “A great advert for women’s boxing. It was brilliant.
“Shannon deserved to win. She scored more points and hurt Bridges.”
You can argue that a rematch between Courtenay and Bridges would be fun to watch as well, as this was a real action-packed fight from start to finish. Who wouldn’t want to see a second fight between them? Both fighters were hurt, not just Bridges.
