Anne Sachman vs. Lorenza Saldano

“You just keep thinking you know everything about me,” Lorenza would reply, getting more and more frustrated with Anne once again. The muay thai practitioner was just absolutely full of it, and she needed to have some sense beaten into her. “It’s going to really fuck you over once you realize how wrong you are.” She wasn’t going to take any of this shit anymore. Lorenza looked at the referee again. Again, the woman shook her head. Lorenza felt like it had been twenty minutes, now. How much longer was this going to take?

She moved her queen back and set up her bishop. Anne didn’t care. The younger fighter stared Lorenza down as she took the boxer’s queen. Immediately, without breaking eye contact, Lorenza would retaliate. She felt around and found her bishop, then moved it swiftly forward, knocking Anne’s queen down with a clatter. Lorenza would grab the piece and toss it over her shoulder. She took an uppercut from Anne, and then gave an uppercut right back. It was almost enough to make her see the appeal of this crummy board game.

She still couldn’t wait to get back to beating the shit out of Anne with her fists, though. How much longer was it going to be?

Anne just stared right back. The budding civility that had almost begun quickly evaporated; scattered to the winds. One of them was gonna walk away from this and now, more than ever, Anne needed it to be her. She needed validation. She needed this win. If she let Lorenza walk away with the win while she slept on the ground, she would regret this moment for the rest of her fuckin' life.

Still looking at Lorenza, she picked up a pawn...

And the bell rang.

Mercifully, it was over.

The bell rang. Finally. Lorenza was done with chess. She couldn’t stand just sitting there, inches away from an opponent whose face she wanted to rearrange, and instead of hitting each other, the two of them were moving little ceramic horsies and castles back and forth across a lousy checkerboard. Even at its most interesting, it was still a terrible bore. Worse still, lactic acid was probably going to start building up in her muscles if she sat around for much longer. Lorenza needed to get up. She needed to move.

“Finally,” Lorenza growled. She kicked back from the chess table and hopped back up onto her feet. Quickly, the staff members moved in to remove the table and the chairs. The referee came back around, too, carrying Lorenza’s gloves and sliding them back onto the Tijuana Tigress’s fists. Once they were laced back up, Lorenza would smirk and pound them together again.

“You make sure that that clock is working—¿comprendes, amiga?” Lorenza would say to the referee, pointing to her stopwatch. That chess round had seemed to last forever.

She would then turn back to Anne and point a blood-stained white glove at her opponent. “You ready to get fucked up?” she would call out, as final preparations were made for the second boxing round of the evening.

Anne just stared as the ref laced the gloves back onto Lorenza, then came over to do the same for her. She looked at the chessboard, contemplating just nudging it over by 'accident', but restrained herself. She wasn't gonna get herself potentially disqualified for that crappy game. When her gloves were laced on, Anne met Lorenza at the center of the ring, rolling her eyes at her opponent's bravado.

"Grandma," The sweet poison was in her tone and in the way she smiled. "What a big mouth you have."

She was done with this. She was so frickin' done with all of this. There was a dozen ways this was going to end - and all of them involved Lorenza in a state of compromised health or dignity. Anne brought up her arms as the bell rang; this was the last round of hell before Anne could gain back her elbows and her legs, and she was going to make Lorenza pay for every inch of it.

The chess board was removed, very carefully, and was set on the floor just outside of the ring. Lorenza could just barely see it, peeking out at her above the ring apron. She scowled when she looked at it. It seemed as if the chess board was taunting her. It wanted to decide this match. Lorenza was not going to give it a chance to do that. She and Anne could find common ground there, if nowhere else. This was ending with a knockout, not with a checkmate. No way in hell.

Lorenza smirked as Anne taunted her again. “What a big hole I’m going to be punching in your pretty face,” Lorenza would taunt in reply, putting her gloves up in front of her face as the referee got ready to ring the bell. “This is going to be fun, you know.”

The bell would ring, and Lorenza would immediately throw herself forward. She would throw a quick jab right at Anne’s guard, and then follow it up with a hard right hook. She wanted to go from zero to sixty in less than a second. She wanted to knock Anne on her ass again, and soon.

"For me, maybe." Anne shot back coolly, meeting her stare with a shrug and dismissive snort. In her mind, however, she was scrambling; angry, panicked, and trying to think, to plan. She didn't just wanna beat Lorenza now - she walked in here intimidated by her record, by her legacy, by her legend. In her weaker moments leading up to the fight, there were many times she didn't even think she could win, found herself getting caught in the 'standing toe-to-toe with her is enough' trap.

Now?

She wanted Lorenza to burn.

No, she wanted Lorenza to cry.

It wasn't enough to win by a hair's inch; it had to be decisive and final and undeniable and she wanted to stare into Lorenza's face as the light snuffed out of her world. In a pure boxing match, that dream would have been impossible - but Anne wasn't a boxer, and getting into that mentality would put her in a loser's game against the best. So...

So when Lorenza came for her, she did silva'ed her; she dropped her guard and threw her head back once, returned, then threw it back again for the hook. She was no professional boxer - but she was younger, she was better, and she liked to think that extended to her footwork. She patted her hard tummy once, daring Lorenza to attack.

It was another boxing round, following that useless round of chess that both women seemed to prefer never having to deal with again. Lorenza was ready to finish Anne off. She wanted to make this young punk hit the canvas this round. But she didn't want to let Anne off too easily—not after all the shit that the younger fighter had been talking for this whole match. Lorenza wanted to beat Anne black and blue before putting her out of her misery. She knew that, once they were on Anne's "home turf" again, that would become much more difficult, and so Lorenza came out firing on all cylinders now, throwing a left jab immediately followed by a hard right hook.

Anne avoided the attacks. She seemed to be saying that she no longer wanted to play the game the way it should be played at all—even if she wasn't exactly cheating. She backed up and dipped her head backwards, began to bring it forward again, then threw it back a second time when Lorenza's hook came in. Anne was just trying to avoid Lorenza's punches for long enough that the bell would ring and they would switch back to her muay thai so that she could kick Lorenza's ass—literally—again.

She patted her abs, trying to goad Lorenza into doing something rash. Lorenza scoffed, even laughed, and rolled her eyes at what the younger girl was trying to do. Lorenza was apparently fighting a twelve year-old.

Well, Anne had a much more impressive physique than any twelve year-old Lorenza had ever seen.

Lorenza put up her gloves, keeping them tight together in front of her face, as she would then swoop in, her footwork carrying her swiftly and closing the already narrow distance between them in a second. Lorenza really did want to pound that hard tummy, but that could wait. She would throw a straight right shot at Anne's face, then bring her green glove back into place in front of her face. Then she would throw a left hook, swiping at her foe's cheek. Lorenza was being very deliberate, very careful about the shots she took—she wanted to get Anne to make a mistake. If Anne went low, Lorenza would get her. And if she tried to trade shots, Lorenza would get her...

Even when she was expecting it, even when she knew Lorenza would have likely taken that opening, the Tiger's speed still caught her off guard. The first straight would have took Anne right in the face had she not thrown herself back again - but she was losing ground. She couldn't feel them yet, but she knew the ropes were close, far closer than she would have liked. The left came, calm and steady, and Anne did bring up her arms to block, warding the swift jab to the side. She should have known that Lorenza had too much boxing IQ to fall for such a-

Right, Boxing IQ.

What she was about to do could very well change the match, though in who's favor remained undecided.

As Lorenza's hand returned to guard, Anne...kicked.

It wasn't a full kick, and she prayed that Lorenza didn't make any sudden movements to make contact with it. It was a fast and sharp kick, ostensibly aimed at Lorenza's side, only for the heel to withdraw back to the ground as quickly as it rose. Anne hoped that Lorenza would respond to it, hoped her trick would fool her opponent's muscle memory into trying to guard the kick. At the same time, Anne's feet would return to the floor, allowing her other leg to spring up, sending her a foot into the air. She raised her fist as she did...

Hoping to aim a superman smashing straight into Lorenza's face.

Lorenza ignored Anne's taunting and her ridiculous attempts to try to coax the Mexican former champion into doing something stupid, and fired a pair of rockets right at Anne's pretty face. Anne, being light on her feet by virtue of her muay thai training, backpedaled and dodged the first punch completely, then brought her gloves up to deflect the second one. Lorenza had to admit...this was pretty frustrating. She wanted to end things in this round, before she had to submit to being beaten up in her opponent's round and then be forced to endure another ridiculous, boring chess round.

The good thing was that Anne was backpedaling, constantly retreating, running away and losing points with each narrow escape she made. She was either going to trap herself against the ropes or get brutalized by the judges on their scorecards for her actions this round.

Or...blatantly cheat.

Lorenza almost ran right into Anne's foot. It would have been good enough to get her an automatic point deduction for this round, on top of losing it to begin with, and if the connection had been hard enough it might have been enough for a disqualification. But Lorenza did not run into her foe's foot. She was used to paying attention to footwork, especially when she fought southpaws and had to avoid stepping on her opponent's feet. As Anne's foot began to come up, Lorenza would shift one of her own legs backwards, giving Anne a bit of space.

Anne took that space and ran with it. She sprang forward and leapt up, aiming an unorthodox Superman-style uppercut at Lorenza's chin. Lorenza was not ready for that. This wasn't boxing. It wasn't Anne's muay thai either. But...fuck, it was effective. Lorenza's chin was hit hard by the punch, and her head snapped upwards. She yelped in surprise as spittle flew from her mouth, and her mouthpiece almost fell out. She stumbled backwards, suddenly feeling woozy, barely staying on her feet. Even once she regained her balance, she backed up a couple more steps, knowing that she needed as much space as she could get to recover. She lifted her gloves and held them in a tight guard to protect her face.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!

It worked.

Lorenzo Saldano. The Tijuana Tiger. La Única e Incomparable. The Tyson, the Ali, The Mayweather, The Golovkin of Woman's Professional Boxing. Undefeated in official boxing combat. Winner of such prestigious titles as the International Boxing Alliance title belt and the Global Boxing Union Belt-

Was caught by a kick that never was and a child's idea of a punch. In a boxing match. The Queen was mobbed in her own palace with cheap replicas of her own crowned jewels. Even if Lorenza did win, and Anne was quick to banish that heinous thought from her mind, The tiger would never live it down for the rest of her fighting career. Anne would have burst out laughing if not for her mouthguard.

And as Lorenza stumbled and backpedaled and put space in between them, Anne pushed her advantage. She had stalled during the last boxing round, to limited success, but her punch emboldened her, gave her confidence, and told her one simple truth: Lorenza was the best female boxer in the world, perhaps now and forever - but this was barely a boxing match, and the queen could not adapt.

Anne went low for the exposed belly - a feint. She wanted to draw the rocked Lorenza low to catch her real target. Earlier in the rounds, Lorenza broke her nose. Knocked her down.

Her left arm came out in a hook, planning to return the exact favor.