1 Chapter 1: The Martial Master

"The Martial Master"

That is what Mustafa has been called since he started his career as a Boxer and an MMA fighter. He has been very successful with his career as a fighter, he has a record of 184 fights, 183 wins with 156 of them being by knockout. And the last match was a draw; he has never lost in his entire career. He is the current Heavyweight WBA, IBF, WBO, and WBC world Champions in boxing and also the current UFC Heavyweight world champion with dozens of title defenses.

And, the crazy thing is that he managed to do it in less than six years. Imagine a 28 years old guy, winning all the titles, and belts available in the heavyweight class that exists in MMA. He has been in most of the countries around the world and has fought a lot of different masters he has met. And this place, where all the best fighters in the world are gathered is the place where he is writing the story of his life.

The Ultimate Fighter Championship, or just UFC in short, is a championship where all the best fighters in the world meet and fight to see who is the strongest in the world, currently, in his division, Mustafa is the strongest. Since he was a kid, he had been watching legendary people like Anderson Silva fight in the championship, and since those days Mustafa has been dreaming to train and become a world-class fighter like those people he used to watch on TV. Mustafa has been training his whole life just for this moment, for the moment, he would have the possibility to compete and win against the bests of the best.

Thanks to him being a hardcore anime fan, he has managed to gather a lot of fans who support him. Mustafa managed to gather a lot of fans through YouTube and because of that he is one of the most supported MMA fighters in the world if you bring the fact that everyone in West Africa is currently supporting him Adesanya and Usman. Although a lot of people are supporting him, They are still people criticizing him, but he isn't worried about them, those people are just casuals they mostly have never fought before their whole life or know nothing about fighting.

He last fought two months ago, since then he has been training hard, to not lose his edge, while still being active in his YouTube account where he posts highlights of his matches, training, sparring and things like that. He also does anime-related video reactions and animated stories [AN/: mostly stories about his life] on his channel. Mustafa has more than 40 million subscribers on YouTube and his average view per video is near 60 million. It always blows his mind when he thinks about it.

He gets a lot of E-mails from fans all over the world, and he can say that it is always a pain to read all of them, nonetheless, he appreciates them from sending him these messages.

"You're still reading those E-mail?

A young man said as he entered the living room of the house he was in. The youth has a slightly tanned skin tone, and his eyes looked like he has just passed the whole night trying to finish a season of an anime. The young lad's name is Ahmad, he 21 years old and is part of the Five man group created by Mustafa.

"What do you mean? You should read yours too, it does help sometimes. But I have to say that these people have wild imaginations, asking me to do the Dempsey Roll of Ippo from Hajime no Ippo during my next match"

Mustafa said as he looked at Ahmad who was smiling at him. He was kind of abuse that his friend here is reading his e-mails, compared to him, Ahmad never reads his e-mails. Not that he is getting a lot of them.

"Two more days to go until your next title defense. And the fact is I don't even know who you're fighting against is crazy. What's his name again?"

Asked Ahmad, it was really hard to remember the guy's name since he wasn't present when they were signing the contract. That day he had a date with a girl he wanted to go out with for a long time, so he couldn't come. 'Four-person is enough to sign a contract anyway!' that was his answer when he was told that he needed to come.

"His name is Allan Beyrouth. He has a record of 8-0-0"

Mustafa said as he posed his laptop on the table in the middle of the room. He got up and went towards the kitchen to cook something to eat since he has just finished his morning practice and has eaten nothing, yet.

"Undefeated? that's pretty good, but shouldn't they have chosen a fighter with a higher experience than him?"

Ahmad said, he knew that a fighter like Allan Beyrouth isn't enough to stop Mustafa's reign. It's not like he wants him to lose, but the man himself said that he wants to fight stronger opponents to be able to grow.

"You were not present so, you don't have anything to say."

"Oh! Come on, you know that date was kind of important to me!"

"How did it go anyway?"

Mustafa said as he was making his way towards the door where Ahmad standing at.

"Pretty good, we promised to have another one after my next fight. Now tell me the real reason you chose that guy."

"Adam was being pressured by the representatives to accept the fight, so he had no chance of declining it. Thus, the result!"

"Damn, they are some bastards out there. I'm quite happy that I'm the boogeyman of my weight class, nobody wants to fight against me!"

"Stop that! Being confident is good but overconfidence will always lead you to your downfall so make sure to stay humble."

"Nah! I'm not overconfident, I'm just stating the truth. Plus, I'm not as crazy as you guys are!"

"What do you mean by 'as crazy as you guys are'? I was just hyping myself up in front of my mirror! Nothing much. Isn't that what people always do when they are exposed to too much fame and start losing themselves in it leading them to slow down on practice"

At that statement, Ahmad started laughing uncontrollably. It went to the point where Mustafa left the living to avoid being ridiculed by the man further and he ends up beating him badly.

He did not understand why he was being laughed at, to him, it was quite normal to do that since he doesn't want to be exposed to too much fame and lose his mind and all of his titles pretty quickly like some celebrities new to the game tend to do.

'I need to think of something not to crash my game two days later. I've already watched all the tapes that were given to me so I kind of have an idea about my opponent's style'

Mustafa's mind started to wonder about other things as he entered the kitchen and was preparing to cook something up for the boys

'Right now I know that every time he goes for a left hook he is going to continue with a combo, so I need to disturb his combo before it even starts. That's pretty simple I just need to block the first attack, and counter with an elbow, but what if he is prepared for that? Then dodging to the right and ending him with a high kick has better odds. I will need to spar a little to see what that would give out. Back in Senegal, I used to train with my Dad and my friends. Ah! The good old days'

Mustafa comes from Senegal, a small country in Africa that is mainly known for its amazing football players and their only famous boxer, respectively Sadio Mane and the later being him. He has always been the top of his class in Senegal and outside of it. And he has to say, studying in Africa is harder than studying in Europeans countries, just the schedule is much more different and tight than the one he used to have after he was sent to Russia to train and become a professional in mixed martial arts sports.

And that's when he also discovered that people have a wild misconception of Africans, they used to be dumbfounded when I was pulling full points on every test. Back in Africa, the studying condition was worse and the subjects were far more difficult than in other countries, I don't know why, though. And the competition for the first place in the class was always packed with people.

'I miss my parents, I hope they would be there two days later.'

Mustafa thought to himself as he felt homesick out of the sudden, the delicious meals her mom would give her whenever he came from school, the smiles of his friends when they were pulling all-nighters just to finish a game, the time they used to spend the night at someone else's house because they needed to finish a group work assigned by the teacher, the disgusting scent of rotten clothes... the sounds of someone munching on food...

'Wait... What?'

Mustafa snapped out of his trance when he felt something moving behind him, he turned around and saw a scene that he would only see in the various anime he has watched...