Nicky Gunnery vs Madison Kelly

For Nicky, every match in the ring wasn't really a fight against an opponent, but a race against her own stamina. She knew that more than anyone, and she wouldn't -couldn't- change the way she went to war. She knew she had the tools to outmaneuver, blitz, and overwhelm any girl within her weight class, the only question was whether they had the footwork and defense to stall out her attempts before she started to slow down and switch to the more measured but less intuitive counter-punching tactics she employed when she started to tire out.

Fortunately, her offense trumped Madison's defense. She took her against the ropes, battered her way through her guard, and tore into her rival with the ferocity of Gatling gun. She wilted more with each powerful blow and when the smash to the head finally happened, Nicky could feel Madison's entire body crumble around her fist. Fighting every urge to keep on walloping her, Nicky took a step back, giving Madison the space to fumble her way towards the mat. Nicky's breathing came quick, her chest heaved with the effort of their battle, but she managed to raise a shaking fist up in triumph as she marched back towards her corner.

"3... 4...."

Back pressed to the turnbuckle and arms slung around the ropes, Nicky stared intently as the referee loomed over the prone body of Madison, hands raised and counting down the numbers. She was confident she had done enough to put Madison down, but the other girl had proven tough, and she wasn't willing to celebrate until '10' was counted.

Madison stirred amongst the muffled sound of counting. It was a mess of noise when drifted on the vast ocean that was the response from the crowd as well, droning in her flooded mind to the point it had no meaning. She grit her teeth, grinding down hard on her mouth guard, feeling the strain of material fight her. It was the next best thing to pinching herself to make sure reality was still at hand. Her gloves dragged along the canvas, rolling from their open palms to the tops of her knuckles to make a firm foundation. The push to rise was a labored one that found her arm shuddering and head hung low as her body fought her brain over the cost of standing. She wouldn't quit though, not as long as she could fight on. It was a stubbornness born into her from her mother, as redeeming a feature as it was a detriment in the ring.

On her hands and knees, she let out a shaky breath, tucking her upper lip in to keep the mouth guard stable while taking in greedy gasps for air. She ignored the sting of sweat trickling into her eye, using that annoyance to get her good and angry to help draw motivation to get back to her feet. Her nostrils flared, still able to breathe through her nose. Nothing ruptured there, that was good. With a hard shove, Madison pushed herself up onto the balls of her feet and slowly rose back up by the count of seven. While she could have milked it just a hit more, she was ready to get back in it.

The referee moved close, checking over her briefly before asking if she could continue. She was sure to speak clearly when confirming but kept any nodding to a minimum. While she had gotten to her feet, the lingering pain was something still visible on her face with the twitch of her eye or the slow ease movement of bringing her gloves back up, overtly careful. She gave her gloves a small pat together, brazenly gesturing across the way to Nicky to come back into the fight.