The Art of Being Tony (Tony Winters Book 1) Read online

  Anthony nodded and ate a bit.

  “You aren’t that bad. We should have you work with a few of the boxers if we can, for that. Also, after you win this fight, you need to step up the road work a bit. It’s too late to start pushing you right now, but after that, in your break period, you’ll have all that time to work on some long slow runs. More speed work, too.” He ate more, enjoying the burger a lot. The mustard was intense and spicy, even if it was just the plain yellow kind. It was enough that he had to take a drink from his bottle of water. That was one thing he noticed. Some of the others had soda, or iced tea in bottles. Everyone right there in the pro group was being good and drinking plain water. Even he was. It was kind of habit now.

  “Oh… You should see if you can get Robert in on that. The extra running and training? The guy you sparred with last week? The one that kept his ground skills, even if he was wowed by your greatness?” He was going to go on, but Nick started nodding.

  “Yeah, he’s not bad. I’ll see if he wants in on things. Good plan.”

  There was music playing in the background. A lot of it was older and patriotic, mixed with country. It kind of fit in with all the flags that everyone had around. It was happy and while some of the people were getting rowdy and a bit drunk, their people and the church group, made a nice block of calmness that way. They were all sober and if not quiet, at least friendly toward everyone.

  Steve looked over at Anthony and put on a serious face then, looking like he was trying not to smile.

  “So, Tony, when are you going to be fighting? Even with the recovery time you need, you should be about ready for your first match to be set up.”

  There were a couple of nods, especially from Mark.

  “Hell yeah. Who do you arrange that fight with though? It would be unfair to put him against most of the amateurs at this point. All he’s done is practice with pros. Practically training for title matches the whole time, too. It’s brutal. I get goosebumps watching you all go up against him.” He was kidding, but Ashley jumped in, not sparing his feelings at all.

  She pushed him a bit, but not enough to make him tip his half-filled plate over.

  “No doubt! It will be hard to find a good fit that way, right now. He’s good enough for the lower levels of pro, but none of them will touch him, I bet. I don’t blame them either. It’s kind of why the men won’t compete against the women, really.”

  Anthony nodded, “because I’m too sexy and they’ll start having uncomfortable feelings about me? I understand.”

  That got a laugh, though only a smile from Ash. She brushed her dark hair out of her face, as a small breeze picked up. It came from over the water, so was nice and cool. Compared to the hot weather anyway.

  “Not that part. The other part.” Taking a bite of food, she chewed for a bit, before going on. “If they fight a fifteen-year-old and lose, then they look bad. It doesn’t matter how tough or skilled you are either. If they fight you and win, then… Well, they look kind of like assholes. I mean, how hard is it to beat up a little kid, right?”

  It sounded about like what would happen to him, but Denny shrugged.

  “You know, I bet it isn’t that bad. Some of the pros aren’t all that old and some of the others will take almost any fight they can get. A win is a win, after all. They’ll be in for a surprise when they get in the ring, but on paper it sounds good. Some boy that’s never even had a fight before? They won’t realize that he’s been going into nearly real matches once or twice a week for months, first. Even in front of enough of a crowd to be used to the idea.”

  He thought about it for a few seconds and shrugged.

  “I hadn’t been thinking about it. I mean, this has really all been about trying to help you guys. I don’t know if it has or anything, but that’s my real goal here. To get good enough that I can be useful to you. To help out the people at the gym.”

  It really was the case, but everyone went quiet. Probably due to the fact that they all wanted to be professional fighters. They were that, already. Anthony was, like it or not, just some kid that hung out and passed towels to people. Steve lifted his bottle of water then and nodded once.

  “Then you are doing a good job. Will you be up for some twenty-fours in two weeks do you think? For Denny and me?”

  That was a nearly insane thing and incredibly hard to do. Twenty-four full rounds, at near pro-fighting level of intensity. Insane really. So he nodded.

  “I will be. As long as my skin heals enough. That’s…” It was going to take more work, but he was really doing fine. He’d have to make a point of running more and a bit faster, if he could and getting back to the other work. Otherwise he couldn’t push these men sparring at all.

  It took a while for the world to go dark. Hours. When it did, music played as the sky lit up. There were explosions, followed by streamers of bright colors in the sky over them. It was breathtaking. Anthony actually teared up, during portions of it. Smiling the whole time.

  Part of that was due to the fact that he was sitting with a group of people that actually wanted him there. A few blankets over, Rick looked at him and seemed happy to be there as well. Family, after all, being important.

  Even a little bit away, there were people that knew him, back with the church group. It was, he realized, the very first time in his life that he felt like he really belonged anywhere.

  It was a nice feeling. Scary and like it might be stolen from him, but in that moment, it was a good thing.

  Chapter twelve

  The next week was oddly intense for Anthony.

  He was picking up his normal runs again, which wasn’t that hard, since he hadn’t had a big layoff. He’d been a little bit afraid that it would have cost him a lot of conditioning, but it didn’t seem to have hurt much at all. The stitches were mainly gone and the wounds holding well and running wasn’t pulling at them too much. The ones on his left arm were pretty much gone already. The other line, just under his ribs, really hadn’t been that bad either, so he was, more or less, fine.

  Then, near the end of the week he added in a tapering schedule for Ashley, which meant doing three, separate from the regular, runs with her. She needed to work out, but they did a lot less and didn’t push as hard, focusing on things like going over strategy and videos of her opponent. That was part of the official plan, as it turned out. That meant putting in nearly twenty miles on a few days, back to back for him, but that was all right. In different sessions, thankfully, but still, it was a lot and he did get sore from it.

  He was also able to get back to some light exercise, so that he didn’t lose the rest of what little he’d managed to gain so far. Still, he had plans for the next week and needed to be ready for it. If it was possible at all. Running twenty-fours wasn’t even a thing that he could find any indication of online.

  Raul was hyper focused on Ashley, so Anthony tried to work a bit with Nick. That meant wrapping his arm up first, really well, but with a layer of gauze and then white tape, he managed all right. It was hard, since he had to really push in order to try and be worth working with on the drills they were running. Nick was a lot better at grappling than he was. Wilcox was about the same that way, being high level. So he tried as hard as possible to make himself do the right things, while they went at it for hours.

  The other man was larger too, which meant that Anthony had to work at full force the entire time, to make it seem even close to right. They weren’t sparring, since he wasn’t up for that yet. What they did manage was to set the MMA guy up to spar, boxing, with both Steve and Denny. Nick did not like that at all, but it was good for him anyway.

  Then, early on Friday morning, Jen, Rick, Raul and Ashley loaded into the van for the trip to Las Vegas. It was about six in the a.m., but Anthony got up to see them off, feeling pretty good about the whole thing. It wasn’t until Rick stared at him, making a face that he thought anything of it.

  “Tony, where’s your gear?”

  He got what was being said and it felt
nice to be included, but shook his head.

  “I have things to do here. Besides, someone needs to unlock the gym and turn the lights on. I know you have real staff to do that, but I’ll be around anyway. I need to get Riley out for his new cardio program. He agreed to show up at seven and actually work on his running, between fight preps. Then, tomorrow, we’re all going to be here, running up your cable bill, watching Pay-Per-View.”

  Jen looked troubled, but oddly enough Raul was the one that walked over and patted him on the back.

  “Yes. I can count on you to watch Nick for me? I’ve been busy, but I’ve noticed that you haven’t let him slack off. Do a review of Wilcox and his techniques tonight with him?” Then he turned to the blonde woman and smiled. “I know, you worry. You go away and leave Tony and he might have a party, or steal all the best fighters to work with him, instead of us. That is a real threat. The part about the fighters. This is a good man here. He’ll be better than fine.”

  That didn’t get them to just leave him though. Rick passed him some cash, which wasn’t going to be needed, given all the food they had in the house and Jen hugged him like he was going to run off when they were gone.

  Then Ashley did the same thing. Hard and like she actually meant it.

  “I thought you were coming, too. Wish me luck?”

  Anthony nodded and thought about what she really needed to hear just then. Then let Tony speak for both of them. He was getting good at doing that.

  “I do, but you won’t need it. You are so ready for this. You won’t give up and you know what’s coming. Trust me, if I was worried, I’d be going with you, even if it meant sleeping in the van and hiding in a gym bag to do it. You have this. Though we are going to be reviewing the points where Fox Rends failed when you get back, so be ready for that. She’s almost going to have to want a rematch, after you take her down that hard.” He nodded confidently, hoping it all sounded right.

  Then, as if they didn’t want to leave him behind, they loaded up and left. Jen actually looked back at him, seeming worried about it all.

  It reminded him of when his mother had left. In that they were both women and in vehicles. The rest wasn’t all that similar. For one thing one of the ladies seemed to actually want him around. It was nice.

  He went into work after having a few pears for breakfast and opened the gym for the day. He jumped rope, very carefully, doing it a lot more smoothly than he used to. At seven a few of the trainers showed up and took over, since they were the adults and had the job of keeping the place running while the boss was gone. That meant he was out with the boxers that morning, pushing Riley to keep up. He gasped a bit as he ran and cursed Tony’s name several times, which got him and Mark to sing a little song as they ran. It was about what a horrible monster he was.

  It was cute, in a messed up way. For instance, it was way too good to be the first time they’d gotten together on it.

  He spent the whole morning with them, working. It was kind of his first real day back and it showed, since he hurt through all of it. Then he got them lunch and worked the afternoon with Nick.

  That evening, interestingly, Steve, Nick and Denny all showed up to review fight recordings with him.

  Anthony figured that it was the official babysitting team, but Denny guessed what he was thinking and shook his head, smiling.

  “Nope. I heard you tell Nick the plan and mentioned it to Steve. He’s doing commentary on that fight and some others, so it’s a good review for him. I’ve gone up against one of the others on for that night, so figured that we could hit those as well. Some different fighters, too.”

  They covered Wilcox first. The man was good, but had some flaws that Denny pointed out. He was versed in MMA stuff too, not just boxing, after all. Steve took notes and asked questions about vocabulary and how to pronounce different names.

  “This man. Ichihiro Soka?”

  Tony looked at the screen then and tilted his head.

  “Sa-ka. He’s actually someone to look at, for you. He has a lousy standing game. The thing there is that his ego won’t let him just hit the mat first thing. Here, watch this…” He ran several fights back to back, timing the intervals to demonstrate what he’d noticed before to them.

  Denny nodded.

  “Good call, then. He really isn’t much on his feet, is he? Sharp on the ground. Some of the best submission work I’ve seen. He doesn’t really punch on the ground either. When it happens it messes with him a lot.” He pointed that out and actually went back a few times to demonstrate what he meant.

  This was all for Steve, who kept writing things down. Then they hit all the other key players that would be there that night. It was clear that the man was taking the new job seriously. He did everything like that, which was probably why he was so good at it.

  They all left, at about eight, which was bed time for him anyway. At least Denny pronounced that to be the case, since he was supposed to be getting ten hours of sleep. He very nearly did and met them all in front of the gym the next day for a short run. They went fast though and did sprints first, adding in hill work, to strengthen their legs. It was odd, but Mark actually did better going uphill. He tied up with Steve, at any rate and both of them beat Anthony and Denny.

  Riley was in the rear the whole time, but the man was working hard and wasn’t so far back that he didn’t get a pat on the back when they got in.

  “Good job! We should add that in more often. Now…”

  Steve clapped and then smiled.

  “Now we see about having some fun, while all the chaperones are away! Meet at one-thirty for sparring?”

  Everyone agreed to be there, though it was clear that Steve had a very broken idea of what kind of fun they could have when everyone else was gone. Then, the pros all had trainers with them. Rick normally did that kind of thing too, being the lead for all three men, but they had other people that worked with them each day.

  Tony worked in and was a bit surprised when the man working with Steve called out to him as they all did sit ups.

  “If your gut can take it, give me more than that, Tony. Come on… You can do it.” Normally he got ignored by the others for the most part. This time they acted like he was there to actually work. Training for real. Probably because Rick was gone and the others worked harder if they thought a kid was going to beat them at anything. Not that he really was. Even keeping up was kind of hard.

  They were professional athletes after all. Even Riley was, though he didn’t have a trainer there that day, since he was between fights. Still, he was working hard enough. There were two schools of thought as to that kind of thing. Some fighters actually did very little between major training, which let them rest fully and recover more, in theory. Others kept to a pretty intense schedule even when they were technically off. That way they didn’t get too out of shape at any point and it wasn’t as brutal to get back to things when the time came.

  Plus, if you weren’t at the top level of things, that meant you could take a fight with very little notice and actually be ready in time. If you laid around for a month or more, it would take three to really be in shape for even an average match. A guy that was working out even a few days a week would take half that time and working like Riley was at that moment, he could probably be ready in a month. The big thing there would be in getting set for the new opponent in particular. If they were a southpaw, it could be hard to adapt in that short amount of time, for instance.

  Which was what Denny was facing in his next fight. It was a title match as well, which was a big deal. Not one of the major four belts, but a real step in eventually getting to that level. It was hard to pull off, but Anthony had been working that way on the bags, with his stance reversed, just for that. So, when Steve set up the sparring and was going to face Denny himself for a light six rounds, Tony took a breath and waved his hand in the air.

  “I have this one?” He was a lot less certain than he sounded.

  That got a smile from Lopez and a nod.
r />   “Sure. Do we get music, too?”

  “Not this time. I need Rick to run the sound system for that, but…” He got taped up for it, especially over the wounds, since Denny wasn’t going to be easy on him that way and when they tapped gloves, he went in like Donaldson would in a few months. Right hand first. It was hard to keep up that way, feeling wrong to him, but he did it and tried to fight like the man that would be showing up. It was clear that he needed to get better at faking that kind of thing, but the work out went decently. He had to stand and fight, since the man in question was an infighter by preference. That meant chasing Denny around and trying to work him into the corner.

  Which was a lot easier to say than to do.

  The easy thing for the other man to have done would have been to open up on him, since Anthony really couldn’t trade blows with a professional boxer. Especially one that much heavier than he was. Stronger, too. Instead he used the chance to practice getting away a bit, moving and learning how to control the fight. Steve and Mark called out tips to Denny, which got Riley to focus on him.

  “He’s going to slip right. Pivot and counter!”

  Barely knowing what that meant, he listened to the man and followed instructions, trying to make it harder for Denny to handle, since Donaldson would already have mastered all of that kind of thing long before. At the end of six rounds…

  Steve added four.

  “Keep going! I don’t want to lose this momentum. Pick it up a little. Denny, more power and speed. Try to match him, Tony… Don’t let up!”

  That meant being hit harder and not giving ground, as Denny tried to force his way out of the corner and he fought to push him back into it a few times. Anthony nearly went down, twice, even if it was just practice and they had headgear on for it. It didn’t really make anything safer, but it meant he probably wouldn’t have a beaten up face when Rick and the others got back.

  He pushed, speeding up a lot, which meant sacrificing power in the blows. By doing that he was able to corner Denny and keep him there for a while, until the guy worked out how to slip past him. On the other man’s lead side. It required a parrying kind of motion, but worked almost every time he tried it. Then he moved to the center of the ring, making it harder to get him back into the corner, where Donaldson was going to want to fight him.