Chapter 6 - End of Round 1

The two men continue to warm up as they prepare for their fight. As Mr. Syvone stood in the middle of the ring, he would look at the clock to keep track of time. After a while, he looked at the two fighters and they understood that it was their time to fight. The two men undressed until they only had their fighter shorts on. Adrian noticed something on the man that was on the right side. He had a lot of tattoos, more than a man should probably have. Dark tattoos all over his dark complexion, covering the majority of his body except his face. Even his earlobes are tattooed up. It had BSG on his right one and the sign of Christ on the other one. The other unironically has a little number of tattoos in comparison to the other.

"Is that motherfucker a canvas?" Martin said out of nowhere that caused Adrian to laugh. "Why is his face without tattoos?"

"That is Darren," Jeremy said to qualify. "I do not really like him that much."

"Why is that?" Adrian asked, expecting an answer that was a joke.

"He is a good fighter," Jeremy said, figuring out his words carefully. "He is just not a good dude in general. He got in trouble for drugs and/or his gang ties. He has been to jail twice since he joined this gym."

"What gang is that?" Martin asked as Mr. Syvone started the fight between them. Both fighters began to throw punches at each other.

"BSG, also known as the Brawler Street Gang," Jeremy said, having to remember the exact name.

"Brawler Street Gang is a gang that is local around the area, luckily, I haven't dealt with them, but they move around just causing trouble," Jeremy said as he was shaking his head as Darren beat Casey to a pulp.

"So they are not that big of a threat then?" Adrian said, trying to better understand the situation. "My dad has been to prison, I am used to dealing with these types of people."

"Personally I haven't dealt with them. So I don't think it is a problem," Jeremy said as he saw that Darren won his fight with a strong punch to the head.

"If he gets in trouble a lot, why does Mr. Syvone allow him to sign a fighter contract?" Martin asked, confused by all of this information.

"This team is an AMETUER team," Jeremy emphasized. "Mr. Syvone wants to get as many people as he can so he can run a lot of fights to profit off of."

"What do you mean by that?" Adrian asked whether he would get good enough money or not.

"I will explain that later," Jeremy said reassuringly. "We still get paid good money."

"Ah okay," Adrian said, feeling better. "I did not decide to not go to college for less money."

"It is completely understandable for a guy as young as you," Jeremy said, remembering to himself.

"How long have you been here, Jeremy?" Martin asked.

"It is a long story I will explain later," Jeremy said.

"Ah ok," Martin said as he saw the next set of fighters going up. It was the Welterweight class.

"And at Welterweight, we got Nico Coleman versus Pablo Cruz!" Mr. Syvone yelled as he announced the two men.

"That is Nico," Jeremy said, getting Adrian and Martin's attention. "Watch it." Nico immediately went into more of a lower stance similar to that of a wrestler. His feet staggered, back straight and hands closer to his body. He crept around his opponent then glided across the floor picking at his opponent's ankle as he got behind him. After he got the ankle, the opponent fell as Nico pulled on it making him go off balance. Nico then climbed himself on top of Pablo and started punching him till Mr. Syvone stepped in to end the match.

"Shit he is good," Martin said, impressed by it.

"Yeah, he is," Jeremy said in agreement. "His current record is 15-3."

"Can't wait to practice with him," Adrian said excitedly about what he was seeing. Mr. Syvone was going quickly about the fight as he stopped calling names and only asking if they were ready. The next fight was at the same weight, two more average-built people, just one had really long arms.

"Adrian, do you think the guy on the left can tie his shoes standing up?" Martin asked, pointing at the guy.

"Probably," Adrian said laughing as the long-armed man punched the other guy after stepping back. The fight continued, the long-armed man lost which made Adrian mad because he made a ten-dollar bet with Tyson. The next fight was another welterweight fight that ended in another knockout. Then the last fight was the last welterweight fight which was between a shorter guy and a long lanky man. The fight ended with a strong kick in the face by the lanky man.

"Martin, you are up man," Jeremy said to Martin, who looked back at him in shock.

"It is?" Martin asked back. "That was quick."

"That is what she said," Adrian blurted out as Martin turned around looking both impressed and disappointed all at the same time. "The fuck you staring at me for, go out there and beat whoever you are going against."

"I got you," Martin said as he ran off taking off his shirt as he entered the ring. The crowd was getting excited because they knew he was one of the new guys. The guy that he was going against was slightly shorter than him but had broader shoulders along with a full black bread.

"Who is that, Tyson or Jeremy?" Adrian asked.

"That is Jose Cruz, Pablo's older brother," Jeremy said as he thought to himself. "This should be an interesting matchup."

"What is Pablo's fighting style?" Adrian asked as he heard Mr. Syvone ask if the two men were ready.

"He is a kickboxer, which might be difficult for Martin who is a wrestler," Jeremy said thinking about it.

"Martin is not just a wrestler, Jeremy," Adrian said as he watched Martin begin to stand straight up. "He is also a kickboxer." Adrian points to Martin moving his feet barely throwing any jabs. Pablo tried to throw a roundhouse as Martin sidestep and drilled a kick straight into his head, as Pablo dropped into the ground. Martin threw three punches until Mr. Syvone stepped in to stop. The crowd looked shocked that Martin won his match like that.

"He is good," Jeremy said, turning to Tyson and Adrian shocked. "I think he can do great here."

"Yeah he can," Martin ran up to the group excitedly. "There is our winner."

"Let fucking go!" Martin screamed as he jumped into Adrian as he was caught to the sound of the crowd being excited.

"Like the energy," Jeremy said as suddenly he hears says Mr. Syvone started the next fight to find it

immediately was over in one strong kick to the face. Everyone turned to see another giant in the ring standing victoriously over his opponent. He took his long strides as he walked out of the ring to put his warmups back on.

"Who is that?" Martin asked as he was looking at him. "I bet he is a little taller than you Adrian."

"Shit maybe," Adrian replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"That is Juan Carlos," Jeremy replied, trying to remember his name. "He is a more quiet person, but he is a great fighter for us."

"Ah ok, so I have to prepare to beat him then," Martin said as he clenched his fist in excitement.

"Well," Jeremy began. "You will probably face him in the finals, I don't know the person that you are facing, but from what I heard, you can beat him."

"That is good at least," Jeremy said. "I can't wait to beat a tall man."

Mr. Syvone gets back to his microphone, "We have two fights left today." The crowd seems to be kinda excited about it. "We got Issac Wallace and Nolan Chase going to battle it out." The two men walked out onto the ring. Issac is more of a strong-looking light skin man, with a fade. Nolan Chase looked like a redneck. He has a mullet, a tattoo of a truck on his back, and a missing tooth, the front top right one.

"Dude, look at his chin," Adrian said, pointing at Nolan.

Martin begins to look at the chin, it was an outrageous-looking butt chin. "My man got an ass chin," Martin laughed out.

Even Issac made a joke by putting his thumb near his chin. It angered Nolan as he charged forward, "stop making fun of my chin!" He screamed. Issac stepped to the side and punched the aggressor in the face ending the match. A loud thud boomed as Nolan's body hit the floor. The crowd cheered as it means there is one match left.

Mr. Syvone got on the ring and started yelling, "final match of the night," crowd gets excited. "It is between Brian Hughes and James Benson at light heavyweight." The crowd's excitement intensified as the two men walked into the ring. Brian was a very muscular-looking man with a good black beard on him.

James looked like a lumberjack with his long ginger beard and grizzly-looking hair. Both men started throwing punches, no set up with jabs, just straight to the action. The crowd was surprised by it but enjoyed it. The cheers of the crowd grew as both men were giving it all they have to win. Fists hitting the other in a variety of areas just trying to get an advantage. James got a strong hit in Brian's stomach that knocked the wind out of him. The crowd cheers grew as James descended upon Brian to claim his victory. Mr. Syvone stopped it as the cheers of fighters grew as the fight ended. James helped Brian up and was checking on him as they walked out of the ring.

"He is a good sport," Adrian said as he applauded the fight's conclusion. "I respect them."

Mr. Syvone was back in the middle and began to yell again. "And with that fight coming to an end, we will conclude the fight round, come back tomorrow to fight or support the other fighters that still have that desire for an opportunity to make big in the fighting world." The crowd cheers as they begin to pack their belongings up to collect their belongings, Jeremy approaches the three teammates.

"You guys want to go get a bite to eat, I can get some other people to come along with?" Jeremy asked as he had his bag ready.

"Oh yeah, sure," Adrian said as he was putting his gloves away in disappointment. "Hated we had a delay, I wanted to fight against Joshua."

"But doesn't this mean you have more time to plan out a strategy to beat him?" Tyson asked Adrian and it gave Martin a surprised look on his face.

"Tyson, that might have been one of the smartest things I have EVER heard you say," Martin said confused by Tyson's surprising intelligence coming in. Jeremy started laughing due to it.

"I mean, he is not wrong, Adrian," Jeremy said shrugging shoulders. "Meet me at the Barstool Pizza Shop in ten minutes."

"You guys are going to like Barstool Pizza Shop," Tyson said looking at both of his teammates. "Jeremy, how many people should we get for a table?"

"Get a table for like," Jeremy said as he is thinking to himself and counting on his fingers thinking of how many people he should bring. "About twelve people, Tyson."

"You got it, Jeremy," Tyson said as he walked to the door. He waves his hand to his friends, "Come on guys."

"Wait on guys," Martin said as Adrian got up to the door. Martin got his things ready and the three of them walked out of the gym as they see Jeremy talking to people. They walked up the stairs to go to the pizza restaurant.