Saldano vs. Rodriguez - Queens of the Ring

As expected. If Lorenza was going to get taken to the center of the ring, she'd go kicking and screaming.

Carmen was only able to get her a few steps before she dropped anchor and refused to give another free inch, making Carmen push into the brick wall of her hardened body. Always one to make Carmen pay for everything she took, Lorenza threw out one of the best rights Carmen had ever seen - smooth, crisp, almost as fast as a jab, and she could see the power in the movement. This was a heavy blow.

Instead of taking it head on or trying to endure it, Carmen moved with the blow, jerking her body back as the punch cracked through her guard and struck her face. She took some of the hit, jolted her jaw, but moving in sync with the blow deadened much of the force, and let her keep the presence of mind to immediately retaliate.

She slipped to the side as the blow retracted and shot out two more jabs. working the same pattern she'd been building up for the past twenty of so seconds - one up top, one below, both with significant noise to back them.

Lorenzaâ€s powerful straight right hurtled forward towards Carmenâ€s damaged face, looking to put yet another dent in the Puerto Ricanâ€s features. The punch did land, but not to Lorenzaâ€s satisfaction—Carmen managed to roll with the punch, and her backwards momentum as the punch knocked into her jaw took away much of its potency. The punch hadnâ€t really even dazed Carmen at all. The brunette was still in possession of all her usual faculties, and she retaliated hard.

Her first jab managed to slip past Lorenzaâ€s gloves as she was still retracting her right arm. Lorenzaâ€s head snapped back, and she took a step in the opposite direction of her opponent. Then the next jab came in, nailing her in the gut. Lorenza groaned. She hunched over a bit and brought her gloves up in front of her face to defend from any haymakers Carmen might be considering. Then, figuring that the best defense was a good offense, Lorenza would toss a quick jab at Carmenâ€s ribs, hoping to strangle the Puerto Ricanâ€s momentum before it could really get rolling.

The roll paid off - she was inside, now, in-fighting to her satisfaction, and she was more than ready to pick up the pace. If she was going out, she was going out with a bang and taking Lorenza as far down with her as she could muster.

After the jabs landed, Lorenza wisely put up her guard and took some defensive tact, right as Carmen was moving in for the kill - sage move. She back it up, too, lashing out a well-time jab that slapped her ribs, right on a sore spot. Carmen swore she could feel the bones breaking, even hear them if she listened close enough. Fractures slipping up her bones, widening with each passing moment, begging her to end the fight as soon as possible.

Just a little longer. Just a little bit. After two years, a minute and a half of pain is nothing.

She decided to put her little plan into action as she stepped back, needing to hold onto the pace before Lorenza got gutsy. Taking a page from Pavlov, she made the same noise she'd been making for each the past few seconds, hoping that Lorenza would automatically react and adjust her guard to take it - but no jab was coming, not this time. Instead, Carmen did a quick hop to the right and pivoted sending out a right hook that was designed to get around her guard.

A conditioned reflex - basically trying to throw a feint without actually throwing a feint. A risky experiment for the last round, but worth it if it caught Lorenza unawares.

Carmen thought it wiser not to go in for the kill after Lorenza hit her with that powerful defensive jab. As her punch connected, Lorenza thought that she just might have felt Carmenâ€s ribs breaking, the fissures within the bones growing wider and greater in number. Just the same as her own ribs, and how Carmen had shattered them. The two of them were not only inflicting equally massive damage on each other, but their wounds were almost mirror images.

Carmen took a step back. Lorenza took half a step forward, though she kept her guard up, wary of rushing into a trap. She knew Carmen must be planning some sort of trick. When she heard Carmenâ€s soft grunt and saw her pull back her fist, Lorenza would pull her guard a little tighter in front of her face, ready to absorb the blow.

Carmen switched up the punch, however, and, instead of a jab, threw a right hook that swung around Lorenzaâ€s guard and slammed into the side of her head. Lorenza grunted and stumbled to the side, temporarily dazed by the blow, trying desperately to recover.

Carmen was surprised that worked, but damn, did it work. She hadn't cared to much for that psychology class she took in tenth grade, yet she couldn't argue with the result. Pavlov knew his stuff.

Lorenza reacted to a punch that was never thrown, her reflexes getting the best of her, putting her in prime position for the real punch. Carmen only wished her arm wasn't so numb - she would have loved to feel the hit sinking in, feel Lorenza's jaw give way under the blow. Just imagining those bones shifting was sweet enough. Boxing 101: Nothing is deadlier than the punch you don't see coming.

Then, and only then, did Carmen move in for the kill.

She threw a jab, a real jab, at Lorenza's head, then ducked down and went for the kill shot. She hit her with a liver blow, just as bad as the last one, and pushed into it a bit harder to drive her towards the ropes.

Lorenza had allowed herself to start assuming she knew what Carmen was going to do. That was a very dangerous rut for her to fall into, and she would quickly pull herself back up out of it, now even more wary of her opponent than she had been before. She knew that Carmen could throw anything at her. Unfortunately, after sustaining that last hard hit, she was a little dazed, and, when the next attack came, it came almost too quickly for Lorenza to react.

But she did manage to get her guard up, absorbing the jab aimed for her face, though the force of it still pushed her back a step. She tried to rally, throwing a jab of her own at Carmenâ€s face. But her rival went low just then, and Lorenzaâ€s jab sailed over Carmenâ€s head as the black glove of her opponent drove into her liver. “Guh!” Lorenza groaned, her whole body seizing up for a second in pain as her liver was pounded upon. Lorenza couldnâ€t help but feel as if every one of her internal organs was liquefied by the pounding Carmen was giving them. Her legs felt weak as she stumbled back into the ropes, panting and glaring at Carmen, gloves up as she tried to defend herself from her rival. The momentum, for the time being, was all Carmenâ€s.

The liver blow landed, every bit as sweet a shot as it had been the last time. The reaction was immediate, coming out as a pained breath from Lorenza as her body shook in agony. Legs wobbling as she retreated, gloves up nice and tight, glaring back at Carmen from the shadow, eyes full of venom.

Carmen didn't blame her. If the situation were reversed, she might have the same look. But even if they were 'sisters' now, that didn't mean punches were going to be pulled in the ring. If anything it meant the exact opposite. For family, Carmen always gave nothing but the best.

With Lorenza on the defensive, Carmen opened up shop and went to work, starting up the masterclass she'd told Lorenza about when they first met about this fight. First lesson? Boxing basics. A bread and butter combination.

"One!" Carmen threw a jab at Lorenza's face, establishing the distance and testing the guard.

"Two!" Next came a power shot, the right cross, hammering in on the other side, testing the guard.

"Three!" A hook followed that up, trying to sneak in past the guard and tag the face, going for a new angle.

"Two!" Another right cross finished the combination, even stronger than the first one, a final shot at cracking the guard and delivering the pain.

One of the first combinations her father had drilled into her, an oldie but a goodie. Carmen couldn't help but wonder if Lorenza looked at it the same way - for all their similarities, from what Carmen understood of Lorenza's past, they'd started out quite differently. She heard about her time in Tijuana. Rough streets. And she had always detected a bit of street in Lorenza's style, the sort of hardiness one can't just get from the gym.

Interesting questions. She'd have to ask them after they were done killing each other.

Her liver was pulsating in pain, now, along with every other part of her upper body. Soon enough, Lorenza would be nothing but a skin sack full of jelly, the liquefied remains of her bones and internal organs.

She put her gloves up defensively, chest heaving as she recovered from that last fierce attack from Carmen. She knew her rival would not be content to allow her to recover, and would come at her again as quickly as she could. All Lorenza could do was brace herself and try to weather the storm until an opening presented itself.

And here came Carmen. She threw her first punch, a jab which drilled right into Lorenzaâ€s guard. The Mexican boxer grunted a little as her sore wrists were bent awkwardly backward under the force of her foeâ€s attack. But her gloves absorbed the damage. Next came a cross, and that, too, drilled into Lorenzaâ€s gloves. This time, they were forced back into her face, and Lorenza huffed a bit as her own leather ran up against the raw, bruised, swollen flesh of her face.

Next came a hook. This one slipped past Lorenzaâ€s guard. She was just a millionth of a second too slow, it seemed, but she would pay full price for that sluggishness. The hook knocked her to the side, forcing her to stumble a couple of paces to her left. She was a sitting duck as Carmenâ€s next straight came at her, slamming right into her nose. Lorenzaâ€s head snapped backwards and she fell back into the ropes. They gave a little under her weight, but then would go no further, pushing Lorenza back towards her foe.

Lorenza would throw herself forward, wrapping her arms around Carmen for a tight clinch, protecting herself for a few precious seconds from the other womanâ€s devastating punches.

Yup. There's a reason the classics never die, and it's because they work. Plain and simple.

The jab made a crack in Lorenza's defense, and the straight made that crack even wider - hammering her, diverting focus, beautiful setting up for the hook to come around and send Carmen's love from the side. Her straight followed up and ended the combo on the lovely note of Lorenza's nose taking a pounding, the blow sending her into the ropes and bouncing her towards Carmen once more.

She wound up for another hook, but Lorenza stopped the effort cold with a clinch, pouring cold water on Carmen's high.

She locked up with Lorenza, struggling as the referee moved in to start pulling them apart. "Come on, hermana." She growled through the mouthpiece, speaking right in Lorenza's ear as they butted head. "This it? All you got for two years? Give me more, let's end it right!"

Lorenza managed to dive into her opponent before Carmen could knock her flat on her ass with another hook. Lorenza wrapped her arms tightly around her rival, sweat-drenched upper bodies pressing together, swollen foreheads polished with blood butting into each other as Lorenza took a few seconds to recover from her opponentâ€s vicious onslaught. She took a few deep breaths, her chest rising and falling uneasily against Carmenâ€s body.

Carmen started to speak to her. The woman was taunting her to some extent, but Lorenza didnâ€t really take it that way. She heard the way Carmen phrased it—she wanted to end the fight right. After two years, the two of them were settling all of their accounts, possibly for good. Lorenza could scarcely disagree with her rival. Her sister. “Iâ€m just getting started, hermana,” Lorenza growled in reply. “Letâ€s make it a real fucking ending to remember, eh?”

She would let go of Carmen, letting the referee pull them apart. Once the official had stepped out from in between them, Lorenza would lunge forward. Her legs wobbled, but kept her upright as she took one step, then another towards her opponent. She threw a quick left jab to try to put Carmen on the defensive. Then, she brought her right hand around for a mighty hook aimed at Carmenâ€s jaw. Lorenza was using up the last reserves of her energy to launch this desperate, last-ditch offensive. Carmen had drained her, just as she had two years ago. With a minute to go, Lorenza would have to be smart. But she could not afford to sit there and take it. If this attack failed, she would be in deep trouble; if it succeeded…well, she hoped that it would put them just about on even footing.