SS 16 hardcore Title Match: Adrian Kytes (C) Vs. Alicia Wells in the Sea Lion's Den

Knee aching and her arm and skull feeling the enziguri more than she’d want to admit, it was probably luck rather than good aim that saw that forearm connect. Regardless, it seemed that neither woman was eager to rush right back into the fight – instead using the opportunity to take a breath and regain their composure.

Under normal circumstances, the brief pause in Adrian’s attack would have been the cue for Alicia to press an attack of her own. As it was, the big redhead was happy to take the brief reprieve offered, backing off a little more and taking the weight off her battered knee. Her leg could use the break and she didn’t trust Adrian not to try something if she just ran on in.

Aggression was good. Attacking for the sake of it wasn’t, not against someone as slippery as Adrian was proving to be, and she’d be needing that leg later.

So Alicia eyed the champion warily, keeping her distance as she felt the stabbing pains in her knee start to fade. It’d ache for a while yet but she’d take whatever time and relief she could.

Both competitors seemed to lose interest in staying on offence for the time being in preference to just recovering, let the adrenaline seep in and take the pain away before going for whatever the next step was, and for Adrian: that step was literally backwards.

All this rushing in and being knocked back wasn't a good thing to keep up, and while working the leg was fine she was slowing down and Alicia could hit her before Adrian could hit the redhead. Time for an equalizer, and fortunately there just happened to be a few scattered around the top of the cage.

Stepping back before she turned around, Adrian went to be the first person to grab a weapon, the cage wasn't that high but it still left her exposed as she crawled up to poke her head over the edge, her hand running along the balcony for something to grab before she climbed back down, this time with a pair of nunchucks... not the ideal weapon but there was a first time for everything.

Even the brief rest was doing wonders for the pain in her knee. It’d be a while before it was as full strength, but she thought she’d be able to kick with it. Maybe even get a decent scissors locked in so long as she could keep Adrian from hammering at it.

But she couldn’t stay standing around forever – nor would she want to. And seeing the champ starting to back up, it was clear things were about to heat up again. Either she was about to run at Alicia again, in which case she’d regret it or…

She was going for the weapons. The second Adrian turned her back, the big redhead was in motion.

Alicia wasn’t moving as fast as she’d have liked but, with the small space, she was still able to cover the distance between them rapidly. Keeping her approach as silent as she could, the kickboxer went to drive her boot into Adrian’s back hard and fast with a side kick before she could turn around. That way, if she’d got her timing wrong, she’d got a chance of catching the champion’s head between a rock and a hard place instead.

As she moved in, she could see that Adrian hadn’t come away empty handed from the weapons littering the top – all the more reason to get the upper hand before the other wrestler got to use the two batons chained together she’d seemingly grabbed.

Those were going to be awkward to fight but at the least Adrian probably wasn’t much of an expert with them either. There was a certain simplicity to a chair or a metal pipe but those? Alicia was pretty sure technique had to be involved.

Adrian was all smiles as she climbed back down the cage, weapon firmly in hand, a smile that was soon to be pressed firm into the steel cage as Alicia's shin caught her right in the spine, pushing the former cosplayer into the wire mesh with a resounding crash before she bounced back, staggering as she tried to get back to face Alicia. Stupid stealthy amazons... Adrian mentally growled as she struggled to keep hold of one of the batons, while getting some semblance of a guard up. Not the position she wanted to be in at all.

For someone her size and build, Alicia could be surprisingly stealthy when she wanted to be. Certainly, she’d managed to get the drop on Adrian, slamming the brunette into the cage with her kick. It wasn’t ever going to be a fight winning move but she’d succeeded in staggering her opponent and giving herself a chance to take control of things.

The brunette slammed into the cage, bounced off and started to turn around but the kickboxer didn’t mean to let her regroup or throw up defences.

Looking to keep the momentum of the fight going her way, Alicia kept pushing. As Adrian started to turn to face her, the redhead bulled forward, looking to slam her forearm against the champion’s throat and pin her back against the cage. At the same time, with her free hand, she’d start to volley short, sharp body blows into Adrian’s belly and ribs as hard and fast as she could, with the odd knee for variety.

Basically, Alicia was going to unload into her opponent until either something stopped her or something cracked. Not the nicest way to fight, but if Adrian wanted to fight a MMA trained fighter in what was basically a MMA cage, this was what she’d got to expect.

And, hey, she was the Hardcore champion. She could take a little pounding, but keeping on those ribs should slow her down and let Alicia dictate the pace of the match going forward.

Adrian was not having a good time up against the cage, no sir. Pinned to it with a big forearm in her throat, Alicia wasn't even letting her double over from pain as the big red-head went to work, making Adrian pay for hubris with the match type as she went to town on Adrian's toned abs and ribs, trying to see if she could get a crack before she finished, or the former cosplayer stopped her.

With one arm just trying to dislodge the red-head's forearm, Adrian didn't have a lot of room to maneuver, she could try and curl up, leaning back into the slant of the cage and get her knees up to block any more punishment heading her way, but that was only a temporary solution at best. Still, she'd got a pair of nunchucks, better use them. Gripping one of the Batons she swung up under Alicia's arm, trying to get it so the second baton would carry the momentum and swing to hit the big Brit on the back of the head.

With one arm and zero leverage, Adrian’s chances of shifting Alicia’s forearm from its position under her chin were slim to none so the redhead didn’t bother trying to stop her. Instead, she just kept laying those crisp, snapping punches into the ribs and abs. Having hit the champion in the body with a couple of kicks already, working them more played to her advantage.

Of course, Adrian knew that. Alicia had just landed a knee when the champion pulled a smart move. Pulling her knees up shielded her from any further strikes to the body but it also put all her weight on Alicia’s arm. Not a problem short term but she didn’t know how long the other wrestler could keep her legs up.

She was just considering what she could – or should – do next because this wasn’t getting her anywhere when something slammed into the back of her skull. It was hard, staggering the big kickboxer, but whatever it was hadn’t really had the angle or force to do much more. Still, the surprise alone was enough to distract her and knock her slightly off balance.

Enough to shift her position, so that her forearm’s press against Adrian’s throat loosened as the redhead shook her head to clear it.

Alicia was mostly trying to work out what had just hit her.

Adrian's unorthadox weapon choice got her a little more space, and a little less pressure on her throat as well, but it hadn't got her free from being pinned against the cage. That was still to come, but the space she had and the slope of the cage did give her one option. It was risky as all hell, but this was Alicia's environment: Adrian needed out asap.

The nunchucks had served their immediate purpose, and as such were discarded while the redhead was still trying to work out just how someone pinned against the wall had managed to hit her in the back of the head without having rubber arms or something while the former cosplayer lowered her legs to push against the cage wall and raised her hands so both of them could work to dislodge the arm under her jaw. The two couldn't have been closer pressed if caught in a bearhug, but Adrian had a plan as she scooted up the steep steel slope, once she got free she looped an arm over Alicia's head and kicked off from the cage wall, looking to send herself spinning around and take Alicia for a ride before she pulled down for a tornado DDT. That's something you wouldn't see in UFC... maybe Bellator.

Under normal circumstances, it was anyone’s guess what would have happened. Adrian would have two arms against Alicia’s one but the mixed martial artist would have had better leverage with her weight on the hold. As it was, the champion didn’t have anywhere near as much of a struggle as she might.

And, with that done, Alicia didn’t have much time to stop the rest of the move rattling off like clockwork. The arms went around her head, she felt Adrian push off the cage and then the world went for a spin.

The force of the impact actually catapulted Alicia back to sitting up, making it look for a moment as if the redhead was able to completely ignore the effects of the move. But then she slumped back to the mat again, the only sign that anyone was home the continued rising and falling of her chest and the open eyes staring somewhat groggily at the lights above her.

That was the second time she’d been put through that move now and she didn’t like it any more the second time. And, while her head wasn’t anywhere near as battered as it had been in her sparring match with Valley, that was somewhat compensated for by the reduced give in the canvas.

That’d been a pretty nice move. Adrian was turning out to be every bit as tricky as she’d been told.

That was the stuff, spinning around before a harsh landing with her opponent getting a worse one was a nice familliar feeling for the Hardcore Champion, and in such tight confines she showed why she was so confident taking on a martial artist like that. While quite a lot of wrestlers could have pulled that off from the top rope, there weren't many who could pull it off from being pinned against the cage like that. Now Adrian had the time to rest, let her aching side ease up with the pain and let the bruises gently form. Well, she would have had more if the referee hadn't decided to rudely interject to Adrian's "Me time."

"One!" was the call from up on high, both champion in challenger in danger of been counted as knocked out as they both reeled from the beatings they'd already taken. As much as she wanted to rest, Adrian knew she had a conclusive advantage now, and needed to keep moving and that meant pushing her match strategy onward, and pushing herself up to her feet.

In an act that would normally be suicidal against the British amazon, Adrian grabbed her by her strong legs, stepping one leg in between them and to one side of the redhead's core as she tried to maneuver the long, muscular legs in the correct position for a sharpshooter before she started to turn, trying to get Alicia into one of her holds and put pressure on the back and legs of the kickboxer, even if it hurt her to squat down to get the pressure right.