NOVEL NEXT Chapter 33: Zoey vs Andrew!
Andrew has watched every match that Zoey Winters has fought in. In fighting culture, studying your opponent by watching all their matches is expected. You can’t go far without knowing something about the person you’re going to fight against. It wasn’t until Andrew watched and analyzed all of Zoey’s matches with his coach that he felt confident enough to face off against her and completely dominate her.
There was also the fact that kickboxers just held an innate advantage over boxers in the first place. They weren’t as restricted as boxers were. Kickboxers knew how to throw punches and kicks, while boxers only knew how to throw punches. Andrew planned to use that advantage for himself. A boxer doesn’t have experience in dealing with kicks and how to defend themselves against them.
Zoey Winters was going to be helpless against him as he swallowed up her rising fame and undefeated streak by destroying her with his legs. For a trained kickboxer, facing off against a regular boxer is basically giving them a free win as long as they weren’t fighting under boxing rules. Despite this, Andrew still would head into this match with some caution. She didn’t win against all of those guys just by luck. Her fists were strong enough to knock out a sumo wrestler! He would have to be an idiot to overlook something as important as that. Not to mention her good reflexes as well.
Regardless, Andrew still believed that he could defeat this girl based on the fact that kickboxing gave him more freedom compared to boxing. So once the referee started the match, he rushed in with a flying kick. The surprise on his face once he saw her standing still wasn’t little. Andrew wondered what her plan was just standing there.
Zoey wanted to test out something with her boxing in this match. At first, she was going to just rush in and pummel the shit out of him with an onslaught of punches, but lately, she’s been watching old videos of legendary boxers throughout history. Normally, it would be expected that she would watch highlights of the legendary boxers that were known for knocking out their opponents and having an overwhelming offense. This would be correct, but she also looked into the other types of legendary boxers. Just last night, she spent hours watching the greatest defensive boxers in the history of boxing and now wanted to emulate them somewhat.
They were practically untouchable in the ring. Close range, mid-range, clinching, none of it mattered with these talented fighters. If they didn’t want to take a hit, they didn’t! In the videos, they were basically toying with their opponents. For those defensive boxers, it didn’t matter how many punches were thrown towards them. None of them landed. Like, imagine boxing for your entire career and then facing up against some guy who you can’t even land a hit on! All those fights in the past, all the training you’ve done up to this point, and in front of the entire world. Everyone is watching you not land a single hit on this person.
It was entirely demoralizing. The defensive boxers made their opponents look like children and not trained professional boxers with valid fighting experience. Bobbing and weaving their heads in confusing patterns, throwing annoying jabs and punches when they weren’t expecting it, constantly staying on the move to tire their opponents out even more, and then fatally countering them when they get pissed off or slacked off on their own defense. Zoey loved it when they humiliated their opponent with just how much they outclassed them in defensive technique. She wanted to feel that type of immense control in a fight for herself.
So, this fight was going to be the birth of her Defensive Boxing Form. She still had four other styles to work on as well, but for this fight, Defensive Boxing Style should be enough, especially after having all of her boxing skills combined into one. It would be the first time she’s using it in a real fight. Zoey was excited to see just how much it improved.
Kickboxer came flying towards her like some sort of kung fu prodigy with a flying kick. His form was basically perfect, just like in the movies! Why couldn’t Tyler do something like this in their fight?! This guy didn’t give a shit about fighting carefully if he started their fight off with something like this. Maybe this guy wasn’t as bad as Zoey thought he was.
Zoey ducked down low under his flying kick and allowed him to fly right over her. As soon as he landed, he did a spinning back kick aiming for her face. With a quick sway of her head backward, he followed up with another spin and kick that forced Zoey even further back to the ropes of the ring. At this distance, throwing a punch that could land was impossible, but he could easily land a kick on her. This guy was pretty good! If Zoey didn’t keep her guard up for a second, she easily would’ve been overwhelmed by those kicks.
“I’m surprised you dodged all that for a boxer. But kickboxers can do more than just kick, you know?” He moved in closer to her with his left fist leading and right fist pulled back.
Zoey figured that he was right-handed from that stance. Just as Zoey was expecting him to throw a jab or a different kind of punch as he got near, he suddenly kicked out with his leg! A low kick aimed at her thigh! Not knowing how to defend against a low kick or expecting this, Zoey stayed true to her Defensive Boxing and lifted her leg back. At the same time, if she was doing her regular boxing, she realized she could’ve grabbed his leg right there.
Once Kickboxer realized his kick missed, he recovered his leg back and moved in with a left straight. This left straight turned into a right hook and then into a flurry of punches. Zoey felt like she had entered the Ratrix as she bobbed and weaved her head from side to side and up and down, dodging all of his punches. Until he suddenly kicked and landed a low kick on her thigh. The slight pain from her thigh ruined her happiness at that insane dodging she just did as she instinctively threw out a punch from the sudden pain. Her quick jab landed on his face, and he stumbled backward with a reddened face.
‘Shit! I fucked up and threw a punch when I wasn’t supposed to.’ Zoey got back into position for Defensive Boxing to try and win instead of following up on her punch that obviously stunned Kickboxer.
“Quit messing around and fight like you usually do!” Kickboxer snapped with an angry look on his face. She never acted like this in any of her previous fights!
‘Make me.’ Zoey wanted to respond with a giggle.
She only gestured with her boxing glove for him to come on. He wasn’t happy to see this as he immediately struck out with a kick that looked like it was coming for her midsection, but as she continued to watch his leg, she realized he was trying to kick her in the face. Zoey ducked down low while keeping her eyes on Kickboxer. After his missed high kick, he tried kicking her with a spinning back kick that would’ve landed right on her chest if she wasn’t watching him after dodging that first kick.
Zoey slipped the kick by moving her body to the left and then throwing a punch into his vulnerable face with a right jab. He couldn’t recover his leg back in time after Zoey’s punch, allowing her to land a powerful left straight into his blocking arms. After missing his kicks and getting hit by her jab, he put everything into defending his face. Once he found his leg back on the ground, he tried getting her out of his face with a non-stop flow of punches like before.
The smile Zoey was hiding back once she saw this was almost unbearable. His fists weren’t as flexible as his kicks. They were straightforward. There wasn’t a point where Zoey had to second guess what type of punch he was going to throw, unlike his kicks. Because of this, Zoey got to show off the most exciting part of her Defensive Boxing Style and get some much-needed practice with it.
Those watching the fight between Zoey and Andrew were stunned, speechless during the match. A majority of people came out in support of Andrew, but even they started to realize the difference in skill between him and Zoey as the match progressed. She was playing around with him. None of his powerful kicks or fast punches could land on Zoey. It was like she wasn’t even trying as she toyed with him all around the ring. Even when she was pressed against the corner or the ropes against his punches, he still couldn’t land a good blow! And when he did land a hit, it wasn’t that impactful. But neither was Zoey’s punches.
They could only sigh as Andrew picked the wrong opponent to try and face off against. He was breathing heavily and nearly tripping over himself as Zoey took him around the ring. Everyone could see the anger and rage on his face because of how humiliating this had to be for him. Some started to think that if he kept a cool head and continued to use his kicks to his advantage, he would’ve stood more of a chance against her. But looking at him trying to take out a boxer with his fists as a kickboxer, it just looked sad.
Then the match came to a close as Andrew was thoroughly exhausted at this point. He was nothing more than a punching bag for Zoey to wail on after every missed punch of his. Andrew didn’t even get to drop to the mat before the match was called. The referee stopped the match after he took four direct punches to the head after every missed punch of his. It was obvious at this point that he was not fit to continue the match. If he let it go on any longer, Andrew could possibly suffer irreparable damage to the brain.
“Zoey Winter wins!” The referee announced to the applause of the audience.
Zoey gave a respectful nod to her opponent, that probably hadn’t phased back into reality yet, before walking out of the ring. Coach had a few of the MAT check up on her even though he knew how well she did out there.
“You just keep getting better and better, you little monster!” Scott couldn’t believe what he saw out there!
“Thanks...” But Zoey wasn’t completely satisfied with her win.
Her Defensive Boxing Style was still very far from being complete. She needed more experience against kicks. More experience against punches that weren’t based in boxing. And just more experience overall. While it felt more than amazing to replicate what she saw in the videos, Zoey knew that it would only work against specific fighters. She got lucky out there.
“What’s wrong, kid?” Coach seemed to have noticed something.
“Nothing, Coach. With this, I got enough wins to join the tournament, right?” Zoey asked.
“As long as no one else challenges you and beats you, taking your spot. Then you should be fine.” He answered her.
“Do you think anyone will challenge me after this?” Zoey was curious.
“Not if they’re sane.” Coach and everyone else had to have realized what a freak she was. Once the video of her match gets uploaded, she should be a favorite to win the tournament overall.
“Okay. Let’s go then.” Zoey got up out of her seat after being cleared by the MAT.
“I called your dad. He said your mom should be at the gym to take you home.”
“Alright.” That was good. Zoey wasn’t in the mood to jog home right now when it was getting dark.