“Our second fighter of the night! A young man that knows how to respect his opponents and give them a good fight! He may not be undefeated or as new as his latest opponent, but he has the determination and endurance to stand with the best of them! Donald Aldo, the Underdog!!!” The announcer shouted to the screaming audience.

Zoey watched as her light-skinned, bush-like hair, and small framed opponent came into the cage. Surprisingly, he was around her own height and Zoey was 5 ft tall. Maybe she can understand why he went into fighting now... With a height like that, it would be difficult to get most women to look at you as a man when they’re looking down on you. Of course, Zoey didn’t believe in that nonsense. Her future husband just had to perfectly click with her regardless of his height.

He kindly smiled at her when he made it into the ring. Zoey didn’t notice Donald holding out his arm for a handshake as she stared off into space suddenly remembering the way the announcer introduced him. That piece of shit announcer knew how to get on her good side and bad side! What the fuck did he mean know how to respect his opponent and give them a good fight?! Zoey gave those she fought respect. They really were making her out to be the villain without telling her anything. Could it be because she was a boxer? Or was it because she was black? Whatever the reason was, Zoey wished someone could’ve told her about this beforehand.

Now she had to play the villain for her fighting career going forward. Because of this, she also had to portray herself as a decent human being outside of the fighting world. When she gets rich and famous, she’ll have to donate to reputable charities and stuff like that so she isn’t seen as a complete bitch. Ooh, maybe she could even have her brother say nice things about her on his stream when they both get popular. Like how she isn’t like how she is in the ring at all at home or something like that.

Unknown to Zoey, she was already playing into her villain persona before her match even began! The multiple cameras focused on the ring and the crowd was recording her without her even knowing. Everyone could see on the big screen above the ring how Zoey coldly glanced at her opponent before looking away, obviously disinterested. The crowd went wild when they saw her blatantly ignore and disregard Donald’s friendly handshake before their match. Zoey really doesn’t give a damn about anyone!

“Fight!” The referee shouted.

The sudden yell from the referee woke her up from her thoughts. Her eyes slowly watched a leg rising towards her waist. Zoey didn’t even get the chance to get into a proper boxing stance before her arm suffered a blow from his kick. She managed to raise her left arm in time to block it as she sent a quick jab towards Donald.

Zoey’s glove impacted against Donald’s arms with a heavy bang. With him blocking her jab, it gave her the opportunity to get into her formally taught boxing stance. Now with Donald’s legs back on the mat and Zoey ready to fight, the real fight was about to begin. Everyone in the crowd could tell things were about to change now.

Donald couldn’t believe the force of the jab he had to block with both arms. If that was just a jab, Donald didn’t know if he could handle a real punch from her with his body. He had to fight carefully but not cowardly. If he saw a chance to attack, he had to take it. Otherwise, he would be destroyed by her instantly! As one of the main fighters in the tournament, Donald did his research on every fighter here. Zoey was in a weird spot compared to the others because if he was lucky, he could outmatch her with his more diverse options of attack. Punches, kicks, elbows, and knees, she could only use punches. Although, from time to time in her matches she would use her feet and grab. So, he had to be aware of that as well.

Another jab was flying towards him like a high-speed bullet. Instead of blocking this head on, he chose to dodge it this time. If he allowed her to jab at him at will, that damage was definitely going to pile up and hurt him in the long run. That is, if he could survive past the first round... He would be the first out of all of Zoey’s opponents to make it pass a single round with her if he did.

More and more jabs began to fly at him. Her left arm shot them out like she was a military gunner. Donald couldn’t dodge them all, he had to make some distance between the two of them. But wait, that would only give her the chance to follow-up and pound into him or force him into a corner of the cage. He had to do something dangerous if he wanted to turn things around. No way could he let himself be beaten without showing everything he had!

As of now, it looked like Donald was pressured heavily by Zoey. She has thrown nothing but jabs so far but each jab frightened Donald. The crowd didn’t understand what he was so scared of but those who had some experience in fighting did. Zoey’s jabs might look like simple punches to the untrained eye but if they were up in the ring facing against them like Donald Aldo was, they would understand that each of those punches was enough to lead to a match-ending blow.

Just as it looked like Donald was about to be forced back to the cage, Donald suddenly kicked out with his foot while taking a hit from Zoey’s jab head-on. It was a trade! This also gave him the chance to turn this match around. Donald’s foot landed squarely on Zoey’s stomach and sent her back some distance. Blood dripped from Donald’s nose because of Zoey’s jab but he didn’t let it affect him. In fact, seeing that his kick managed to get in, it invigorated the underdog!

Donald stepped in with a beautifully executed low kick that landed perfectly on Zoey’s thigh. It felt like his foot just hit a tree trunk filled with nothing but muscle! What the hell?! A girl this size couldn’t possibly have muscles so thick, can she!?

His confusion didn’t mess up his tempo, however. Despite her not looking affected by the low kick, the fact that the low kick landed at all filled him with confidence. With his head ready to move at any second to dodge her jabs, Donald followed up his low kick with a high-kick to Zoey’s face. As this motion was playing out, a chill suddenly filled Donald’s heart.

The cameras picked up Zoey’s small smirk as Donald’s foot came soaring towards her face. Zoey’s head ducked down before immediately bobbing back up and delivering a sharp jab to Donald’s face. That one jab turned into two jabs and those two jabs turned into three. All within a second! Everyone could see blood shooting out from Donald’s face and as Zoey was about to send her fourth jab, the referee suddenly intervened in the middle. He forced himself in front of the confused and bloody Donald as he called the first round of the match.

“To your corner!” He yelled at her as her fist was inches away from his nose.

Zoey’s fist shook from an unknown emotion just as she was about to finish off Donald. She completely forgot there were multiple rounds and almost hit the referee for interrupting her. It reminded her of when she fought multiple delinquents. To think she was almost disqualified already. How annoying.

She clicked her tongue in disappointment as she turned and made her way to her corner where the Coach was waiting with Zach, Aiden, and some doctor-looking guy. Aiden had a pack of ice in his hand and began to wipe it all over her body while Zach had a white washcloth to wipe her sweat with. The doctor checked her leg and stomach for anything serious.

“You’re doing good kid. Watch out for those kicks of his as best you can. You watch out for those and keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll be fine. You can win this.” He told her, staring into her eyes before taking out her mouthpiece from her mouth and then putting in a new one.

Zoey wasn’t expecting to have two good-looking boys wiping her down, a doctor touching her leg, and Coach putting his fingers in her mouth from coming in this corner but she wasn’t sure she wanted to go to the corner again. So, she was going to make sure to finish this fight in the next round. While some parts of this were nice, all of it together wasn’t that nice.

“It looked like Zoey was about to swing on the referee, didn’t it?” The main announcer spoke.

“Maybe she was pissed he got in her way before she could end the match.” The secondary announcer guessed.

“It's a good thing she stopped herself in time.”

“Sometimes you need to know when to advance and when to retreat.”

“Her fight match in the tournament could’ve been all over if she hit the referee with those fists of hers.”

“Who would have called the match if she knocked out the referee?”

“This isn’t wrestling John! The rules aren’t automatically thrown out just because the referee can’t see them.”

“I’m just saying... She could’ve had a double TKO in her first round. Because if that referee was dropped by her, nothing would be able to stop her from pounding Donald’s skull in. You saw how he had to be led into his corner by his helpers. That boy was seeing stars and wouldn’t be able to resist if she wanted to continue further.”

“Let’s see how he does in the second round, Bob.”