Anne Sachman vs. Lorenza Saldano

Anne's motion actually greatly aided the hook. She was facing Lorenza at an angle, her guard not facing the Mexican boxer exactly. And the way she was moving meant that she plowed blindly right into the hook, barely ever even seeing it. There was an audible crack as Lorenza's white glove slammed into Anne's face.

When the boxer drew back her glove, it was stained with red, stained with blood from Anne's nose. Lorenza looked into Anne's eyes. The muay thai practitioner seemed severely stunned, and, soon enough, she collapsed back down onto the canvas.

Lorenza watched her fall, almost surprised by her own power. Two years since her career had ended, and after some bad luck lately, it felt good to be back in this way. She raised a glove to her fans as they roared, and backed up, giving Anne some space as the referee came in.

"One!"

Anne thought about the last time she had a broken nose. It was, uh, 2009. French gal, non-title, lovely bob of strawberry blonde hair. Flying knee to the face. She was down for, uh, 4 beats? 5? She won that one. She couldn't quite remember how at the moment, but she won that one, and she was gonna win this one too. She was gonna stand - the moment the lights stopped shining like the sun pressed to straight to her corneas.

"Two!"

Hero or not, inspiration or not, she was gonna pay Saldano back for what she did. She was gonna down her in her own round. She didn't know how, and she didn't really care to think with the pulsing pain in her face, but she was gonna do it. She's been delivering knockouts willy nilly for years, but as far as she knew, the Tiger had never taken what she had received. Fuck this shit, pride was on the line.

"Three!"

Focus. Anne needed to focus, needed to think how to not only survive the two rounds worth of beatings, but to actually contribute to the damage for her own 6 minutes later. Lorenza was better than her - in the same way a snake was better than a crocodile if they both didn't have legs, she guessed. She couldn't hit below the belt, she couldn't touch her legs, she couldn't use her elbows-

Stymied her momentum, right? Easier said than done.

Anne took one deep breath, then two. She wiped the blood off her nose-

"Four!"

-and got up. She gave the Referee a strong nod, indicating continuation. She resumed her stance, but it was a little more muay thaish this time, hands a bit higher.

Lorenza waited. It was only four seconds, but, boy, did it feel like a long four seconds that Anne stayed down. The boxer was starting to get a little excited, wondering if the loop that she had thrown Anne for was just a little too long for her to return in time to beat the ten-count. It had happened before. Plenty of times. One solid punch from Lorenza could floor even a tough opponent.

But not Anne. Lorenza had already figured Anne to be tougher than most of the women she had fought during her career. She was younger, and just as decorated as Lorenza on an international level.

And, as she got back up and dropped back into a fighting stance, blood covering much of her face, Lorenza had to admit that Anne was pretty damn hot, too.

Once Anne was up, Lorenza would reign in her wandering mind and refocus on the matter at hand. She had knocked Anne down once. Now she was going to knock her down again, to make up in full for the two knockdowns Lorenza had suffered during the muay thai round. The boxer would advance on her foe again, staring deep into Anne's eyes, her smirk betraying a renewed sense of confidence. Lorenza was going to really pound Anne into the canvas.

Letting out a loud grunt as she swung, Lorenza would send a hard right straight at Anne's face, hoping to force her foe to raise her guard, and then move in close, hoping to pepper her foe's midsection with a series of lightning-fast jabs.

Anne narrowed her eyes dangerously, glaring right back at the Tiger. She must have looked ghastly, with fresh blood stained on her face and a bruised nose, and she so badly wanted to see that reflected in Lorenza's own face, to wipe out that smug smirk and replace it with an imprint of a foot.

For all the pain it caused her, at least Anne got back to the broader side of the ring. Backtracking defense didn't quite work right, so Anne was gonna fall back on alternate between cautious, opportunistic offense and small retreats to tide her through. She advanced just as Lorenza advanced, and, mercifully, she saw the feint this time for what it was. She darted back, and Lorenza exploded after her, delivering a series of jabs into her tummy. She took two thundering blows that made her shudder and cough, before she moved in for the clinch.

Lorenza moved in, throwing her hard straight high to try to move Anne’s guard upwards, then moving in close to pepper Anne’s stomach and chest with jabs. Anne recognized what was about to happen an instant before Lorenza initiated the barrage and started to move back. The Mexican boxer followed her foe closely, throwing jab after jab. Some of them whiffed, some were absorbed by Anne’s gloves, but a pair of them pounded into Anne’s belly, reddening the skin and making the woman cough and splutter.

Lorenza wanted to do some more work in at close range, but Anne would lean forward at that point and wrap her arms around Lorenza in a clinch. Lorenza grunted frustratedly and took a step back as her opponent’s weight was put on her. She felt Anne’s chest heaving against her own. Lorenza would growl through her mouthguard, her mouth very close to Anne’s ear, as she would put her gloves on the other fighter’s shoulders and give her a shove, trying to force her off so that they could continue. Soon, the referee girl would come in to help disentangle the two.

Lorenza shoved hard but Anne would not budge. In response to the growl, Anne whispered a muffled 'tick, tock." into Lorenza's ear, clinging on for dear life. How could any sportsperson like this sport? It was so rigid, and so limited. They could have hurt each other several times over in muay thai or MMA within the constraints of this clinch, but here they were struggling uselessly. God gave the fighter 8 limbs, and man made a combat sport that used only his 2 weakest ones. Of frickin' course.

The ref came to separate them, and Anne did so with a little bit of fanfare, holding on for a few more seconds longer until the ref had to begin physically plying her off. She raised her hands in a gesture of 'okay, fine.' and when the match continued, Anne came in hard, sending a jab straight to Lorenza's head, a quick feint, before throwing an under punch into her tummy.

Lorenza’s nostrils flared and she let out a louder growl, punctuated by something that might have been a lurid description of where Anne could shove her little ticking clock routine. Lorenza knew that time was of the essence, and already it seemed that it was running out. Every second the clinch lasted meant tone less second Lorenza could use to pound her opponent into the canvas. Anne wasn’t just tough—she was smart, too.

Finally, she allowed the referee to separate them, and, once they had both taken a couple of steps back, the official would signal for the match to resume. Lorenza would move in quickly, gloves up, ready to continue pounding on Anne. Anne came in fast, too, and, as Lorenza was winding up for her own punch, Anne tossed a quick jab at the Mexican’s face. Professionally, Lorenza blocked the jab. She would immediately move to counter, throwing a jab of her own at Anne’s face to test her reaction time following the knockdown and the clinch.

As she did that, Lorenza left herself open for Anne’s next punch. The under-handed punch drove into her belly, and Lorenza’s eyes bugged for an instant as she spluttered a little, moving backwards a step, before planting her feet hard on the mat. She wasn’t going to start losing in her own round. If Anne tried to follow up on her successful tummy strike, she would find a barrage of jabs, all aimed for her already-bloody face, waiting for her.

Finally, some momentum. She was forcing the Tiger back, if only barely. Anne slipped her head a little to the right, letting Lorenza's counter jab graze her. She would not be stopped now, not by an exploratory jab. Anne would follow up her under-hand punch with a backfist, taking her momentum into a swerve that slammed-

Backfists were illegal, weren't they? A legit boxing hit was counted by the front knuckles of the hand, and a backfist, by the very definition of it, was-

-As her reflexes nearly damned her, so too did they save her - from a disqualification, at least, but not from Lorenza's retaliatory jabs. Anne's swerve took her fist to the side and down, way off from the intended spot on Lorenza's face that she had wanted to connect with. At the same time, the first jab took her straight in the face, followed by the second. The third never connected, for Anne fell again -Forward, this time, her arms the only thing saving her from a faceplant.

She didn't wait for the count. She pushed herself back up immediately, though it was more out of pride than anything else; out of the sense that she had already given Lorenza 4 seconds, and nothing else would be granted this round. She was still clearly groggy, a dazed look on her face, but she brought her arms up regardless. not entirely sure how she was gonna weather the next...

This round could have gone on for an hour, and she would have believed it.

Lorenza saw the awkward way that Anne twisted her fist down to avoid striking Lorenza in a way that would merit disqualification. It was a sign that Anne was really struggling to conform to the rules of boxing. Lorenza couldn't feel bad for her opponent, of course, as she had had the same issue when they were fighting in the muay thai round. The Tigress was not going to show her opponent any mercy at all.

She pounded Anne's face with one punch, then another. Before the third could hit, Anne fell flat on her face. The woman went down right in front of Lorenza, her hands smacking against Lorenza's feet as she hit the mat. The boxer began to back up, extricating her wrapped feet out from underneath Anne. She didn't have to wait long for her opponent to get back up. Anne popped back up, looking dazed and groggy but determined.

Lorenza smirked and pounded her gloves. She didn't know how much time was left, but she was going to make the most of it.

She dove in towards Anne, throwing a quick feint at her face, then ducking in low, trying to hammer the woman's midsection with several jabs. She wanted to drive Anne back into a corner where there would be no escape.

Ya know what? Fuck Lorenza. Fuck her smirk. Fuck that little pound she did right before she entered the fray. Fuck her aggression. Fuck getting knock downed. Fuck the pounding in the head and the soreness in her chest. Fuck the numb sensation that told her her nose wasn't quite right. Fuck clinching.

Calm. She had to focus. She had to-

Fuck focus. No, don't fuck focus - but fuck everything else! She was a winner, a champion, and in no universe did anyone have the right to fuck her like this. She didn't care what she had to do, and at the immediate moment, she cared nothing for her long-term game plan. The round was lost, and no amount of time would give her the chance to take it back by fists alone. What she had left was to put Lorenza in her place, do what her opponent couldn't do in her own round - knock her down on the steps of her own grand palace.

Anne dove in just as Lorenza did. She saw the feint a little too late, but when Lorenza started the hammering, admidst the jolts of thundering pain, she made her move. Anne's right arm whipped out, lightning quick, throwing a haymaker right into the Tiger's head.