At long last I have this done. Thanks for your patience and I hope this meets with your approval. I know my lagging ways suck sometimes and i apologize, but life loves cheap shotting me at times. Anyways, read it, love it, vote on it, tell me what ya think about it, and above all kids enjoy the show!
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As Anna tried to stand she felt every bone in her body screaming at her. Her left leg strained as she tried to lift it up, but to no avail. Marcus had the leg hold locked in and with a simple twist he found the knee bar and applied pressure. Anna felt like her leg would snap and wisely tapped out. She rolled away after he released and got to her feet. Marcus rolled to his shoulders and kipped to his feet like a cat. He stood tall and looked across the practice ring at Anna who was sucking wind.
"That move is what she's known for Anna. A standing take down that she turns into a knee bar. It's simple enough, but to a person trained in Brazilian, it's almost impossible to block," he said calmly explaining his actions.
Anna looked at Marcus and nodded her head. She saw the move once and then again as it was performed on her. It was such a deceivingly simple maneuver. Her mind stored the information of what he showed her and she set her feet for the next go. They went at it again and this time she was able to see how to keep her footing and stay back from the dangerous hold. She saw him go for it again, but this time she stepped through and spun keeping her knee from straightening and allowing her to get separation. She wasn't able to attack, but she was able to get to even footing.
"Good!" Marcus growled as he got to his feet.
Marcus was impressed like he normally was in her progression. As she trained hard for her upcoming battle with Mijah, so had Christian for his fight for the title. The only reason he wasn't in the ring with her now was he was doing speed drills. Marcus had her set for one last go and this time he went all out on her. They sparred and mock fought for nearly ten minutes before he called a stop to it. It wasn't that she was tired, though she was breathing heavy, it was him. Marcus was getting old and it was showing. Something as simple as age was the greatest killer of a fighter's career. He saw hope and promise in Anna and for the last three weeks she was showing mad potential. As they closed the session Marcus rubbed his chin. They had got in close and she had shocked him by catching him with a well timed elbow. He wasn't mad, far from it, Marcus was amazed at how well she soaked up knowledge.
"OK Anna, ten laps then hit the pool," he said and she smiled at him and ran off.
Anna was in her element. For the last three weeks Marcus had her training like the end of days was coming and she was to fight on the front lines. Her body ached nightly, but he was always there at nights to give her a full body rub. They hadn't made love in a while, but she was content by him rubbing her body like he did. It wasn't that he wasn't ready to go, it was she was tired from the hard work in the gym. Marcus was a vicious tyrant these days, but she knew it was what needed to be. As Anna slipped into her swimming gear she smiled at the thought of her upcoming opponent. She had watched a few videos of Mijah fighting and was impressed.
Mijah was a stand out in the fighting circles and as Anna watched them she knew why. Mijah was no taller than Anna at five foot four inches. She weighed six pounds more than Anna at one hundred and twenty nine pounds. Their reach was nearly identical and their range of motion was similar. Anna had a stronger stand up than Mijah, but Mijah's true talents was her ground and pound game. Watching several fights Anna saw how she wore people down then ground them into the mat until they quit. It wasn't a pretty or flashy way of doing things, but then again attrition never is. Mijah could take a body part and work it for the length of the fight then at the right moment she would put all remaining energy into it and the opponent would fold. Thinking more of this got Anna's energy up and she dove into the water and began her laps. The pool was a large one and she swam the entire length of it ten times as instructed. As she glided through the water Anna thought of all they had done so far.
Christian was sweating under Marcus' drills like he had never done before. The harshness of the new training was nothing like he had ever faced before. Aside from the weights and calisthenics he was doing speed drills and grappling drills hourly. Marcus was making sure he had plenty of endurance for what was to come. Deep down Christian had a feeling he would need it and every ounce he could build up in the mean time. Aside from the hard training he had also watched tapes on his opponent and he was nervous at the least. Something about how egotistical his opponent was in the ring made him wary. Christian poured his energy into training and left the worrying to Marcus.
Marcus was immensely proud of them both. They stood on the precipice of what could be serious glory, or a long way back up if they fell. Marcus was confident in his ability to train them up, in fact that was the one thing he knew. Since they came to Vegas he had the best of the best in the gym working with his kids. Watching their eyes get wide as some legends of the ring trained with them from time to time really gave them a confidence boost. Marcus was friends with a few of them, but the others he had never met before. A few of them remembered watching him come up and get beat a few times, or win in dramatics fashion. The few he fought were impressed by his stature of trainer these days. One even asked him if there was a possibility of returning to the ring. Marcus let them down on that request, but he kept the door open for them if they wanted to train in his gym sometime.
Marcus secretly wished he could fight again. He longed for the feeling of one on one combat again, but he had two great fighters he was working on so he repressed the urge. Still in the back of his mind the siren called to him ever so softly. Marcus picked up the medicine ball and walked over to Christian. He had him get on the bench and had him do sit ups as Marcus tossed him the ball. The far bend was good for his back and abs and the added weight of the ball made the exercise much harder. Christian did fifty reps before Marcus let him up and go run. As he walked from the gym to the pool he saw Anna had completed her laps and was drying off. He looked at the clock and saw they had another two hours of training ahead so he got creative.
"Anna, once your changed I want you to gear up and hit the ring. We are going to spar for a bit," he said firmly.
"Yes coach," Anna replied and rushed to the locker room.
She stripped fast and got into her athletic bra and trunks. She tapped her feet off quick and put on her hand wraps. Marcus had shown her how to do it alone and she was quite good at it. Once she was good she went out and he had the gloves ready for her. He tied them on and had another tie his on. Once they were settled he had the trainers put on the head gear and they squared off. Marcus needed to make sure she was still limber and put her through a series of rolling drills. He kept on her back making her expend energy in trying to get free of his grip. It was a lot of what she would need for her upcoming fight. Every time he got a solid hold on her he would stop and show her how to counter. It took them about forty minutes and both were sweating and breathing heavy. Anna was surprisingly resilient during the exercises and surprised Marcus at how often she was able to get free of him. She surprised him more as every now and then she would get him in a hold.
When they had caught their breath Marcus had her watch the video of their training. He loved how easy it was to have a small camera make video for training purposes. As she watched he would explain how to counter and what she did right and wrong. Seeing herself doing it made Anna smile. She could hold him off well, but she knew that he was holding back on her. Something in her wanted him to go all out, but she was cautious. His record spoke for itself as thirty eight of his fights ended by submission. The rest were either TKO or KO. His whole career he only had five decisions. One thing she noted was none of his losses were by decision of submission. As she watched she wondered how he had lost those fights and still wanted to continue.
