EBANIE BRIDGES has revealed she has suffered a suspected broken hand in her hard-fought points victory against Mailys Gangloff.
The 34-year-old outpointed her French opponent 77-76 at Headingley Stadium on Saturday night to put her back in world title contention.
Australian ace Bridges has now won two consecutive fights in the UK since losing in her WBA bantamweight contest against Shannon Courtenay in April.
The Blonde Bomber bossed the opening rounds against Gangloff, before she mysteriously eased off late on which allowed the 25-year-old to come back into the bout.
But she has now explained why she took her foot of the gas on the undercard of Josh Warrington’s rematch against Mauricio Lara.
In a social media post, the Sydney schoolteacher shared a snap of her badly swollen right hand.
Captioning the upload, she tweeted: “Thanks to everyone that tuned in and all the fans that came to Leeds! Love you all I hope you enjoyed the fight!
“Fight Dr said he’s pretty sure it’s broken but will get scans to confirm but I’m praying it’s just really swollen.
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“Time for some well deserved rest.”
Following her hand injury, Bridges has had to cancel a meet and greet event in Leeds.
She told her followers: “Sorry guys, I really would love to see everyone but I am still in the ER waiting for results on my hand and it’s kinda hard to hold a pen.
“I want to meet my fans so I will be doing my best to rearrange this ASAP. Thanks for understanding.”
It wasn’t just in the ring where Bridges impressed, with the boxer wowing during her pre-fight weigh in.
Bridges set pulses racing as she wore racy lingerie, with Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn claiming he had to look elsewhere.
Discussing his strategy for dealing with Bridges’ raunchy weigh-in, he said: “Anywhere the eyes look, there are cameras everywhere, do you know what I mean?
“So the best way to go about it is just to look somewhere else. Ebanie knows what she’s doing. She’s a tremendous fighter. Obviously a lot of people want to see her weigh-in as well.
“It is what it is, but for me, it’s not about keeping composure, it’s about making sure the camera doesn’t catch me at a particular time where I might be looking somewhere that looks like I’m looking somewhere else.
“I’m respectful of that and I think I’ll just find a spot at the back of the wall somewhere.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
