Imai Cosmo vs Laila Nazari

Laila watched Imai carefully, noting that his movements were still unimpeded, and worse, he was still smiling. That innocent grin of his was starting to really piss her off, though outwardly her expression remained cold and emotionless. She was not about to show weakness in front of him-- even though she was walking with a bit of a hobble now. Come on, attack me, she thought.

As Imai darted forward, dropping low. In an instant, Laila was dropping down as well: as Imai grabbed for her leg, Laila crouched, leaning her body against his back and wrapping one arm around his waist and the other around his arm, hoping to use her weight to force him to the mat. If she was successful, then she would wrench back on his trapped arm, using both arms to pull it behind his back and twist in an armlock...

Imai bit back a curse as he felt the arms around his waist and arm before being forced into the mat. He was kicking himself for letting himself get caught into the armlock as he sucked in his breath at the new sharp pain coursing through his caught arm. Moving quickly he would begin to push up with his free arm and legs, trying to move her to get leverage to either get into a better position for his arm or get closer to the ropes.

As he began to try and get into a better position he would stomp one of his feet, something he would do when fighting to get out of a hold to keep himself psyched up. He had to admit despite the situation he was growing excited to face such a tough opponent.

Laila's breathing was measured and controlled as she leaned against Imai's strong back, keeping her foe grounded as she folded his arm. The whole thing reminded her of those times she had experimented in amateur wrestling, fighting in a pure groundpounding match against other strong opponents. Except she was in a prostyle match, and what she could and couldn't do we a little less...restricted. 

Taking a deep breath, Laila used her position to raise a knee back, aiming to shoot two knee strikes forward into Imai to keep him nice and stunned. If those landed, then she would pull on his arm, trying to pull him over onto his back and lock her strong legs around the trapped him in a classic armbar!

Imai coughed a bit as he felt the knee ram into his back twice, knocking the breath out of him. As he tried to get air back into him his eyes widened as a sudden pull forced him onto his back now trapped in an armbar. As Laila kept her hold on his arm he grit his teeth, shaking his head when the ref asked if he wanted to submit trying to focus on a way either to the ropes or to get out of the hold.

Taking a moment to keep his calm while the pain from the submission was still at a relatively low level he moved his legs to try and move his legs, aiming to try and force himself either back to his knees or to a position where he could use his free hand to land shots at her to try and force her to loosen the hold.

Laila felt Imai thrash and groan as she locked in the armbar, hyperextending the limb to the point where he would no doubt feel the burning strain on his muscles. Already, the ref girl was asking if he was ready to give, and already, he was shaking his head and saying no. Admirable, but at this rate, Laila knew, he wouldn't last long, not with her two most powerful limbs trapping one of his.

Imai knew that too: in an instant, he had gotten his knees under him, elevating his lower body. At the same time, his free arm came in, punch after punch slamming against Laila's ankle. She gritted her teeth under the rain of blows, not wanting to show weakness in front of her opponent, but slowly but surely, the pain was getting too much. Rather than risk Imai doing serious damage to her, Laila released the armbar and rolled back to her feet, trying to get up and stomp down at Imai before he could do the same.

Imai let out a small breath as he felt her release the armbar, quickly moving his arm back, hoping to get the pain down. His eyes widened soon after however when he saw her stand over him and raised and brought down her foot for a stomp. Biting back a curse the blond reacted by twisting his body to the side to avoid the stomp before gaining a slight grin at the possible opening given to him with this. After moving to dodge the stomp he would move to get his arm wrapped around her ankle. If he succeeded he would then move to wrap his own legs around her leg and aim to yank with his arm and tighten the grip with his legs to try and upset her balance. If she was going to try and keep him on his back he'd just have to work to get her down to his level!

Laila was feeling a little annoyed now. Her ankle throbbed dully with pain from where Imai had punched it, though she imagined not nearly as bad as his arm must be hurting right now. Still, her only focus at the moment was on maintaining the pressure on him and keeping him on the defensive. With that in mind, she stood up and stomped down...

...only for him to grab her by the ankle, his legs locking around hers. Wide-eyed, Laila was yanked off balance and brought onto her ass. Recognizing a bad hold when she saw one, Laila spun with her body as best as she was able, hoping to snap her free leg into Imai's face before he could lock in a submission...

Imai almost grinned once he managed to get his opponent to the floor but he knew he didn't have the luxury of patting himself on the back quite yet. After all any MMA fighter worth a damn wouldn't let him work to get a lock in this early on and soon enough Laila was working to break his grip. But that was fine, after all Imai was more than just good with submissions and he would move to his next goal.

He would actually let go of his grip on her leg, moving to let her free leg impact with his side, it would still hurt sure but not nearly as much as a blow to the face. He would then work to try and move up her body and attempt to straddle her waist for a mount. If he succeeded in the mount he would work to ensure it was stable before aiming a few blows to her face to begin a ground n' pound attack.

Laila took a breath, half of relief and half out of anticipation, as her kick hammered Imai in the side. It did the trick, and made him let go, but before Laila could roll away and get back to her feet, her male opponent was suddenly on her. Her eyes widened as Imai suddenly moved further down, straddling her waist.

She knew what was coming next, but even so, she reacted a half a second too slow as Imai's fist came down, hammering her across her cheek. "Nnnngh..." she grunted, immediately bringing her arms up to guard her face as Imai began to rain down a flurry of punches at her vulnerable head....

Imai was quite pleased with being able to turn this match around to his favor for the moment, still his mentor's training rang in his head. He knew he still couldn't drop his guard until victory was achieved and so he maintained his barrage of punches. Still the other wasn't going to make this easy as shown by her managing to quickly put up a guard. The blond knew he couldn't keep up the barrage for too much longer, else he risked running out of stamina.

With this in mind he threw a few more punches, if left uninterrupted with the last punch he would move to grip her wrist. If not countered he would begin the work of returning the favor and deliver an armbar of his own to the other fighter.