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

  Near the end of the tenth round, things changed a lot though. Dave, who was a lot better than he was, started to get sloppy and breathe nearly as hard as Anthony had been doing. In the eleventh, he actually managed a takedown of his own and was able to start punching the man from a mount position. Sitting on him like he was a horse. That didn’t last long, since he was swept to the side and Dave ended up over him, trying to lock one of his arms in a fashion that Anthony really didn’t understand.

  It would hurt though, if it happened, so he tried to keep fighting, even if it was just tired hand waving by that point. The last round was harder than that, since Dave just moved out and took him down and started to get a good rear choke hold on him. He buried his chin, but that was all he had. Denny hadn’t even bothered showing him how to fight out of that one.

  The required moves were simply too hard for a beginner. His jaw started to ache from the technique applied, being squeezed in the vice that the other man had substituted for arms. It was nearly impossible to get air, either, the other man on his back like he was. It wasn’t until after Dave stood up that he realized that the bell, the final one, had rung.

  Then oddly enough, everyone clapped. Because they apparently loved seeing him get his butt kicked like that. Dave hugged him.

  In a manly fashion, with a lot of back pounding.

  “Okay. I get the point. I… need to… get in… better shape…”

  Anthony just nodded, gasping without bothering to speak.

  Rick was standing next to Steve, who nodded at something that the older man said, then jogged over to the two men who’d been sparring.

  “Decent, for a first try. Next time you have to push harder, since we aren’t going to let him go that easy on you, Tony. Dave, you need to be here at eight, to start your run. Good job, both of you.”

  Then everyone broke up and feeling a little sick, Anthony just stood for a bit and realized that he needed to get to cleaning, for the Cardio-Boxing classes. That day it looked different, since they were kicking, too. That, it seemed, was a thing he needed to learn himself. Using his feet like that. Grappling and locks as well. Submission holds.

  There was so much it seemed like it must be impossible to get all of them, but others did it, so he probably could as well. If nothing else, it would let him be a better sparring partner for the real fighters. That was the point, after all. They didn’t need some fifteen-year-old beginning fighter there. They had lots of good people already. What they needed was someone that could work in a lot of different ways, without being too large. A lot of the people around the ring had been bigger than he was. Even more so than Dave. So it seemed like that was a niche that could be filled, by Tony, if he could learn what to do before everyone got bored having him around.

  Smiling, since that was the kind of thing that Tony did while he worked with people, Anthony cleaned up and made sure that the leaking people, men and women both, had clean towels to mop their sweat up with and then tidied the whole room between classes. When it was over, Leslie waved at him.

  “Thanks! People have mentioned how nice the place is, since you’ve been doing this. I just wanted you to know that people have noticed.”

  He nodded, felt shy and then made himself smile.

  “Well, they deserve the best, right?”

  The woman froze for a second and then four, but finally nodded and spoke in a very heartfelt way. Like she was faking it, but at least wanted to seem like a good person.

  “Yes, they really do.” Then, smiling, she let him go, since that was the last class of the night.

  When he got back to the house, Steve was still there. That was fine, but the man didn’t seem happy about it. Why that was, no one mentioned, until after they started to eat. Finally, looking over at him, after taking a bite of beef that had sauce all over it, the man brushed at his tan cheek.

  “Gloria… She said that I either quit boxing and get a real job, or she’s leaving me.”

  Anthony nodded and then shrugged.

  “That’s horrible. You… You have to know that anyone that gives you that kind of ultimatum is going to leave you anyway, right? She’s asking for total control over you, but no one respects a person that they have that kind of power over.”

  Jen looked upset that he’d said that and Rick winced.

  Steve however just took a deep breath and nodded.

  “I know. I love her and I love boxing. Notice though, boxing never insisted that I not have her in my life, but she did, the other way around. I know that I need to leave her. It’s just hard.”

  Thinking for a second, he nodded.

  “Also a bad time for it. Right before a match. On the good side, you’re good looking, in shape and have a cool job. I hear that most women like all of those things. Not that it will make it any easier to let go like that. Can…” The words, which were probably from a television talk show, stuck in his mouth then.

  The next ones really did. Anthony didn’t know the rules there yet and it would be bad to suggest that Steve stay with them, if Rick and Jen weren’t into that kind of thing. Worse, he couldn’t mention it right then and didn’t even know if it was an issue.

  “Do you have a place to stay, if you leave her?” If he lived at her place, that might be harder.

  Steve smiled then, sadly, but clearly trying.

  “We don’t live together, so that isn’t a problem. I just have to man up and do it. This isn’t going to be fun. I… Guess I should just call? Tell her what’s going on?”

  That sounded like a good plan, but Jenny shook her head.

  “No, you have to do it in person. That’s only right. Just… After you do it, she might beg you not to and it is kind of her idea if she does that, but Tony was right… If someone gives you that kind of choice, they’ve really already left. She’ll just want to do it in a way that hurts you, if she can. Don’t give her that. It will be hard.”

  “Ah. Right. Let me… Be the grown up then. I’ll call first, then go and talk to her. Maybe we should do this in a public place? She can get a bit loud, otherwise.”

  They all decided that was a good idea and Rick left a bit after his fighter did, to make certain that it went as planned. Jen stayed with him and oddly enough reminded him that he could use the washing machine if he needed to.

  “Oh, right! I’ll do that now. Before I go to bed. Thanks. I would have forgotten I bet and I’m nearly out of clean things to wear. Exercise clothes wise. I bet that I’m sore tomorrow.” He smiled, already feeling a bit stiff in places and went to see about doing his wash. It wasn’t hard and they had the good kind of soap. Liquid.

  At least he’d always figured it was the nice kind, since his mother had always used whatever was cheapest and it was never that. If it would work better, he didn’t know. Still, he was able to get things into the dryer before falling asleep and that night, for the first time since he’d been there, Anthony felt like he actually gotten a decent rest.

  Which was good, since having clean, dry clothing for the next day was, clearly, going to be the only comfort he was getting. He realized that when he got to the Gym, to find Dave standing outside, looking ready, if not pleased with the extra work.

  Jen took his clean clothing inside for him and Rick smiled.

  “This, right now, standing outside on a cold morning, in the misting rain, is when you become a champion. Everyone thinks that it happens in the ring, but the world is filled with people that never even bother to get out of bed to try. Just so you know, I’m proud of you. Both of you.”

  Then they ran. It wasn’t fast, but they did it and that day, neither of them were the last one in.

  Chapter six

  In a lot of ways, the next weeks were both the hardest and best, that Anthony had ever spent. On the hard side, he pretty much ended up being sore each day, for one reason or another. Steve, Denny, Ashley and Dave all took turns running the longer distance with him, four times a week. Then, on the last running day each week, he got to do sprints with them.
It was harder to do than plodding over twelve miles was for some reason.

  There was an incredible amount of rope skipping, too. Other exercises, as well. Strange things that boxers did that were supposed to help in a fight. The MMA stuff was easier in a way, for Anthony, since he just got to learn new moves and practice them, since he was already doing full mornings of conditioning work.

  So, it was difficult. Each day he felt himself pushed a little harder to be his best, even if it didn’t make much sense on its face. Part of it he got, though. Tony the wonder-boy was kind of useful, as both a sparring partner and goad. After all, Steve and Ashley couldn’t lose to him. They couldn’t fall behind the new guy that only had weeks of training. It would make them feel bad. So, by training hard and showing up all the time, they were subtly being pushed into being stronger people. That was his plan, anyway. He really tried at least, so his presence wouldn’t be what dragged them down.

  That worked right up until one night in mid-June. A Saturday. Fight night.

  In this case, Steve, Riley and Lewis all had boxing matches, along with several others that worked out at the gym. Most of them were on what was called the under-card, since they weren’t actually professionals. A lot of those would start before most of the people even got there to watch the real events, since the amateur fighters worked by a different system. Interestingly, no one had really covered that part for him in particular.

  Jen, who’d shown up to be there with their little fighting family, along with a lot of the MMA people, was standing next to him in a nearly empty boxing arena. Thankfully she explained that part to him. There were seats, but the place wasn’t as big as he would have thought it might be from the videos he’d seen. Mainly at Rick’s house, since the others had come over to watch old matches in order to come up with their strategy, several times.

  “The amateur fights don’t count toward the pro record. They use a different point system, which pretty much means that any punch that lands counts. That means they don’t use as much power with each punch. So, you get what happens. They hit fast, but lighter. Also, they don’t have to train as hard, since their matches don’t last as long. Three or four rounds of three minutes each.”

  Ashley nodded and moved in on the other side of him, looking past him at the other female MMA fighter.

  “Right. In pro-MMA fights, we only have three to five rounds, at three minutes each, for the women. The men get five. To keep things from getting too boring on pay-per-view.” The tone was serious seeming, but nearly had to be a joke.

  No one would just make up rules because of something like television. Except that, apparently, someone had.

  Denny was in the back, along with Rick and the fighters that were up later that night. The plan was for everyone to stay and cheer on their buddies from the gym, after they fought. Interestingly, not everyone was actually going to win. A lot of them would, but Rick wasn’t a believer in giving people easy fights all the time just to pad their records. A lot of people did that kind of thing, but Winters Gym was known for taking the hard fights.

  Given that they also tended to win, that meant a lot of people avoided fighting them, at the lower levels. Not so much near the top, because those people were all tough. It was easy to get that, since you didn’t become a top level fighter by losing all the time.

  What shocked him a bit was how many fights there actually were going to be that night. On the old videos it had always seemed like there had only been one or two fights at any given event. This was more like nine and would be starting three hours before the big professional events. It was going to end with the heavyweights, but that night their club didn’t have anyone that big fighting professional. Mark was getting ready for a fight, but that would be the week after the rest of them that were going right then.

  It was both fascinating and mind numbingly boring the whole time. Luckily for Anthony, or maybe as a punishment for him, he knew that Tony wasn’t going to wander off and eat snacks, or check out the women in the crowd. Not too much. He had to keep his attention on the ring and try to work out what people were doing wrong and right. That way, his mind wouldn’t go to sleep, making him seem like a jerk that didn’t care about his friends.

  On the nice side, the rest of the people seemed to be struggling as much as he was. They didn’t have an act to keep up though, so more than one of their own people played with their phones while the others boxed. It got worse than that when there were fights that didn’t involve anyone they knew. Tony of course, pretended that he had a stake in everyone that was up on stage, in the ring, that night.

  A lot of the early card was kind of bad. Most of them were older than he was and Anthony knew that he wasn’t all that in a fight either, but some of the people barely seemed to be boxing at all. They just ran out and slapped out weak jabs and straight rights, from a long distance, while awkwardly dancing around. Sure, that was part of fighting, but it was so common that it seemed almost like they were missing the rest of the art.

  As they went on, the skill level went up. It was really clear, about halfway through, when they hit the last of the amateur fights, which was a heavyweight bout, that not all of the people there were new to the game.

  Whispering, he pointed subtly up at the ring.

  “Those guys aren’t bad.” They were big, but apparently no one had told them about the legendary slowness of large men. One of them moved in a flowing pattern, while the other locked onto him, using a great guard and good technical boxing. They were both using skills that looked sharp, in their own way, though the fancier seeming man was actually knocked down several times by the more boring fighter.

  Jen nodded.

  “Yeah. From here on out things get more interesting. Everyone needs to start paying attention.”

  There was only one fight that night before Steve’s. Again, they didn’t have a fighter in the game for that one, but it was kind of amazing. It was a flyweight fight and the men going at it were both really good. Fast on a level that he had seen people working at before, mainly from Steve and Denny, but that he knew he wasn’t going to be matching. They had different techniques, but both men were there to knock the other person out and hit hard as well.

  The fight was pro and scheduled for nine rounds. It only got to four, when the man in red trunks got in a great combination and sent the other guy down to the mat so hard that Anthony jumped. Literally standing, without meaning to.

  Oddly, Ashley did too, watching avidly.

  Her reason for doing that was different than his. He was caught up, but she winced at the end of the ten count.

  “Damn. Either one of them would have kicked my butt in there.”

  Anthony just nodded at that, instead of reassuring her like he probably should have.

  “Yeah. Me too. That was pretty intense.”

  Jen was still sitting, but nodded as they got back into their chairs, looking past Anthony to do that.

  “The lighter weights are often really good, especially in speed and technical skills. The larger you get, the more likely you are to see brawlers doing well.”

  The next fight up was also nine rounds and was important, since Steve was up.

  He listened as the announcer set the match up for the crowd, who actually went silent.

  “Ladieeees and gentlemen. Tonight, we have a bantamweight fight to end all fights. In the red corner, we have Hal ‘The Destroyer’ Muchado. He’s coming in with a three-one and one record. In the blue corner, we have Steve ‘The Machine’ Lopez…” The man had to stop then, since the crowd cheered loud enough to make it hard for him to hear. Apparently everyone was having the same issue, since the official waited for a bit, looking annoyed.

  “He’s coming in with a four-zero-zero record. Now let’s get this thing going!”

  There was a bit more before they could start and Muchado got booed, when he refused to bump gloves before the fight. If it bugged Steve, it was hard to see. Until they started. Then…

  It was like the man h
ated the other guy. The fight started with a flurry of blows, things hard enough that you could hear them easily when they landed. From both men. They were pretty equal, through the first few rounds. Anthony wanted to think that Steve was easily taking the lead, but it really was close the whole time. That other guy, the rude one, didn’t really start to slow down until the sixth round.

  The thing was, Steve didn’t. It made a huge difference and late in the eighth round the other man went down. He pulled himself up just before he was counted out, but then was knocked out cold within ten seconds. Rather politely, Steve moved to his own corner, while the referee called for a doctor to check the man, who needed to be helped up. It took a couple of minutes, before they got him to the middle of the ring and held up Steve’s right arm.

  “Aaaand the winner iiiisss, Steve ‘The Machine’ Lopez!”

  The crowd went wild then, which meant standing and clapping, for Anthony, since he actually knew the man. Honestly, he was relieved. It would have been really hard to take if one of his friends lost. Which was silly, since that could happen at any time. Nothing he did would prevent that either.

  Though, if Tony stepped up his game, he could help them practice better and harder, which might help.

  Riley was up in the next fight and he won too, but it was a lot closer and both men were standing at the end. It came down to points, which was a win. The issue there was that the other man started yelling, saying that the scoring was bullshit.

  “Freaking cheaters!” It nearly started a fight up in the ring, though Rick just laughed and pulled his man out, letting the officials deal with the antics of the sore loser. It was kind of close though, since Riley started back toward the ring, after a bit of choice name calling. That included a suggestion that the officials were paid off.