Come the afternoon of the fight, some dame in jeans and a plain t-shirt comes into Stu's, takes a seat right next to the ring. It's funny cause the only other dames in the place are George's family, a couple of Viktor's corner, Viktor's family, and Dara. Woman's got real long brown hair, down to the middle of her back. She's not wearing a lick of makeup, but she's got a really easy look to her, puts you at ease, cause she's got some soft smile. I think twice, put my hands to frame her hair out of the picture. It's Tanya, outside in normal people clothes.
Go over and sit next to her. She blushes a little, says the gym is kinda punjint [Pungent. I'm not the only one that thinks so. -Dara]. I shrug my shoulders, apologize, wave Dara over so the 2 of them can make nice with the small talk [I've never known a nun on a personal level. Given that my conversations with Trace revolve around bourbon, burgers and whatever the details of our latest case, it felt refreshing to actually talk with someone related to a case that could hold a conversation. She seemed similarly pleased to talk with someone that wasn't knee-deep in the nunnery and concerned with God and heaven all day long. -Dara].
At one point, Tanya goes over to talk with Viktor's wife and 2 kids. I watch em for a bit, and the little girl's wrinkling her nose and looking around, gotta be 5 or 6, cute kid. Her brother, lot older, gotta be 19 or 20, towering over everyone else. Didn't see much of Viktor in the kid's face. Mostly, I notice them eyebrows which were real thin, like George's thin eyebrows. Saw a lot of his aunt Tanya in him, though, especially that soft smile.
Watching Viktor and George get ready, I can see they're gonna be stiff coming out. A few weeks of training ain't gonna do much for you when all you been doing is being a lazy slob for 20 years now. What I'm wondering is if they're gonna stay stuck in the past. George was top dog in high school, and if this happened then, Viktor wouldn't stand a chance. Viktor was top dog now, and George was just trying to hold onto the status quote [Status quo. I believe Trace is referring to George's inability to accept how the world has changed. I hope he is not referring to a Facebook status update. -Dara].
Viktor had everything going for him except for one thing: reach. All them expensive trainers did their job. You watch him walking in, warming up, he actually looked like a fighter. His feet were moving exactly where he wanted them to go, and he wasn't wasting time or extra steps trying to get in place. He was definitely gonna have to dance inside George's range and punish him close.
Thing is, Stu ain't no slob. He's been doing this longer than anyone except for me in the gym has been alive. He's seen it all. He probably invented some of it along the way. I watched them training, and Stu was gonna keep it simple. Lot of their practice involved weaving, turning in circles, jabbing, real simple foot movement cause of his bad leg. He was gonna play keep-away, clinch him if he got close, then on the reset, keep on doing it. Since his right leg was the bad one, Stu trained him to throw the right jab a lot, even though he was right handed. This way, he could keep his bad leg forward, get power from his good back left leg.
We were gonna go 8 rounds. I pulled on my ref jersey, did the intros, and there was a lot of cheering. Only person that didn't make a peep was Tanya. Brought the 2 of them to the middle, told them the rules one more time. Told em to shake hands and come out fighting, but they just glared bullets at each other.
Give em credit, they didn't come out swinging like slobs like I thought they were gonna. From the start, George kept throwing his left jab, popping Viktor real easy-like. Viktor kept throwing up his guard. It wasn't doing much damage at all, but at least George was working, and Viktor wasn't doing anything except blocking. Once and a while, Viktor would throw a couple punches, but he couldn't really get inside.
That all changed in the third, when George got a little lazy or tired or confident. He sailed a jab kinda high and Viktor ducked low, weaved in and started body shotting George. Real solid punches, I could hear the air rush outta George. All the training, but you never know how someone's gonna react in an actual fight. Took him a little while to remember the game plan, and Stu is yelling himself sick to get in a clinch. When he finally does, George's sides look like raw.
Viktor's smiling, he's got confidence. They keep on dancing, George throwing them light jabs, staying defensive. Outta nowhere, near the end of the 5th, Viktor drops his guard for a sec, and George piles a hook into his temple. It staggers Viktor backwards, and I give him a standing 8 count to get his bearings. They're both huffing like overworked lawn mowers, but they lasted this long. I ask him if he's ok, and Viktor looks at me, smiles like a madman, tells me he's loving this.
George threw a few too many early on, and he was getting tired faster than Viktor. This let Viktor rush in more, throw some body shots, fight got a lot more even towards the end. They were both giving as good as they got, getting sloppy, but they were doing what they had to. By the time the bell rang at the end of the 8th, they actually hugged each other. Maybe it wasn't all better, but for now, it was gonna be ok.
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