Saldano vs. Rodriguez - Queens of the Ring

Carmen was vividly aware that laughing in the middle of a beating wasn't typically considered to be the actions of a sane individual. She didn't care.

This was the sort of fight boxers dreamed of. Having your back against the wall, fighting the best the sport had to offer, fans cheering you on from all sides. Carmen didn't regret coming to the AFW and trying her hand at wrestling. She was learning to love it. But her home would always be in this ring, and it was good to be back, even if it was just for a little while. This sort of raw brutality, this pure skill, this competition...you just could not get it in wrestling. Nowhere else. She had almost forgotten what it was like.

A brutal uppercut knocked her back into reality once more, hitting her right on the chin. She managed to get her calm together fast, though, and by the time a hook came towards her side, a lowered elbow was there to meet and deflect it. It wasn't fast enough to block the straight, though. Carmen took that one right in the face, jolting her head back and bouncing off the ropes, as Lorenza started to move in for-

The bell rang. Finally.

Carmen took a second to lean against the ropes as Loreza had her little outburst. Carmen spit out her own mouthguard, though she was courteous enough not to leave them on the floor. "Yeah, I guess I am lucky, huh?" Carmen shook the cobwebs out and took a few steps Lorenza's way. "Lucky you don't hit nearly as hard as you used to."

Lorenza put her gloves on her hips and puffed out her chest as Carmen began to take a few tentative steps in her direction. She smirked when Carmen started trash talking her again, almost as if that last round hadnâ€t even happened. “Sure, sure, sure,” she replied as Carmen spoke, nodding her head. “You keep on saying that to yourself, okay? And I will keep on pounding you into dust.”

With the referee hovering nearby, Lorenza would disengage from Carmen, waving a gloved hand at the brunette boxer before turning on her heels and marching back over to her own corner. She didnâ€t bother to sit down. Her coach gave her only a few minor instructions. Her cutwoman had little additional work to do. That last round had been very good for Lorenza. If she could replicate that in the next round, this bout would be over.

Of course, she could have said the same back during their first bout…she had dominated a round back then just as thoroughly as she had dominated this fifth round now. But things had not turned out quite according to plan following that.

"Hey, Saldano!" Carmen waved back, stepping away as the referee ended their ritual between-round slam session."Holding a finger up underneath the glove." She held it up high. "Guess which one?"

Carmen bounced on her way back to the corner, hopping on he heels, feeling like...shit, but reinvigorated shit. Adrenaline, maybe. Maybe Lorenza had really knocked something loose. He'll, maybe that nap did her good. But she was ready. She could handle five more rounds. She could survive, and do more. Much more. Win.

Army shook his head as she came over and their father set out the stool."That sounded like you were laughing. Please tell me you weren't laughing."

She settled into the chair and leaned back, slowing her breathing down."I'm alright, I'm okay, I'm good."

"No, you have a lump on your eyes the size of a golfball. That's, like, the opposite of 'good'."

She let out a sigh as he pressed the enswell to her head, following it with a low moan. Numbing. Numbing was good. "Think I can keep it from blocking your eye, just stop letting her hit you in the face."

"Great strategy."

Her father looked back her way from eyeing the ring physician, and nodded Army's way. "He's not wrong. You're going toe to toe with her too much. Remember the dancing lessons."

Oh, Lord, the dancing lessons. Her father made both of the take them,with their ballerina cousins. Not the proudest moment of her life ,and the image do Army in tights did not need to be seen nor could it be unseen once seen. But, silly as it felt at the time, it had taught her footwork, how to move around the ring, how to be graceful, how to dance around your opponent. A lesson in humility and style. Both good things for a boxer to have.

"Keep her at distance." He wiped the sweat of her face and started on her shoulders. "Dance with her. Try to avoid infighting and see how her long game is doing. She wants you down, but she's going to have to come close for it, you're too similar in height for anything else."

"It'll give your face a little recoup time. Eyes closed." Army started to apply some more jelly to her eyebrows, keeping the sweat from messing up her vision. Her brother could be a doofus sometimes, sure, but he had some decent cutman skills, she had to admit.

"Exactly."

She bit her lip as Army moved on to the other brow, rubbing her gloves together as the anxiety started to grow. "Behind on points."

"We can get that back." He gave her shoulder a rub, massaging it with a skilled hand. "Stop thinking like the Olympics. Points ad judges won't mean anything if you're knocked out. Stick and move, survive and thrive."

DING!

She gave him a solid nod and stood up, putting in the next mouthgaurd. "Stick and move, survive and thrive. Stick and move, survive and thrive..."

The message which her coach gave her during the brief intermission between rounds was one of the most straightforward he had ever given Lorenza: “Keep doing what youâ€re doing, but donâ€t get cocky.” She had been thinking the same thing to herself throughout much of the fifth round. She had had Carmen on the ropes, and had had her way with the Puerto Rican woman, knocking her back and forth around the ring while barely taking even a single punch herself. But that was bound to change, unless she could knock Carmen out quickly.

When the bell rang, Lorenza would jump forward out of her corner, putting her white gloves up and approaching Carmen quickly. She was not going to waste time. She had given Carmen quite a beating, but her foe was quite the formidable woman, and every second she wasnâ€t being beaten up was a second she got stronger. Lorenza wanted to end this with a knockout as soon as possible.

“You ready to go down for good, hermanita?” Lorenza called out to her opponent, the words somewhat muffled by her mouthguard but not unintelligible. Trotting forward, she would throw a quick jab towards Carmenâ€s guard, trying to keep her opponent on the defensive and on her heels.

Stay on your toes. Stay loose. Stay fluid. Like the water crashing against the rocks - fluid, but powerful in their own. Even the strongest rocks in the world break down at the ocean's power. It's all a matter of time. Little bit by little bit.

"Been ready." She slapped her gloves together, two hard claps. "Stop making me wait."

Carmen came out of her corner fast, bouncing from side to side, making her way into Lorenza's range as the jab came, only to jump right out of it. Too fast, no time to capitalize, but Carmen was patient and precise. She could bide her time. She could play the long game.

What followed was almost as much a dance as it was a fight. Carmen was on the razor's edge, close enough for Lorenza to hit but, but far enough that she could evade with a quick step. Her shots were few and far between, but when they did, they were like gloved sniper shots, accurate and methodical, and Carmen was already starting to move after everyone made contact, giving only the smallest windows for any retaliation. Lorenza wasn't slow by any means, and Carmen didn't get off unscathed, taking a few blows here and there, even a mean right cross to the nose. But the knockout punch was elusive - she would have to get in close to put Carmen down for any amount of time, and that simply was not happening.

Lorenza scoffed as her opponent kept on trash talking her. “Youâ€re just like I remember you, Rodriguez,” she said as she closed in on her prey. “You talked like that during our first fight. It did nothing to help you win, eh?”

She threw her jab, right at Carmenâ€s face, at the other boxerâ€s guard. She expected that it would have little effect on the Puerto Rican. She did not expect Carmen to be so quick on her feet, bouncing clear out of the way like she did, causing Lorenzaâ€s punch to whiff completely. She would quickly pull her glove back in towards her body to ward off any counters from Carmen. None came, but Lorenza would reassume her usual fighting stance nonetheless, realizing that being wide-open while Carmen still had some fight left in her was not the best strategy.

The sixth round was an intricate dance. Lorenza would dance towards her opponent and throw a few punches, and then Carmen, covering her retreat with a few jabs of her own, would dance away. The Puerto Rican seemed to hover perpetually at the edge of Lorenzaâ€s range, and any punch that Lorenza managed to land did not have her full weight behind it. She got hit a handful of times herself, here and there—quick, precise shots which seemed to be intended to annoy her and harry her rather than inflict serious damage. If that was Carmenâ€s intention, she had achieved near-complete success; Lorenza could not get close enough to her to finish the job she had started in the fifth round. She could see her opportunity for a knockout fade away as the sixth round came to an end.

As the bell rang and Carmen shot Lorenza a wink, she retreated back to her corner with a good feeling. That had been a good round. Sure, she hadn't hurt Lorenza, but she was setting the pace. Controlling the fight. Getting her own stamina back, recovering from her wounds. She was hardly fresh, but she felt like she'd shaved a round or two off the fight. More energy to play with now, which meant she could start going on the offensive.

With the second round, Carmen kept up the footwork, but started throwing more tools into the mix. She would parry jabs; slap the gloves aside and give Lorenza a quick smack in the face. Jerk her body back, roll a cross off her shoulder, then charge in with hard/cross of her own, then hop on out of range once more. Retreat. Dodge. Parry. Advance. Retreat. Over and over. She took some chances, coming in fast with a sudden flurry, ending it with a hook past the guard, then backing off before Lorenza could engage and pay back. Guerrilla tactics.

It didn't always work, sure. Some blows couldn't be avoided. Sometimes she just could not get away. Sometimes her own punches whiffed.

But the strategy was working well, and she was slowly turning up the heat by minuscule degrees. Like a frog in a pot full of boiling water - turn up the heat quick, and it jumps out. But, increase it just a little bit at a time, inch by inch, and it stays to boil alive. She was hitting hard. Getting more bold. Taking dominance.

Carmen was getting hotter and hotter by the second...but by the time Lorenza would notice, she'd already be on fire.

The next round, Lorenza would revert fully to the strategy which she had started off the match with. No longer was she charging in at her Puerto Rican opponent and trying to knock her out, watching for any fancy footwork or counters as an afterthought. She was cautious, reassuming her orthodox stance, one foot forward, one pointing to the side, her gloves held at about chin level. It was a healthy balance between offense and defense, and she intended to let Carmen take the initiative—and make the mistakes—once again.

Carmen came dancing toward her, and Lorenza would throw a quick jab at the Puerto Ricanâ€s guard. Seemingly more energetic by the second, Carmen would parry it away and throw a quick punch of her own to Lorenzaâ€s face. Lorenza would stagger back, then come forward again. When Carmen danced into range, Lorenza would try to throw a varied flurry of punches at her foe. Some hit, but some didnâ€t, and a couple of well-timed counters punished her in return. At first, Lorenza was still confident that she was giving better than she got; she would still land two or three punches for every one that Carmen landed. She still felt the satisfying smack of her glove against Carmenâ€s pretty bruised face.

By the end of the round, she wasnâ€t so sure. The round seemed to have gone by in seconds, without her even realizing it. Her face throbbed, and she groaned as she headed back to her corner.

It was all about the rhythm.

It had take her, what? Seven rounds, now? To find it, and she'd taken plenty of lumps in the process. Her face felt like crap and probably looked like shit. Her nose was starting to bleed, and she would definitely have to see a doctor about her lower ribs - they felt like kindling, down there.

But she was back in the fight. Her blood was flowing, so loud she swore she could hear it raging through her veins.

She sat back in the corner as Army and her father went to work, a smile etched on her face as she peeked around Army's body, looking back at Lorenza.

"That was one good round." Army gave her a little kiss on the forehead, then pressed an icepack on there. "Swelling's start to go down, a bit. How you feel?"

"Good." She nodded, eyes fixed forward. "Damn good. She's losing some of her steam, getting cautious. Don't think she's in knockout mode, anymore."

Her father reached over and moved some invading hairs away from her eyes, stopping the problem before it started. "That's what we want, that's perfect. She's going to start letting you bring the fight. That's her mistake. Set the pace and put her down."

"Yeah." Army smirked. "And get her down long enough for an actual count this time, okay?"

"Shut it." She reached up and gave him a playful slap in the face with one hand and put the guard in with the other, just in time for the bell. Her father gave Carmen a pat on the back as she stood, and the way she took off, you might have thought his hand was rocket propelled. She practically teleported across the ring.

She dashed into Lorenza's territory, closing the distance with rapid progression. Two jabs shot out - one aimed at the face, the other aimed at the ribs, both covering the monstrous cross that followed after them. Carmen stepped into the last part of the combination, pushing forward, trying to give Lorenza as little room as she could manage.

Lorenza had lost the incredible advantage she had had in the fifth round, but she hardly had reason to worry about her chances going forward so far. “Youâ€re ahead on points,” her cutwoman Tara said, as the blonde woman pressed an icepack against Lorenzaâ€s face, trying to control the steadily increasing swelling around her eyes and mouth. “Should be the same on all three cards. And even that last round you won. Iâ€m sure of it.”

Lorenza pressed her lips together tightly. “Even the last round. The way you say it, you know…it was close. Too close. Fuck.”

“Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,” Tara replied with a shrug. Lorenza nodded, though the nuances of the English idiom were lost on her. “My grandma loved to say that.” She took the icepack off of Lorenzaâ€s head, letting the Mexican boxer relax for a moment.

Her coach leaned in. “Careful,” he said. She looked over at him, paused for a second, then nodded. “Three more rounds. Youâ€ve got this, now. Donâ€t be shy, but donâ€t take things too fast.”

“Yes,” Lorenza agreed, as the final few seconds of the break wound down. She would get back up onto her feet, replacing her mouthguard and pounding her gloves together again. The bell rang. Dropping down into her stance, she would begin to make her way towards the center of the ring…but Carmen would intercept her before she could get there. All of a sudden, the Puerto Rican had energy to spare. She moved like a bullet. Lorenzaâ€s gloves absorbed the jab aimed at her face, but the one aimed at her belly caught her, and she lowered her gloves for a second. That was a mistake. The cross caught her, and she went stumbling backwards and to the side, gloves held close together in front of her face.