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Awareness covered me I knew the position of every muscle in my body, and I positioned each one in preparation for as to come

This was my element

My show

My life

My one and only love

I let hi his tempo, favored hand, and which foot he liked to put forward Leaning back quickly, I dodged his first blow and smacked him with an open palm across his left temple He shook it off easily—it wasn’t a very hard blow—and backed off as I jumped toward him, which lef

t h the mouthpiece at the clean hit and backed off a bit to recover

He didn’t give me much time

I kept my left hand up to block whatever blows he sent in ht to punch hiht up his knee to connect with ht but didn’t let him fall I turned to the side and followed the bloith my foot into his ribs He fell backwards, recovered, crouched and juood blow across my temple

I was stunned for a hts flashed in the back ofaround my chest and shoulders as he shovedup and sainst the chain links I leaned back into the cage wall and lifted s around his waist

A fist landed forcefully againstthe o I twisted to the right and then the left and s, and we both toppled to the floor as the crowd screamed at us

I landed on ripped around his ain and flipped us over His feet were up in the air behind hter, I started raining open handed blows to his head and face

Without gloves, closed fists hurt my hands almost as much as they hurt his face, but that didn’t stop ers, but I wasn’t sure if it was from my knuckles or his battered nose His ar, so I leaned back to punch his ribs

Sweat ran downsteadily througha bit froain My opponent tried to bring his leg up to kick atI kept up the punches with ht his neck

Once I had ht was all but over I felt hi under me, but the intensity became muted and shallow I hit him on the side of the head a couple ers on my bicep

I released my hold on him, jumped backwards, and spit the mouthpiece out on the floor I watched as he went nearly li his cheek and forehead I stu near istered with my brain My head throbbed, but I could still focus okay I heard the door of the cage open behind me and felt Yolanda’s hand around my wrist, but I shook her off, still dazed

The screae filled h hts, realized it was over, and reached up toward the ceiling I screamed in victory as the fans chanted in unison

“Takedown! Takedown!”

Yolanda’s hand reached up and grabbed ht she couldn’t reach my wrist, and she shook at my arm as she cried out to the crowd

“Takedown Teague—victor again for his twenty-seventh consecutive fight!”

The guy I was fighting rolled over and propped himself up on his hands and knees Yolanda went to help him to his feet, and he uess was supposed to be a

“One of these days, I’hed

“Have we fought before?” I asked The guy didn’t even look faether in my head

He just laughed and shook his head