Jesse Rogers vs. Felina Rodriguez - Weight Of My Pride

Good news, bad news.

The good news was that, once again, Felina found herself making her way down to the ring for a match. It had been a good while since she’d had that opportunity, sidelined for a few months thanks to a leg injury she’d gotten during training. It hadn't been too serious, but she wanted to take things easy for a little while to be sure, since her legs were her pride and joy. That meant taking it easy for longer than she ever had, only doing upper body training. When her leg healed up, she had to work hard to catch back up and get into fighting trim once again, making sure she was ready for competition.

But she was back, she was ready to fight, and she didn’t even mind that she was going into Momentum instead of something in Tension. It felt good to be out here with the crowd, on her way to the ring, in her gear. Comfy and familiar.

Only one problem she could see, and there was the bad news. ”MMA? Really?”

Felina had been voicing her disapproval of the exact matchtype for the past couple of hours, and while she knew Army had to be getting sick of it, he was unfortunately going to have to take some more on the way to the ring. He’d agreed to be her cornerman for the evening, and one of the big responsibilities of any cornerman was to listen to his fighter’s moaning and complaining. It was written in the rules, somewhere.

He followed behind with the equipment tucked under his arms, shrugging it off in the same manner he’d been shrugging all day. ”You’re not the first to not get the exact sort of match they wanted, you won’t be the last.”

He wasn’t wrong, she knew it, it was just a tad bit irritating. She’d done a little MMA in her travels, she wasn’t a stranger to it, but she was a kickboxer by training more than anything. The fact that they were putting her up against Jesse Rogers, someone more well-known in that realm, was concerning. But she was a Rodriguez. She never strayed away from a fight. ”You took on Jesse before, right? What was she like?”

”Gutsy.” Army answered quick, giving it little thought. She must’ve made an impression. ”She stood tough with Carmen, didn’t back down. Don’t know how good she’s gotten since then, so…”

”So watch out. Got it.” Felina nodded as she made her way up the steps and came in through the cage opening, with Army close behind. She did a quick jogging lap around the eight corners, pumping her fist to the audience as she went, then came back to get her gloves taped on. Despite not being 100% what she wanted, she was still hyped, still energetic, still ready to go.

“You sure you’re not getting a bit ahead of ‘yerself?” Josh Rogers asked. He was holding up a pair of pads over his hands while his sister Jesse practiced punching combos on them.

“The hell are you talking about?” Jesse replied shortly, the tone of her voice strongly suggesting he was in danger of annoying her if he didn’t get to the point soon. “I get it if you’re just warming up, but this boxing drill isn’t very necessary. You know you’re fightin’ Felina Rodriguez, not Carmen Rodriguez, right?”

“She’s still a Rodriguez. What’s the issue?” his sister said with a note of impatience while throwing a jab combo. Josh shook his head.

“This one kicks. And hard, too. Remember the chick who damn near kicked your head in in your debut? That’s what we’re talkin’ about here. I’d be shocked if she lets you in close enough to try boxing with her like this much at all.”

That finally got through to Jesse, who seemed to freeze mid-way through throwing another punch before easing out of the fighting stance she’d held. She remembered the match he was talking about. Didn’t want to, but it served as a solid reminder of why one should try their hardest not to let their head get kicked by people with that kind of insane leg power. “Right… How’s her grappling?”

“Nothing to write home about, from what little I’ve seen” Josh said with a shrug. “Always possible she’s improved, but I don’t think you’re getting in there with a Minami Toshimi clone exactly. I’d try taking advantage of that.”

“But keep my guard up so she doesn’t kick my head into the third row, right?”

“Pretty much.”

Jesse let out a deep exhale while rolling her neck. “Alright then. Let’s do this.” And with that she marched out through the curtain, with Josh following a short distance behind her. Her face, as almost always, seemed fixed in a scowl as she entered the cage without any hint of fanfare. She didn’t pose or jog, just went right into her corner and stretched out her limbs, all the while her eyes locked firmly onto her opponent across the ring. No banter, no pleasantries. Jesse was just here to fight, and seemed content to just wait for the bell so they could get straight to it.

Oooooh, boy. Felina saw the look on Jesse’s face as she moved in, all stern and serious and icy and ready to break the world. The two of them hadn't spoken a word, but she already could tell that she was up against one of those fighters. The ones who were so serious, super focused from bell to bell, didn’t have the time for the banter or even a quick smile. Felina could be serious, too, when the fight was on, but she liked to keep things light when she could.

Oh, well. She could be serious all she wanted, wouldn’t matter if Felina kicked her in the head enough times.

A little shrug, some rolling shoulders, a deep breath, and she was ready to go. She bounced on her heels, staying nice and light right until the bell rang, and then she came out of her corner with a slow, steady pace, moving with caution towards the center of the ring. She didn’t want to take the initiative with this one, not just yet. Curious to see how she’d close the gap.

Meanwhile, things were a lot more civil on the outside of the ring. Or at least, Army wanted things to go that way. ”Hey, yo.” He came around the ring, moving towards the big lug. It had been a while since he’d crossed paths with Josh, but they hit it off well. ”You’re looking a little less like a brick wall than I remember. You been skimping at the gym?”