Lorenza Saldano vs. Carmen Rodriguez - ¡Guerra!

Carmen powered down on the hold, putting everything she had to give into it. Muscles tensed, veins began to surge, sweat already beginning to pool along her brow. Carmen could feel those bones underneath Lorenza's rippling muscles, starting to bend under the stress.

She didn't expect to enjoy the feeling for too long, though, and her expecting the retaliation didn't make it any easier to bear. The first of Lorenza's blows to her middle made Carmen loosen the hold, and she had to quickly push back into Lorenza and secure it again before she fell free. The next one wasn't any more pleasant, but Carmen managed to keep the bearhug tight, bearing down on Lorenza as another and another slammed into her.

Carmen lacked her brother's raw power, but even she could lift Lorenza for a little while, and that was all the time she needed to pour on more damage. She tightened the hold one more time and heaved up, getting Lorenza's feet off the ground just enough for her to barrel forward and slam her back into the turnbuckle at ramming speed, crashing it and sandwiching Lorenza into the corner.

Lorenzaâ€s first punch smashed into Carmenâ€s side with the force of a cannonball, and for a second the Mexican boxer felt her rivalâ€s hold on her loosen. Before she could do anything about it, however, Carmen reestablished the hold. No matter. Lorenza drilled a second fist into Carmenâ€s body, this one to her other side, giving each kidney the same amount of attention. Carmen held on tight. Groaning in pain as she felt the other boxerâ€s hold on her remain, Lorenza poured in two, three, four more shots to Carmenâ€s sides, trying to force her to let go.

Before Lorenza could force any such retreat from Carmen, however, the Puerto Rican managed to lift her up off of her feet. It was only for a few seconds, but it was a long enough time that Carmen had a chance to rush forward, half-pushing, half-throwing Lorenza into the hard, uncovered metal turnbuckle. The metal rang as it smacked into Lorenzaâ€s spine, and the Mexican boxer let out a short, sharp cry of pain. Her arms dropped down to the ropes to either side of her, as she was momentarily too stunned to continue her assault on Carmenâ€s torso.

Carmen hadn't even noticed that the turnbuckles were uncovered - not a few moments ago, at least. She was so used to working with padded turnbuckles that it probably didn't even register. Regardless, the turnbuckle was uncovered, and that made her attack all the more successful. Lorenza took the full force, her arms dropped, and for one, golden moment, the former world champion became the world's sexiest punching bag. Carmen was not letting that go to waste.

Carmen staggered back, taking a moment to rub her battered middle, before she pushed past the pain and came right back at Lorenza. She threw out a left hook and let it crash into Lorenza's jaw, smacking hard, nothing held back. She didn't bring it back in, either - no need to defend at the moment. Instead, she kept it out and used that hand to hold Lorenza's head steady while she threw a thunderous right straight, hitting dead center in tigress' face.

Lorenza slumped back against the turnbuckle as Carmen let go of her, stepping unsteadily back a little. Lorenza eyed her rival warily, mentally prepared to seize the advantage and go after the obviously hurting Carmen, but physically incapable of doing so after being under the pressure of such a powerful bearhug and being slammed into an uncovered turnbuckle.

She didnâ€t know if the turnbuckle had been uncovered when they scoped out this old gym the week prior—if it had been, the AFW cleanup crew had done a good job of scrubbing it down and removing the rust that must have dominated most of its open surface. But just because she wasnâ€t going to get impaled by a hanging scrap of metal and wouldnâ€t have a chance of contracting tetanus didnâ€t mean that being slammed into the unpadded corner wasnâ€t devastating. Lorenza had had an advantage over Carmen. She didnâ€t anymore.

Lorenza was rocked by Carmenâ€s left hook, her head snapping to the side, spittle flying from between her lips and onto the ropes beside her. She tried to bring her arms up, but they were too numb, and moved too slowly. Lorenza could only watch Carmenâ€s right fist come in towards her face, a thunderous straight which slammed her head backwards. Only her impressive height saved her from being brained against the cold metal of the corner.

Lorenza was reeling. She would finally manage to bring her arms up, however, hoping to protect herself for just a few seconds, for just long enough that she might gather enough energy to knock Carmen back on her heels…

Carmen always understood the importance of using gloves and protecting her best weapons, but since she started wrestling and fighting with taped fists, even she had to admit that there was something deeply satisfying about hitting without the padding. It hurt a little to smack Lorenza's skull, but that raw, unhindered impact was incredible. Real, serious damage.

And, of course, Lorenza took it like the champ she was, suffering through punches that would have knocked most people, most fighters, out like a light switch.

Carmen started to move in for another straight, but Lorenza turtled up before she had the chance, and she had a pretty good shell to hide in. But unlike the last time they fought, Carmen had harder tools to crack it with, and she put them to use right away.

Instead of throwing one or two solid punches, she wailed into Lorenza's guard with a blazing flurry, pecking at her arms with rapid jabs at staccato speed. It was quantity over quality, battering away - if Lorenza didn't want to experience death by a thousand cuts, she'd have to come out eventually, and when she did Carmen would be ready for .

Lorenza got her hands up in front of her throbbing face. She didnâ€t feel any fluids running down her face, though she wouldnâ€t have been surprised had her nose been broken by that devastatingly powerful straight right punch which Carmen had thrown. It had hurt like a bitch. Without gloves, the punches which Carmen threw seemed to hit harder. Her knuckles jabbed into Lorenzaâ€s cheeks, dug into her face. These punches felt very personal.

Lorenza had turtled up, but Carmen would do her very best to break that shell. She sent punch after punch after punch, all quick, tight jabs, into Lorenzaâ€s forearms, battering them, bruising them, threatening to punch her arms off below the elbows. Lorenza, already weakened by the abuse of being thrown into the turnbuckle and taking a couple of heavy punches to the face, was having difficulty keeping her arms aloft. She was going to go down, unless she thought fast.

She had to counterattack. There was no other option. Lorenza would swing her leg forward again, her kick snapping at Carmenâ€s thigh through the little space there was between them. She would follow that up with a loud roar, as she would drop her guard and throw a hard right hook to Carmenâ€s cheek.

Blow after blow after blow slammed into Lorenza's guard, and to her credit, she kept the damn thing up. Carmen could tell she was hurt, but she was surviving all the same, powering through all the pain Carmen was raining down. In all likelihood, she'd be giving that pain right back to Carmen in a few minutes with some interest on the top - but at the moment, Lorenza was all hers.

Carmen expected Lorenza to make an escape attempt, and sure enough, she did, bringing those street skills into use once again. Lorenza had a surprisingly strong kick for a boxer - she was no Angel, but she could make those legs deal real pain. The blow slammed into her thigh and drove Carmen back, numbing up her leg on impact. Carmen winced as she stumbled, glancing down out of pure reflex, only taking a moment to look away from Lorenza.

One moment. Far too long.

As she looked up, she only saw the punch for a split second before it hit. Lorenza's legendary right hook was dangerous even when they had some protection, but at full force it was downright devastating. Carmen's head whipped around and her body followed along shortly after, spinning around to put her back to Lorenza, her head swimming so bad she didn't even realize how dangerous that was. She fell to her knees, placing both hands on the canvas to keep from falling flat while she tried to remember what her name was and what planet she was on.

Lorenza, backed up into a corner, did what she had to do to launch her comeback. She harkened back to what she had learned on the streets of Tijuana, fighting for her life again the daughters of swindlers, drug runners, and murderers—and, sometimes, those selfsame swindlers, drug runners and murderers. It was a tough life that Lorenza usually preferred not to remember. But the lessons learned back then were coming in handy now, as she was able to adapt to the street fighting style of this match much more quickly than Carmen.

Her kick landed on Carmenâ€s thigh, and it was painful enough that Carmen hesitated. Just for an instant, but it was enough, Lorenza threw a bone-shattering right hook which sent her rivalâ€s head spinning, with her body soon following. Lorenza could not help but smirk as Carmen, her back now turned, fell to her knees on the canvas.

“¡Ven acá!” Lorenza said, parroting Carmenâ€s earlier words as she would leap forward, coming down on Carmenâ€s back. She would wrap both arms around Carmenâ€s neck, trying to put the Puerto Rican into a chokehold. At the same time, Lorenza would drive a knee hard into the other boxerâ€s side, trying to force her all the way down onto the mat.

In the moment that her back was turned to Lorenza, Carmen winced and prepared herself. It was a golden opportunity, one that was begging for Lorenza to take advantage of, and she expected the retaliation to be hard and swift. The only question was what direction it would be coming from.

The answer came soon enough, in the form of a brutal chokehold around Carmen''s neck, squeezing out what little air she had stocked up to work. Her hands went up, pulling at Lorenza's rock-solid forearm, but she might as well have been trying to shake the grip of a statue. Lorenza wasn't letting go. Not that way.

Carmen started to stand up, trying to drag Lorenza along with her, but a knee in her side killed that idea in the crib. She went back down and barely managed to keep from falling over - if Lorenza got on top of her and had her pinned, it would be all over, nothing to stop her from getting the knockout. She had to stay upright.

The thrashing intensified and Carmen tried anything and everything to fight back, reaching up and using one hand throw wild, random punches as Lorenza's face, all while a stream of gargled curses spilled forth from her lips

Lorenza felt Carmen trying to get up beneath her, and bared her teeth, grinning like a predator as she wrapped her arms around Carmenâ€s neck in a sleeper hold and forced her to stay down on all fours with a swift knee to the side. She felt Carmen wobble, but the Puerto Rican managed to keep from going down. Lorenza would tighten her chokehold, trying to press her advantage. If she got Carmen down it very well might all be over.

Carmen, of course, was working to keep that from happening. She threw wild punches with one hand, and the fist did connect with Lorenzaâ€s face, neck, and chest. Coming from an awkward angle, and with most of the blows merely glancing off of her, Lorenza thought she might be able to shrug them off for long enough to finish her cursing hermana off.

But one punch smacked into Lorenzaâ€s face square between her eyes, and the Mexican boxer could not so easily shrug it off. She groaned and began to slide to one side, almost falling off of Carmenâ€s back before catching herself with one foot.

If she had fallen all the way, and had ended up flat on her back…she would have been as much of a goner as she had been hoping Carmen would soon be.

Reluctantly, Lorenza would bring the fight back up into a standing position. She had control over her rival, after all, and wouldnâ€t let Carmen go easily. Slowly, she would plant her feet on the canvas, then change her two-armed choke to a single-armed side headlock, before rising up to her full height, pulling Carmen up with her. Just to keep the Puerto Rican boxer from getting any smart ideas, Lorenza would throw a left hook into Carmenâ€s face with her free hand, trying to keep the woman placated.