Karine graciously granted my request for a rematch at Averlast's monthly tournament last week (though she loves to box so much that I suspect she'd happily duke it out with a boxing kangaroo if we could just get one to register an SL account). I was also working the microphone that night as announcer, but Cal and I have worked out a system if I'm fighting on a given night. He announces the winner of the match prior to mine (that I had been calling up until that point) in order to give me time to duck backstage and change into my fight gear.
Funny note about the gear for that evening: The arena ring has opposing corners, one red and one blue, where the fighters stand between rounds. Karine's outfit for the night was all blue, and mine was all red, right down to the red robot skin I was wearing.
Cal made the introductions, and had me fighting out of the blue corner, and Karine out of the red. We razzed him about it.
Then the bell rang, putting all thoughts of color coordination to rest as we lit into each other.
The fight itself is a bit hard for me to sum up from a storytelling perspective. I fell into this kind of hyperfocused now that didn't take into account things like my scoring, the round number, or any of a number of things that normally flit unbidden through my mind during a fight ("how will I describe this in the blog?" is another one). I don't recall ever throwing myself so utterly into a fight before.
And when it all came down to the decision at the end, I won. It was my first win as a heavyweight.
I told Karine afterward that I was proud that she was my opponent for that win, and I meant it. I cherish her as a friend, respect her as my boss at Averlast, and know full well that she's a tough, tenacious competitor in the ring. A win over her is no small thing.
But I know better than to let it get to my head. My win only puts us even and she's already champing at the bit for another shot at me.
Um... help? Somebody? Anybody?
And speaking of interesting people who like to throw punches, at Averlast we've been having a big tournament for the Lightweight Championship. This week was the first round of matches, and so far we've seen some solid performances from the Lightweight Division.
If I had to pick the fight of the week, I'd have to say it was Wednesday's first matchup, which pitted Gregory "The Silverman" Siamendes against Robyn Caerndow. It was a real rock 'em, sock 'em affair that reflected well on both fighters. At the decision the audience was sitting on the edge of its proverbial collective chair. I have to confess I deliberately let them dangle a bit before finally announcing that Robyn had edged out Greg by a single point.
I wonder how they'd feel about a rematch after the tournament is over?
The final set of qualifiers is tonight at 5:30 PM SLT in the Averlast Arena. We've had packed houses all week for this, so if you want to catch the action you might want to get there a little early.
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