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By all accounts, this was a real donnybrook with plenty of raw aggression and little science. The American, who had
spent most of the previous day in the sauna in a last minute attempt to make the weight, had, as Peter Selzer
(www.boxingpress.de) picturesquely put it, “the mane of a pony and a punch like the kick of a mule.”
The decisive action came at the end of the sixth round, as Weickenmeier, who had been the busier of the two fighters to
that point (though the far stronger American’s work was considered the more effective), surrendered her height
advantage in an attempt to pierce Hill’s guard with a jab and follow with a right cross. Hill, holding her hands high
with her forearms parallel, effortlessly swatted the jab clear of her face with an anticlockwise, downward sweep of her
right hand reminiscent of a powerful windscreen wiper. Now Weickenmeier’s deflected left hand was interfering with her
own right cross, but she was committed. Hill saw the opening for a left to the side of Weickenmeier’s head, and as the
German closed her eyes, following through blindly with her cross, Hill swatted her —- with almost no backswing -— hard on
the right ear with her left hand.
You only have to freeze the image and compare the physique of the two women to see how hopelessly misconceived
Weickenmeier’s tactic is; her lithe, athletic body is committed to a lunge that is going nowhere; her right cross
passes harmlessly to the side of Hill’s face, as the square-set, muscular American with her huge arms and shoulders,
helps her on her way with the left. Logically Weickenmeier must be the taller of the two women, but her head is level
with the American’s breast and no more than two feet away, as Hill, who by now has completed the clockwise rotation
that accompanied her left to the ear, commences her rotation in the opposite direction. It’s like hitting the heavy
bag, and Weickenmeier’s -— one has to say ‘beautiful’ -— face is exactly where she wants it…
Trisha Hill broke Silke Weickenmeier’s nose (and with it, her will) with a right that had the full power of her chunky
body behind it. The young German was thrown backwards as though she’d been hit in the chest by a shotgun blast. When
the bell sounded for the start of the seventh round, Weickenmeier remained on her stool, and the American claimed the
world title, as the German reports put it, ‘on a submission’.
Clearly distraught and fighting back tears at the press conference, Weickenmeier explained that ‘health must come
first’ and assured her supporters that she would be back to reclaim her title.
Many thanks to Ewan for this report, which he based on reviewing
a fight video ... Dee Williams
Other Trisha Hill and Silke Weickenmeier Links
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