Hayley Bateup to fight adult actress in charity bout

And in the other, well, we have a leggy, blonde ironwoman widely regarded as the fittest female athlete in Australia. Ding, ding . . .

Australian boxing looks set to finally produce an undercard worth watching next month when Aussie ‘erotica’ actress Belinda Gavin – she of Bikini Airways fame – fights popular Queensland ironwoman Hayley Bateup in a charity bout at the Gold Coast International Resort.

The pair, who will wear headgear and 16-ounce gloves for the May 21 bout, have each undertaken extensive training with Bateup – the only athlete to ever win the Coolangatta Gold three times - conceding “whenever I do something, I like to do it properly”.

But if you’re one of those folk easily offended by bloodsports, nudity, female boxing, good sorts, publicity stunts, modelling . . . basically anything not slapped with a PG sticker, we suggest you look away now.

If not, here’s what Miss Bikini Airways – who also boasts bullriding titles with the American Gay Rodeo Association (honestly, we couldn’t make this stuff up) – has to say . . .

“I’ve always been someone who likes to tale up a challenge,” says Gavin, the Sydney-born brunette now living on the Gold Coast after 18 years working in Los Angeles, Miami and Las Vegas.

“I’ve done a bit of work with boxing promotions up here over the past year, organising card girls and so on, and when someone asked me if I wanted to have a fight I thought ‘why not?’. It’s something to tick off the bucket list.”

And what a bucket list this one is.

Having gone through acting school with Angelina Jolie, Gavin has since modelled, earned lead roles, worked as a personal trainer, competed on American Gladiators and ridden both steers and bulls in an organisation that brings a whole new meaning to ‘Camp Events’. “But the prizemoney was so much better,” she laughs.

“Although one time I fell off a steer and lost my helmet . . . I had pins and needles in my hands for six weeks.”

Asked if she expected to cop a backlash from some sections of the sporting public, the actress who will fight a warm-up bout in New Zealand this Saturday night added: “It would be sad if some people were so judgemental.

“I mean, what I do, it’s not pornography because there is no real sex. It’s all fake. Nothing more than a bit of nudity . . . like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.”

Bateup, who was recently rated Australia’s fittest female athlete, said she expects the fight to be a one-off. “I watched a similar charity night in the Gold Coast late last year which involved a few of the Titans players like Scotty Prince,” she says.

“I’ve often done padwork, boxercise, stuff like that as part of my training and I didn’t want to pass this opportunity up.”

Source: News Limited