Apparition

September 10th

Distractions kept lingering during my training camp. I have no choice, for academics top my priority charts. My coach says my patented laser eye of focus diminished for the pre-fight preparation. Veronika calls me calls me practically every to study hard and train like a mad man so I can kick ass on fight night. “I saw him (Trevor) train on the open workout media day. He looks really scary…you better be ready and you better win.” I smiled, Trevor Smith, nicknamed “The Hurricane” better be ready cause a real hurricane is coming for him.
The contest is at super welterweight, 154 lbs. I flew in this morning and touched down at 12:15pm in Philadelphia. I weighed 179 lbs at the start of training camp and got my weight down to 160 when I got to my hotel and weighed myself. It’s time to take a hot bath and sauna to sweat out 6 pounds. The last 6 pounds came off pretty easy. At the weigh-ins he looked ripped but I could tell he was drained from the weight cut. This is someone who is 6’ 1” who usually walks around at 185 lbs or more. His skin on his face was flaking from how much water he had depleted out of his body. I’ll be sure to take advantage of that tomorrow night. Of course, Trevor drew the most cheers from the crowd being the hometown hero while I was surprised that I didn’t get booed much. He was a quiet guy, respectable person who seems to avoid smack talk and let his fists do the talking on fight night. After the weigh-ins, my team and I went out for some pasta at a local Italian restaurant. Veronika joined us as well. “No sex the night before the fight,” my coach says to me in front of Veronika. I laugh and looked over at Veronika beside me. She was blushing.

September 11th

The arena filled up. The crowd in audience was larger than I had imagined. I was the main event and the fight coordinator back stage told me it show time. My entrance song was Eminem’s “Till I Collapse”. He made his entrance with Jay Z, Kanye West, Rihanna's "Run This Town" and when he was introduced by the ring announcer, the arena went berserk. The ring I was standing on was shaking from how loud the place was. It sent chills down my spine. When both our national anthems were sung, the opening bell started off the first round. I jumped at the opportunity to catch him early in the first round. He covered up brilliantly. I had to use my footwork to explore angles. I got him with a few hard body shots and one straight into the solar plexus. He clipped the top of my head couple times but I was alright. My coach told me in my corner that he over commits on his left hook and that he couldn’t handle my speed. So he instructed me to increase my punch volume after I blind him with my jab. Second round commenced, we both started out strong, coming into the center of the ring exchanging blow for blow. I managed to clip him with my left hook on the tip of his nose and he backed away. His nose was crooked to the side. I broke his nose for sure. He backed away quickly and regained his composure. As the round progressed blood was pouring down both nostrils of his nose but he had the fighting spirit within him. He didn’t shy away one bit and actually became more aggressive. The crowd was behind him chanting his name. With a few seconds left in the second round, we clashed heads, the corner of his forehead hit my temple. It knocked the equilibrium out of me and I clinched with him to hold myself up. The round ended and I wobbled to my corner. I tried to walk normally back to my corner to not show weakness but now I was dizzy and for once the distance from where I was in the ring to my corner seemed so far away. I knew I was winning all two rounds. I went to my corner catching my breath. My trainer gave me instructions. For some odd reason my ears were plugged and my vision blurred. The canvas under me felt like it was swaying side to side. My consciousness returned when my trainer Chris punched me lightly on the chest, “Get him this round!” The bell rung and the 3rd round began. He came out of his corner guns blazing and swarmed me. I stayed relaxed bobbing, weaving and parrying through all the punches. He connected with an uppercut I never saw coming. I could practically feel my brain hit the back of my skull. It was a like a short circuit in my body. It zapped all the energy out of me. My legs became rubber. I staggered to the ropes to hold me up. He kept firing shots at me at a violently fast rate. I covered up well avoiding most direct hits. The crowd were screaming on their feet. My head was faced down and the ropes were the only thing holding me up. I was in serious trouble. Suddenly, I had a blurred tunnel vision; my ears filtered the noise leaving only to hear my own heart beat. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. My mind flashes back to my family, friends, my training staff and everyone who got me where it was today. All the hard training day in and day out, I had a vision of them all turning their backs on me and walking away from me. “You gotta fight back or I’m stopping the fight!” yelled the referee. I snapped back to reality. I suddenly felt a surge of energy. My legs stiffened and were under me again. I started to roll with the punches and countered with a hard body shot followed by a hard uppercut straight up the middle. His head cocked back. I pushed him back. He came back at me with his right hand like the punches didn’t affect him at all. I ducked under, torque my hips and came up with a thunderous left hook sending him to the canvas. His body was stiff on the point of impact when my fist connected to his chin. His eyes were open but he lied on the mat faced down motionless. The referee didn’t even do the standing eight count and signaled the fight was over. I helped Trevor up to his feet when he woke up from the knock out. The crowd acknowledged with applause for an appreciation for a good fight. As I made my exit back to the locker room the fight fans stopped me to take pictures and sign autographs for them. I stayed until every single one of them was satisfied. Surprisingly, one of the people that requested a picture with me was the biker who swung at me at the bar last month. He recognized me and congratulated me on my victory. He took back what he said at the bar last month and gave me a sincere apology. He lifted his shirt up showed me his body cast from the punch I threw that broke his ribs. He asked me to sign it and I willingly did. I apologized for breaking his ribs. He replied, “I deserved it champ! Don’t be sorry…you fought an awesome fight tonight!”

Damn, I love putting on a good show!