Tommo Joyce the Tallafornian and John the Hopper Smith, aka “Skippy”, are live from the Sydney Opera House. Michael Buffer is the announcer.
Buffer walks to the centre of the ring. A microphone drops down. Meanwhile, Tommo Joyce starts walking from his dressing room to the ring. Then, John the Hopper Smith appears with a kangaroo. The crowd cheers. “Come on Skippy”. The boxers get into the ring. Buffer grabs the mic and announces, “In the blue corner all the way from Dublin, Ireland, we have Tommo Joyce the Tallafornian. Weighing in at 140lb.” There is a huge cheer from the Irish people in the stadium who are waving Tricolour flags.
“And in the red corner from Victoria, your very own John the Hopper Smith with his pet kangaroo.” There is screaming and cheering and Union Jacks flying as the two anthems are playing.
An American commentator starts to give some of the stats on each of the boxers, “The Irish fella has had 10 fights and 10 KOs and he’s the contender. While the Aussie is the champion and holds the WBO belt. He is the best featherweight of all time. I think John Smith is going to wipe the floor with Tommo the Tallafornian!”
The referee brings both fighters into the middle of the ring and says, “I want a good clean fight. Protect yourselves at all times. Do you want to touch gloves?”
They shake their heads.
The bell rings and John Smith skips out and dominates the first round. Both fighters are feeling each other out. One swings a jab, the other swings a left body shot. It is quite calm for the first round. When they go back to their corners, they both sit down and the trainer says to the Tallafornian, “You have to work on your combinations.”
While Skippy’s trainer says to him, “Don’t use all your energy in the first rounds.”
Skippy comes out for the second round and pans out big Tommo Joyce the Tallafornian like a sandwich. The Irish fans start shouting, “Get up Tommo, get up Tommo!”
Tommo gets up on the count of eight. The referee looks into Tommo’s eyes to check that they are not glazed over and then wipes his gloves. Skippy comes at him with a right, but Tommo ducks and creams him with an overhand and Skippy lands on the floor. The referee counts up from one and gets so far that it’s a knockout.
The Irish fans are chuffed, it isn’t a waste of money even though they only got to see two rounds, because it was a good knock. The Australian fans aren’t too happy though. They start throwing seats at each other.
Tommo is talking to the press. “I’m happy with that performance, I might have got knocked out early in the second round but I made it pay off by finishing him off by the end of that round.”
The promoters, Eddie Hearn for the Tallafornian and Frank Warren for Skippy, get together to discuss the rematch.
Hearn says, “If we have it in Croke Park, we can get 90,000 people and can make more money.”
Warren says, “We are not goin’ to make money just by sitting here.”
They agree to have it in Croke Park but it’s going to cost millions as they have to bring in a ring. They have to put it right in the middle of the field. The GAA don’t mind though as the fighter is one of their own.
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