Eye of the Tiger

I recently started a new combat training class. I felt like I'd gone as far as I needed to go with my BJJ training, and wanted to learn new fighting techniques. Something to really prepare me for if I ever have to defend myself from an attacker in a real situation. So I've started training in MMA. Mostly the classes focus on boxing/kickboxing techniques as well as ground game.


Anyway, my first day at the class started at a boxing gym in the really rough part of town. I was nervous, but also really excited too. It's a bit of a grimy gym, but it has all the kit and machinery one would need to train in combat sports. The owner of the gym was the first person to greet me by the front of the gym.

He's an old grizzly scouser. His story is quite stereotypical to be honest lol he used to be a hardened criminal when he was a teen, but he turned his life around after he got jailed for armed robbery. He served his sentence, got a bit of an education inside the joint, and once he'd finished serving his sentence he wanted to make a difference to both his own life and to others, so he started up a gym and began training/mentoring off-the-rails teens by instilling the discipline of boxing into them. He's been doing it for a number of decades now, and by all accounts is a respected member of the local community because of it.

After a little chat with him, he introduced me to a young-looking middle-aged guy who coaches the MMA class I signed up for. There was already a few other students already on the mats in the gym, stretching and preparing for the class ahead.

The coach is a really nice guy. Super friendly, with a good sense of humour. And he's very easy on the eyes too, I might add :P lol


The other students were all male, your typical mix of "bro-dude"-like trainee fighters. They can come across as a bit too cocky at times, but it's understandable considering the competitive physical environment they're in. Although I was pleasantly surprised to see another girl amongst them.

I actually felt pretty relieved and more comfortable knowing that I wasn't going to be the only girl there. At least I'll have someone to chat girly-talk with, I figured lol

The coach introduced me, "the new face", to the group. The guys seemed pretty enthusiastic to see another girl for them to put their attention on and so were all eager to talk to me and make me feel welcomed :P lol

After a quick hello to them all, I walked up to the ginger-haired girl who was quietly getting on with her warm-up stretches.

"Hi, I'm Angelica."
I smiled, as I held my hand out to her.

"Yeah, hi."
She bluntly grunted, and offered little more than a reluctant tap of my fingertips with the back of her knuckles.

"So what's your name?"
I asked, biting my lip out of nervous awkwardness.

She stopped her stretching, and stared hard into my eyes, like she was sizing me up. Her resting bitch face was in full-on bitch mode lol
"Kim." She finally answered as she narrowed her eyebrows and continued to stretch again.

"Cool. Well, I'm looking forward to training with you, Kim."
I grinned, trying to ease the tension.

She just ignored me, so I just ignored her too and got myself set-up next to one of the guys (who immediately began trying to chat me up lol)

After warming up with stretches and a work-out (push ups, sit ups, star jumps, squats, etc), the coach came back to face us and began the lesson proper.




After about an hour, the coach called for a short time-out to rest and take in fluids. A few of the guys stood around me to get to talking to me again. It was all very flirtatious and very risque but ultimately friendly banter. I noticed Kim in the background staring at me with a freckled face like thunder. Just what was her problem? >:/

I decided to try and talk to her again. I asked if she's OK, and she just grunted a "Yeah." in reply.

She was just being very blunt with me. It suddenly dawned on me as to what her problem with me is. She was used to being the queen-bee of the gym, but now there's a new bee buzzing around in her gym, and she don't want to share none of the honey! lol


"Ooh, I get it!"
I grinned at her.

"Get what?"
She asked, twisting her freckled-face in confusion.

"Why you're being off with me. It's OK, I totally understand."
My grin turned into a reassuring smile.

"What are you talking about? O_o"
She asked.

"It's OK, love, really. I get it... You're scared of the new rookie showing you up and kicking your ass in front of everybody >:)"
I taunted.

"What?"
She scoffed dismissively with a snorty chuckle.

"It's fine. Honestly. Don't worry. When we get to sparring, I'll go easy on you and make you look good in defeat >:P"
I continued to tease her.

"Fuck you, bitch."
She suddenly replied aggressively. I was actually surprised by just how quick to anger she was.

I just giggled impishly, which only infuriated her more.

"The fuck you laughing for? >:O How about we go right now, tough bitch? Huh?!"
She challenged me.

"Really? Right now? ...No,"
I just smiled calmly,
"I'm in no hurry to humiliate you in front of everyone, I can wait >:)" lol

You see, when it comes to fighting, I'm allllll about the mind-games >:) lol I like to beat my opponents long before we've even begun to fight. I knew she was going to be so easy to wind-up and twist around my finger, I was going to make her dance to my tune, to play her like a violin before I cut her strings >;)


"Ahh you're just one of those bitches. You act tough but you're just a scaredy bitch, aren't you? You know I'd whoop you!"
She sneered with a smug grin.

"You just tell yourself that, love. Whatever helps you to not feel so bad about getting shown up by me :)"
I just continued to be irritatingly calm about it lol

"Let's go right now, then! Come on!"
She challenged me, stepping towards the mats in the middle of the gym floor, trying to lead me into following her onto them.

"No thanks. I don't want to ruin my toe-nail polish. These took me a while to do this morning."
I impishly chuckled, as I looked down at my toes to wiggle them, which she also looked down towards.

"That's what I thought bitch. Keep quiet >:/"
She looked back up to my eyes to reply angrily.

"You seem really worked up, love? Someone piss on your Cornflakes this morning?"
I asked, feigning genuine concern in the most annoying way lol

"Don't even talk. You're too scared to face me."
She replied.

"Ooh... Don't worry, say no more. I also get a little grouchy when I'm on the rag, too ;)"
I tapped the side of my nostril knowingly at her. Knowing exactly how those words of mine would push her buttons lol >:P

"Fuck off."
She replied bitterly, and stepped off the mats to walk over towards her gym bag.

I knew right then, that I was going to have a lot of fun with her >:D lol



So anyway. Long story short. The following week, at the next class, we we're being coached on our ground game. Mostly working on defence training on the ground. I felt supremely comfortable with it, what with my BJJ training having taught me a lot about the techniques/methods to use in defence against strikes from above when on the ground and how to escape/work submissions from the ground, etc.


The coach started pairing everybody up to spar. Of course, he paired me with Kim, thinking it's only fair for the 2 girls to spar together.

"I've been looking forward to this."
She sneered at me with a fierce grin as we stepped up together onto the foam-rubber mats.

"Yeah, you been thinking all week about me, have you?"
I asked with a smug sneering grin of my own.

"Yeah!"
She chuckled sadistically.

"Yeah? Nice to know what your wet-dreams have been about. Getting down and dirt with me, huh? Can't say I blame you, I am the object of many peoples desires!"
I smugly stated with a flirtatious wink and a wiggle of my hips at her.
"Don't worry, you're not the first girl to get wet with me ;)"

"Whatever, bitch."
She sneered again with a shake of her head.

"So are we going to fight, or you do want to just fuck me instead?"
I asked with an impish grin.

Having heard enough of me, she suddenly lunged at my legs, shooting for a leg-takedown.

I quickly blocked her attempt at a takedown rather expertly, even if I do say so myself ^_^ and after a struggle, we really started going at it, wrestling each other for control of the other.

Fair play to her, she really knows her stuff. She was giving me a really good run for my money. She's got a great pair of legs on her, and I quickly found myself on the defence against her as she got me onto my back and put herself into side-control on me.

I was defending expertly well, as she kept trying to switch and move around, trying to find the perfect angle of attack to get into an even stronger position on me, but I wasn't having any of it. I kept preventing her from having any luck with me.


Amongst the heavy breathing and panting between us as we wrestled, I started to hear the shouting of cheers/instructions/encouragements coming from the guys in the gym (including the coach). It seems no matter where such an event occurs, everybody always stops what they're doing to watch 2 girls going at it haha :P



Again, fair dues where they're earned, she did rather expertly break my defence eventually, managing to hook her leg around my stomach and quickly get on top of me. Now in full mount sitting firmly on me, she started throwing open hands towards my face, although it was obvious that she was pulling her punches. I think the only reason she held back was because it was just meant to be sparring, and we were under strict instructions to not connect with our punches. She was connecting with my face though, albeit tamely. It felt like I was having wet sponges thrown against my cheeks. Not painful, just very irritating and with just enough force behind them to make me even more eager to defend myself against it.

I quickly sized on the opportunity of one of those thrown strikes, to grab her wrist with one hand, and then immediately hooked my arm around her neck, forcing her head to get pushed and held down beside mine. Her hot breath was panting heavily against my ear. At any other time in life, this would have been a very enjoyable treat for me :P lol but here, it was just making me more eager to defeat her >:)

"By the way..."
She suddenly said, with a heavy breath into my ear.
"If I was fucking you, I'd destroy you!"

Her words caught me off guard. That was the last thing I had expected to hear her say O_O

She suddenly exploded with energy on me, capitalising fully on my one moment of distraction to move up, grab my forearm with her hands, and in one fluid motion, swiftly locked my arm into a cross-armbar submission.

The pain shot fast in my limb. Pins and needles burst into my arm like a firework. I quickly rolled myself into the hold, with her legs locking around my shoulder and chest like a pair of boa constrictors.

Despite the pain, I wasn't going to give up. She was going to have to snap my arm if she wanted me to tap out >:O

With me pressing the side of my face right into the taut smoothness of her calve, I climbed onto my feet, as she laid on the mat, forcing me to bend awkwardly over her as she held onto my arm for dear life. Putting as much pressure as she could muster onto my aching limb. I was just biding my time for a moment, letting the energy and the adrenaline swell through my body, preparing to explode to give me enough strength to lift her up and slam her hard down onto the mat to break the hold.

Just as I was about ready to unleash all that pent-up, raw, primal destructive energy...

"BREAK!"
The coach shouted and rushed over to us. She immediately released my arm, and rolled up onto her knees with the most smuggest, satisfied expression on her freckly face.

I stood up straight, clutching my tingling arm, which felt as heavy as a tree as all the strength drained from it from that hold. I looked at her with my face red with anger as everybody cheered and whooped with applause for her. My anger quickly faded to embarrassment... I felt so humiliated to have gotten beaten like that... :(

It just was one little mistake. One little moment of weakness which cost me... :(

The guys came over to the both of us, and started patting us both on the back. I was surprised by their words, as it wasn't just her getting the plaudits. They also congratulated me for my defence, and for fighting to the bitter end. Their words, nice though they were, rang hollow in my ears.

I still lost. I was angry with the coach for stopping the bout and giving her the victory. But I swallowed the bitter taste of defeat, and sought to conduct myself with dignity in said defeat.

I stepped up to Kim as she got to her feet, and I shook her hand with a humble "Well done.".

"You did OK,"
She replied to me,
"For a hairdresser, anyway >:)"

The smug bitch! >:O

I sneered bitterly at her... And then my sour face suddenly lit up with a big bright grin.

"Oh my god... I just realised! :D"
I exclaimed with a big beaming toothy grin.

"Huh?"
She stared perplexed at me by the sudden change to my reaction.

"You... You're.. You're..."
I could barely contain my excitement as my eager words got lodged in my throat.

She just stared hard at me.

"...You're my rival! Oh my god, I have a rival! Yes! Yes yes yes!"
I cheered and bounced excitedly on the tips of my toes :D lol

"The fuck you talking about, bitch?"
She stared unimpressed and confused at me.

"Oh my god, this is so awesome!"
I continued to cheer,
"Y-you're my- my- my Gary to my Red! Th-the Drago to my Rocky! The Joker to my Batman! Oh my god! YES!!"

I started skipping excitedly around her like as if I had just won the World Cup or something lol all while humming'Eye of the Tiger' lol

"Whatever, bitch -_-"
She sighed and walked away from me.


And I am genuinely excited/happy about it :D for she has given me a goal to strive towards over the coming months, a real purpose in life... To eventually beat her ass! :D lol I'm now going to look forward every week to attending my new class, to soak up everything my coach has to teach me, so that I can get good enough to eventually take my rival down! :D



Thank you so much for reading this, hopefully I'll be able to update you on my progress with my rival in the future.
Please, leave a comment below to let me know what you thought :)