Page 62 (1/1)

He finished just as the bell rang Teuard up After a while, he worried ain in the torso with a hook It wasn’t a direct hit It wasn’t even a good punch but his liver had taken such a blow the first ties had to see him flinch in pain

Round ten was an all-out street brawl This was ued andit to We were both flagging The body shots had cost hi up for the early rounds At this point, nobody could call it, so we both just kept hitting

My right jab caught hi it, and he caught ht hook Fuck! My face was probably a fucking mess by now, and ered and were unsteady on our feet, but the ringing of the bell saved us both I sank onto my corner stool and closed my eyes as Danny cleanedin my ears when I heard her voice I must have been hit in the head harder than I realized

"I’ louder I whippedushered up the steps by Kieran

"Quick, he’s got seconds," Kieran warned

"I ainst h the ropes

"You okay, Sunshine?" I asked her through the gu my mouth despite the water

"I’h there were tears in her eyes "Hoe doing?" she askedher s as she removed her hand

"I love you," she toldsit-ups, she was like a shot of adrenaline to irl was here She’snow If I had to bring everything in me to the table, so be it I wanted to be the only , the only one she saw, period

The bell rang, and I stood in time to see Rico Temple make his fatal mistake He looked over at my wife, then turned to me and licked his lips From that moment on, it was all over Stupid fucker just didn’t know it I had wanted to win this for E , but I didn’t I shook out my shoulders, bounced around the canvas, and looked like I didn’t have a care in the world Te and threw a jab, followed by a fairly decent hook, or it would have been if it had connected I was gone before the punch landed

Switching to fighting left handed, like the boys froht me, I completely disorientated him My combinations before now had probably been as predictable as his Now I had hiainst the ropes, and there would be no rope-a-dope this ti After disrespecting onna make him piss blood for a week There was no break and no letup I ha I had

Sweat and blood dripped down fro machine, but so was I It was a tossup bethether the referee would pull us apart or the bell would ring, when I saw it Thatabout There were few things in this world that I was good at Lovingwas the other The control I had over my temper was shit, but between those four posts, it was like I could slow everything down and see those gaps in a defense that anyone else would miss

That was how I knew that uard to protect his liver As soon as he did that, I brought my fist up in an uppercut to the face that lifted hi what I’d done

Te before landing on the canvas From the outside, he looked ine But where I carried my pain on the exterior, he carried his inside That last uppercut was enough persuasion for his body to surrender

As I watched the referee count, I thought of Danny telling me that it didn’t matter if I went down, only if I stayed there I’d been to that point where you feel like you can’t get any lower What defines the person you’ll becoht is over It didn’t et back up because I was a fighter, like Ehter were the sa a boxer is what I did Being a fighter is who I was

When the referee reached seven, Danny stood on the ropes, with Kieran pressed up behind hiht, I knew that Temple was done When the referee reached nine, the whole arena held its breath, and at ten, it erupted It was over, and the only thing I could think about was havingfilled up as soon as the fight was over People seeh the ropes like ants, and it pissed me off Television cameras and microphones were thrust into knock a second person the fuck out if I didn’t get to ot to me first, and we threw our arms around each other "You did it! You fuckin’ crazy Irish bastard!" he screaain

From over his shoulder, I could see a shock of blond hair froot todown her face, kissed me fiercely "I’m so proud of you, O’Connell I knew you could do it!" she said Throwing h so she had to lean down to kiss ain Then Liam, Tommy, and Earnshaw tackled me so hard that I nearly took Temple’s spot on the canvas "Where’s Danny?" I asked, but they didn’t know Kieran reht as weRico Te dazed andhe’d never lick his lips at another guy again I didn’t bother trying to keep the enor voice echoed through the microphone