Before any of them have a chance to react to what just happened the emcee announces the first fight. It’s Scott, “The Sledgehammer”, versus someone they don’t know.
Janie bounces on the balls of her feet, apparently trying to contain her excitement.
Scott immediately goes in for the attack. The man is a wrecking ball. The power and force behind his jabs and punches makes you cringe. He caught his opponent off guard and the man is on the floor. He’s lying on his back, using his bare feet to protect himself and keep Scott from getting in close.
“He’s going to crush him,” Marco says roughly, behind the women.
The first round is finished. The fighters move to their corners and it’s visible, even from where Elsie is standing, that the other guys left eye is beginning to swell shut.
The second round starts and Scott goes at him with machine gun hits. He tries to unsteady Scott with a kick, but Scott shoos it away like a pesky fly. Scott hits him with a left then an uppercut.
The man is down. Scott waits as the referee moves in to assess the situation. The fight is called. Scott wins by a knockout.
Janie starts the cheer and Elsie and Elizabeth quickly join in, “Yay, WOOHOO!!” jumping up and down clapping their hands.
The next fighters are from a couple of other gyms. The crowd seems to know and love them, the hall goes wild. They go round and round, circling each other with bursts of kicks and punches, for most of their three rounds. The winner is announced, by a decision. One side of the room cheers, while the other mumbles their dissatisfaction. But everyone is civil, with no booing or name calling.
The next fight features Rico, “The Annihilator”. He saunters into the cage with his typical cocky attitude, his arrogance is as blatant as the spandex shorts he’s wearing. Rico is very good-looking. He’s arrogant, yes, but definitely a head-turner. The kind of man whose look says: ‘I’m oh, so bad, but I am very good at it.’ He finds Elsie in the crowd and winks, smiling at her. Then he pulls his mouth guard out and blows her a kiss.
Elsie’s completely shocked at his very unexpected and unwanted public display of interest.
Janie catches Elsie’s arm as she’s shooting it up to flip Rico off.
“Don’t, he’s just trying to get to John,” Janie laughs. “Don’t feed into it.”
Elsie happens to glance over to where Bambi is standing and catches her staring at her. The look on Bambi’s face is full of hatred. There is no trace of the air-headed bimbo in the expression of the woman staring back at Elsie. The eyes glaring back at her are full of malice, hate, and a severe warning.
Elsie breaks the gaze as a chill runs down her spine. Something tells her that she just made a very dangerous enemy.
The bell rings and the fight begins. Rico starts by circling his opponent, sizing him up, finding his weak spots. His opponent throws a couple of jabs. Rico bobs and swerves, getting out of the way. He spins and drops, kicking his opponent’s feet out. The man stumbles and Rico jumps up, grabs ahold of the side of the cage and wraps his legs around the man’s throat. Rico holds on to the cage as he’s choking the man. The man’s face starts to turn blue. He’s holding him captive, squeezing to the point of crushing his windpipe, until he finally taps the floor and gives the fight.
The crowd goes wild.
Elsie, Elizabeth, Janie, even Marco and Dylan give a collective, “Holy shit!”
Rico’s feet hit the mat and he finds Elsie again. He lifts his fist, points to her, and gives her a nod.
Elsie doesn’t dare look at Bambi again. She is not encouraging Rico. Hell, she’s never given him any indication that she’s interested in him. Actually, it would be the exact opposite, she’s made it perfectly clear that she has an immense dislike for him.
The emcee announces the next two fighters. Brian, “The Ghost”, is up.
Elsie’s hand reaches out for the closest arm, it’s Janie’s, and grabs on to it with a vice-like grip.
The first round gets underway and Brian begins to move. He’s fluid, smooth, one movement flowing into the next, like water, constant, unbroken, connected. His opponent is trying to determine how Brian is going to come at him as he’s moving his fists, preparing to guard himself. The first hit comes as a palm to the ribs. The unexpected impact knocks the wind out of him and takes him off guard. While the man is staggering, Brian hits him with a kick to the head. He’s out. Brian wins with almost an immediate knockout.
The crowd is on fire.
Elsie is stunned. Janie’s screaming with delight and Elizabeth is waving like a fan-girl.
Brian turns, looks directly at Elsie, takes his mouth-guard out, then gives her that boyish grin and a naughty wink.
“Holy shit!! The guy’s a total badass! Who knew?!” Elsie exclaims still stunned. Her face flushes with embarrassment as she waves at him and jumps up and down.
“He’s pretty damn cool, huh?” Marco’s says, pride for his friend evident in his voice.
“Cool is one hell of an understatement,” Elsie says, shaking her head in disbelief.
She can hear Marco chuckle behind her.
Next up is John, “The Bear” Wolfe.
Elsie is immediately a nervous wreck.
John looks fierce, scary, intense.
His opponent looks mean and angry. He’s big, hulk-like, and moving in one direction. Towards John.
The two men are reminiscent of King Kong versus Godzilla. They’re both big, mean, and very powerful warriors.
His opponent moves to grab John’s head with both hands, while raising his knee up to smash it. He almost had him, John’s head was going down to meet the knee, rapidly moving to crush his face. But John jerks back hitting him in the face with the backward motion. Using his newfound momentum, John spins hitting him with an elbow to the
