Anne Sachman vs. Lorenza Saldano

Lorenza didn't care whether it had been a full three minutes or not. She didn't bother to stick around to listen to her opponent bicker with the referee girl over how she had timed the round. The boxer quickly retreated to her corner, practically stumbling across the ring as she did, before sitting down on the stool that was provided for her, rubbing at her face with both gloved hands, then grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat from her brow.

"Ugh...fuck it...come on..." she grumbled to herself. She had known that the muay thai rounds might not end well for her, but it had still been rather jarring to be beaten up so easily. She was a world champion, after all. Losing was not in her DNA. In her official professional career, she had never been defeated. Her sole loss had come to Carmen Rodriguez during their rematch here at AFW, and even in that loss Lorenza had never been so dominated as she had been in the first round of this fight.

She was going to get her revenge in the next round. As the seconds ticked away and the time to fight again arrived, Lorenza stood up and reinserted her mouthguard, staring across the ring at her opponent, eyes glowing with silent intensity as she stepped forward, pounding her gloves together.

3 minutes without her legs? Without elbows? Without throws? Without committing an accidental foul? Without, frankly, her dignity? How long could that be? Anne shot an ugly look at the ref. Apparently, not THAT long. Every single second on the stool was trepidation itself, but when Lorenza stared right back across the ring, the promise of hell fresh in her eyes, Anne had to despite the butterflies in her stomach. She placed her mouthguard back in, never once leaving Lorenza's stare, and went back to the center of the ring.

A glove punch started the second round, and Anne brought her arms up to guard, planning to squander as much time as possible on defense and wasted clinches. She wouldn't win this round, she had told herself time and again, but she could both strive to deny Lorenza the satisfaction of a revenge knockdown, as well as keep the damage done to her to the bare minimum.

Three minutes. What could one do in three minutes?

She eyed the way Lorenza's left leg subtly twitched. She eyed the beginnings of the bruise on her Abs and the way her head moved betrayed some pain.

Shit. Shit, shit shit shit shit.

The bell rang to start the second round—Lorenza's round. She was still hurting from the pounding she had taken in the first round of the fight, but not so much that she wouldn't be able to use Anne as her own personal punching bag in this round. Better still, the next fighting round—after a long break for chess—was to be a boxing round, too.

Lorenza had knocked out plenty of opponents in the first round. Now, she had two to do her worst on a girl who would be just as out of her element as Lorenza had been when they had fought in Anne's muay thai style.

Lorenza would advance on Anne quickly, confidently, with only her somewhat sore leg hampering her and slowing her down. As she got within range of her foe, she would throw an exploratory jab, testing Anne's guard, getting close, almost taunting Anne with the fact that she could no longer assail Lorenza's vulnerable legs. After the jab, Lorenza would throw a lightning-fast combination of punches—left jab, right hook, left hook—all aimed at Anne's face, as Lorenza waited to see how well her foe could block.

Her first instinct was to kick out at Lorenza, plant a swift, sharp foot straight into her to put some distance between them. Anne knew then, more than ever, that she was a foul waiting to happen, and is was as much a problem Lorenza was gonna be. She caught the first jab handily on her glove...and then she ran. Her stance shifted subtly, and when the punches came she didn't even bother taking them head on. She moved back, backpedaling a little, her head leaning back, letting the punches hit air. She made a quick side-glance behind, a check to see how far the ropes were: nearer than she liked. She did not want to be cornered.

Lorenza's first jab was caught by Anne's gloves, just as she had anticipated it would be. She expected the others to catch Anne in a similar way. She wanted to test Anne's guard. That was part of the game. But Anne didn't seem interested in playing Lorenza's way. She backpedaled, and Lorenza's combination met nothing but air as her opponent retreated from her punishing punches.

Lorenza growled frustratedly, and she would follow her opponent, stalking her towards the ropes, waiting for Anne to run out of room to run. She would keep jabbing at her foe, first a right, then a left, then a right again, trying to keep the pressure on Anne. Either she would stop retreating and fight, or she would run out of room and back herself into a corner. Either way, Lorenza would have her.

Lorenza was forcing her back and doing it hard and fast. That last jab caught her on the guard, and another side glanced confirmed what she feared: she was slowly being forced all the way to the ropes where Lorenza could wail on her with impunity. She considered a rope-a-dope tactic for a moment, before mentally laughing it off. A rope-a-dope. On a boxer. Ha. Even if she did try it out, she hadn't sold enough on her offense to fool Lorenza. Which left her that one painful option...

She pushed forward, catching the jabs on her guard, and punching back with her own strong jab into Lorenza's face. That quick bit of offense cost her a glancing blow on her mouth. It didn't look like much to the audience, but she tasted blood. Hopefully, her own bit of offense could throw Lorenza back if only a bit.

Anne made her choice, and it was the one which Lorenza had been hoping the muay thai practitioner would make. The younger woman stopped backpedaling, planted her feet, and chose to fight. Lorenza's gloved fist skid along the edge of Anne's mouth. In response, Anne threw a jab which very nearly struck Lorenza head-on in the absence of her guard.

Quickly, the Mexican fighter bobbed her head to the side, though she was still forced to wince as Anne's glove slid along the side of her head. She didn't mind that pain. Not when she had an opportunity presenting itself here.

"Haaa!" Lorenza would yell, as she would throw another quick jab at Anne's face, and then would duck low, sending a swinging hook into Anne's side, trying to pound her in the ribs.

Anne saw the jab coming, but she didn't the body hook. She brought her arms up to deflect the jab, turning it aside - right when Lorenza came at her low, and struck her at exactly the same spot she did in the first round. The earlier receding pain swelled up, and multiplied twofold, and Anne made a muffled whimper of pain through her mouthguard. She staggered backwards, one hand clutching her ribs. She didn't think they were broken, but they smarted as fuck.

Anne tried to pivot her way out of this increasing small side of the ring. Biting down her pain, she advanced on Lorenza, throwing a two-jab combination at her guard, before pivoting out a little, trying to get to the other side of Lorenza, to force her positioning to the broader side of the ring, giving her much more space to maneuver

Lorenza's body hook buried into Anne's side. The whimper was soft and low, but Lorenza just caught it at the edge of her hearing. It spurred her on. Adrenaline was now really kicking into high gear as Lorenza knew she had the advantage over her foe. There was still plenty of time in this round to pound on Anne. Lorenza was going to send her to the mat, more than once. She was going to make up for her own pitiful performance in the first round, and more.

Anne staggered back following the blow to her ribs, but rallied and would begin to advance on Lorenza. She threw a combination, two jabs aimed at Lorenza's guard, which the Mexican boxer absorbed handily. Anne pivoted then, trying to make it to the other side of Lorenza.

Lorenza did not intend to let her. If Anne did manage to make it around her, the muay thai fighter would make it only much worse for wear than when she had begun. Lorenza would throw a jab with her right glove, in the same direction as her opponent's pivot, trying to slip it behind the other woman's guard to tag her in the ear, almost pushing her along in her effort to make it to the center of the ring.

Then, Lorenza would bring a thunderous left hook around, hoping to let Anne run right into her fist as she tried to drill it into the opposite side of the other woman's head.

Anne completed her pivot, transiting fully to the left, open side of the ring in one smooth movement. Lorenza's efforts only seemed to aid her, the jab barely grazing her ear. She steadied her guard, ready to-

She never saw the hook coming. Correction: she did, for a split second anyway; she turned her head in time just to make it so much worse.

There was an audible crack, but, incredibly, Anne did not drop immediately. She took a step back with that absolutely stunned look on her face, blood leaking out of a broken nose...and then her knees buckled and she fell, mercifully, backwards. Shit, she thought, she got me, the words repeating themselves as lay on her back, her eyes closed and her chest heaving up and down.