Division 2: Semi's 2, Jonathan Vs Odin

[Odin Reeves]

...

[Jonathan Michaels]

High off of his first win in the tournament, Jonathan could only stare vacantly at the board that listed his next opponent. A look of apprehension and nervousness on his visage as the very notion of this being an easy tournament to win left his mind, he would be facing the former champion, a champion that as Jonathan observed in previous tournaments was an excellent boxer in his own right and what was even worse, outweighed him by at least fifty pounds. His eyes narrowed though as he approached the ring, he didn't want to give his opponent any psychological advantage over him as Jonathan put on his poker face.

He remembered the pre-fight preparations he had given himself, shadow-boxing against his toughest opponent from back in his professional days, the opponent himself was a lot like Odin (or from what Jon remembered Odin's fighting style was like from previous tournaments) and while Odin was bigger, stronger, and possibly even more experienced than Jon (the very notion of someone being more experienced then him shook him in ways that he couldn't describe), Jonathan knew that the key to winning the fight would be to have a variety of tactics and he also knew that he couldn't allow Odin to man-handle him.

A middle-weight vs. a heavy-weight, the notion kept on replaying itself in his mind. The fact that the boy was used to fighting in these tournaments only increasing his doubt. Though as he approached the ring, ducked under the ropes, he felt the apprehension leave his mind. Odin Reeves was simply a man, simply another opponent, and a boxer at that.

And if there was one thing Jonathan Michaels knew more than anything else, it was how to fight a boxer. And with that thought, Jonathan quickly brought his hands up to his face, the traditional peek-a-boo stance was perhaps becoming obligatory for him, but he noted that it protected far more than the haphazard stances he had seen other fighters adopted and he would need everything he had (both defensively and offensively) for the fight ahead.

[Odin Reeves]

Round one had gone by easy enough, and whether it was luck, good fortune, or simply the difference in skill Odin had defeated his opponent without getting any injuries. Going into round two he was in perfect health, both mentally and physically after dominating over someone who weighted a bit more then himself. He knew his technique and skills were becoming top-notch, and it showed in his recent fights, but there was always room for improvement, improvement he’d need before heading into finals.

Yes, Odin was confident he’d make it into the finals, especially given his tournament record. It had been awhile since he had only made it to the semi-finals, and despite that had never been eliminated before the semi-finals in any tournament he’s done, whether it be underground or regulation. All he needed to do was rely on his instincts and work over his opponent, didn’t matter who they were as long as he sticks to his game plan.

Ducking under the top rope Odin entered the determined fighting area across the way from his opposition. With his wrists and ankles taped he kept his shirt with his sports bag in the far corner of the building, leaving him only with his boxing shorts on – a pair of pure black satin trunks. Looking across the ring he saw his opponent so eager as to already be prepared in his stance. Seemed like he was facing a fellow boxer, but he knew well enough that if boxing was this kids only fighting knowledge then he’d fall quicker then a nickel from atop a tall building.

Nodding firmly he moved into his stance, a traditional boxing stance with his left fist in front. His shoulders were relax, elbows angled out to the sides slightly as his forearms remained position with a diagonal in front of his body and head. Shuffling inward he started with a few quick hops before moving swiftly across the matt, feeling a tad bit excited for this match.

Getting within range of his opponent he threw out a quick left jab. Some might call it sloppy, nothing but a beginning punch meant to test the range, but to Odin that wasn’t the case. He was still moving in, his body dipping down slightly as he threw the punch, only to retract and throw a second jab right away. This one was much firmer, his body also being closer then before. The jab itself was swift, much swifter then that of most large men, but he was in fact a boxer so this was to be expected. Just like on the first jab his body dipped slightly, but there was something different. The dip wasn’t just in his torso and upper body; it was also in his knee’s. He had something prepared, but the question was what?

[Jonathan Michaels]

The boxing stance.

Confirming all of Jon’s worries in an instant, not only was Odin Reeves a boxer, but much like Jon he was an in-fighter. He had hoped, no he had prayed prior to the match that Jon would have the ability to get inside Odin’s bigger range and dominate him, unfortunately as he noted his opponent beginning a dash, that was not the case. While Odin Reeves may have been a bigger opponent with powerful punches, Jonathan “The Denton Storm” Michaels had one thing on him that made his next move insanely obvious.

Jon was exceptionally perceptive on picking up when his opponent was going to do a dash. It was more of “know your weaknesses” type thing, while in-fighting traditionally was created to combat out-fighters, an in-fighter also had an advantage against other in-fighters, though that is aside the point. A dash is in effect, a sprint and like a sprint there where several bodily hints as to when it was about to occur, Odin being a regular human exhibited all these hints. Most obviously though, the hops, which Jon knew where simply a way of loosening the leg muscles prior to a dash. He himself had done it several times.

Making note of this Jonathan rushed in as well, showing a dashing speed that matched Odin’s, the moment that Jon reached Odin however, he met with the first jab. Parrying the blow with his own hand ,leaving Odin off balance and also open, he launched a fierce right hook to Odin’s temple.

[Odin Reeves]

Game.

Odin's opponent had reacted with a parry, not to be unexpected, but he thought that it would be enough to stall Odin's jab from returning and firing back out. Perhaps it would count for half a second, but that's not worst time change to happen. Regardless, Odin's jabs were in fact sloppy, despite their crisp technique. If this boy had fought him before this would've been an obvious tell that something was 'odd', but alas this boy was new to the circuit of underground fighting, or at least Odin's.

Set.

By having made his 6 inch shorter fighter reach up so high in order to strike Odin's skull he opened the boy up to a series of techniques or maneuvers that would guarantee him the match. The boys reach just wasn't long enough to match Odin's, and there'd be a plenty surprise coming 'round the corner, especially since Odin's second jab was thrown without intent on hitting. It was a blinding agent, a punch turned flash-bang as his body dipped down further.

No longer was he looking to strike his opponent, instead he was going in for a double leg take-down. His adversary had been naive enough to remain stationary, relying on his power and a quick shot to a devastating area to end the match, or at least cause Odin to back up and rethink his plan of attack. Thus, there seemed to be no problem in Odin reaching out and scooping the back of his opponent's left leg with his right arm, then having dropped his left arm to grab the back of his opponents right leg.

Match.

The take-down would be swift, explosive, but utterly simple. Just by pulling back while moving forward he'd force the middle-weight's legs out from under him, which would send him firmly into the mat with his back acting as the shock for his body. Acting on the situation Odin would use his size and knowledge of the ground game to slip past his opposition's legs and go into full mount, then begin raining down vicious hooks and start shots with both hands.

[Jonathan Michaels]

As quickly as his own hook was thrown and missed, he found himself falling on the mat extremely quickly, all the while maintaining his arms covering his face and as his head and form bounced playfully off the mat he couldn’t do much before the bigger fighter was on top of his chest, applying two hundred pounds of pressure and unleashing blow after blow. Sure enough Jonathan Michaels tried to push the boy forward and consequently off him, but weight proved to the boys advantage and Jonathan simply couldn’t push the former champ off his form. He noticed the referee looking at him closely and noted that as soon as his guard was dropped -and that could happen at any moment due to the punishment his arms where taking- the referee would call the match.

TKO.

A three letter insult that any seasoned boxer gets offended at. Though the situation itself looked hopeless as Jon’s lurching quickly became less and less effective, his arms reddening, his heart beating rapidly, and the crowds interest fleeting. Though as quickly as Jonathan seemed to give up and his guard loosened up, Jonathan found himself lifting his legs around Odin’s neck, constricting around the heavyweights neck with the power of the smaller boys calves and most of all pulling the boy downward and away from Jonathan’s face, stopping the assault and maintaining the choke. He noted now that they both where basically laying down on top of one another and most of all that Jonathan had quite miraculously survived the assault and now was in the drivers seat.

Reaching out to the boy’s right arm with his left Jonathan ended up pulling at the arm, extending it rather well and then applying upward pressure around the elbow with Jonathan’s own right arm. In short Jonathan was choking out Odin with his legs while having Odin’s arm in an arm-bar. Due to the fact that Odin was in the mount before, Odin was not basically laying down on his calves, rendering the boxers legs useless.

Jonathan’s ears where as alert as his arms where red as he waited to hear the left arm tapping viciously against the mat.

[Odin Reeves]

The match was over, as soon as the boy let one to many punches slip past his guard, or became distracted from the pain Odin was already inflicting it would be an instant knockout. He wouldn’t settle for a simple TKO, a full fledged knockout was on it’s way, he knew it, as he had been in this position plenty of times before. When the boy brought his legs up to try and pull Odin down the MMA practioner did what came naturally, especially in ground and pound, Hunched his body forward. His weight would remain balanced firmly over both legs as they remained distanced at a fair pace without overstretching his ligaments. His head would be tucked down, looking down at his opponent as he kept a keen eye on him. The simplest of counters were the best, thus proven by Odin time and time again. In this scenario it was simply using his massive, physical strength, and position to move forward and away from his opponents last ditch efforts.

Odin’s torso, especially his back, was a massive chunk of muscle and flesh. He quite literally had the upside-down pyramid shape for a torso, and with him hunching forward – as he did to contiue his assault – there’d he no possible way for his opponent to successfully wrap his legs around Odin’s neck. Once again it came down to a matter of height, and in this situation terms positioning as well. Should Odin have remained sitting straight up, looking to drop bombs rather then bombard his opponent with a fury of blows then the choke would’ve been possible. But alas, the situation was too dire for the boy to escape from, this much was certain.

Slamming his right fist into his opponents guard through means of a hook he sent his left hand palm first toward the smaller boys collarbone. Should it hit, with there being no reason why it shouldn’t, his hand would press itself up, making it push itself against Jonathans chin to tilt his head back. This would make it harder to defend, and any number of shots could land on his chin for a knockout.

It was, in fact, over.

[Jonathan Michaels]

Jonathan would've sighed out loud if he didn't have to endure the struggle, perhaps he was indeed far to naive as he felt the boy escape his choke attempt and then continue the assault. His resolve was gone and he noted that it was simply a matter of time before his guard dissolved as well, he had to admit that it was a bit disheartening as his own forearms became numb to the blows. Perhaps the saying "It's always darkest before dawn" was merely a fabrication as Jonathan felt like dawn perhaps was very far away and that if anything his guard would fall before then.

Perhaps throughout the beating Jonathan was experiencing some sort of out of body experience, or perhaps the pain itself made him more aware of his opponents actions instead, regardless though something stood out when Odin launched what would be his "guard breaking assault" on the collar bone, Jonathan noticed one thing and this one thing was enough to give him a small gleam of hope that the fight was not over.

Odin's blow was open palm.

Perhaps as a child you played the game Mercy, if not then a brief explanation is required. In mercy the goal was to simply manipulate your opponents wrists, though if you where truly good at the game you could use your own knuckles to do what the Jujitsu world has banned from organized competitions for years and that was small joint manipulation. It was dirty to say the least, but as Odin went in for the palm strike Jonathan found his right hand reaching for Odin's left, grasping Odin' middle and index fingers, pulling them back and twisting them.

Now would be a good moment to explain why this was banned from Jujitsu in the first place. The fact of the matter was that small joint manipulation was easy to use and also allowed for a comparatively weaker person to defeat a stronger person, though perhaps the biggest reason was that small joint manipulation allowed for a much smaller pain window before said opponent had two broken fingers. It is also to note the grasping of the two fingers gave Jon a perfect amount of force, grasping one Odin would be able to escape and three Jon wouldn't be able to break the fingers as easily.

Now Odin still could've been able to tap out if Jon was simply going for that, but instead the redness of his forearms led Jon down a route that involved Odin breaking both his fingers.

[Odin Reeves]

Sweat, resistance, aggression. These three things fell in nicely together, especially when taking into consideration Odin’s opposition’s choice of defense. The finger lock, while being handy in the beginning of situations, was rather futile against Odin in his current predicament. The boys hand speed was fast, faster then most especially considering his situation at hand – being trapped and pummeled under a two-hundred pound boxer - while still having the frame of mind to intercept, isolate two fingers, and move to disable them. Either way the attempt wouldn’t work out, mostly because of Odin and his natural instincts. Like grouping his fingers together when going in for chokes or grabs, as spreading them apart doesn’t make to much sense. So when the hand first intercepted Odin it found resistance in simply trying to break those two fingers apart. Odin’s hand would continue downwards, connecting with the chest, and at this point the boy would have a chance to grab his fingers.

However, also at this point Odin’s right hand would be pulled back and cocked for another punch. The difference in this attack however would be Odin’s intended target. Rather then banging up the already weakened and battered arms while plowing his way through to the boys head he’d attack a more direct, and much weaker target. This time his punch was aimed at the right wrist of his opponent, and would most likely strike before the boy was able to pry back and twist the already sweat soaked fingers – as clenching your fists and throwing punch after punch does that to one’s hand.

His sweat would act as his defense, considering a proper grip would be harder to find, then twisting two meaty fingers with enough speed and force to disable them would be just as difficult. Perhaps it’s only a select few, but when Odin’s defended against the finger locks before he didn’t have to try very hard. His fingers naturally entwined around one another. If the boy was going after his thumb or second knuckles through a different means then he would’ve been able to break them, but not with a simple pull and twist.

After punching at the wrist of his opponent his right hand would be guided up and to the right of his opponents head. Passing inside his guard before snapping back across to deliver a short ranged backhand that has plenty of follow-through. He’d follow his back-hand up with a straight left after pulling his ‘secured’ hand back, forming a fist – whether or not his opponent let go wouldn’t matter, he’d still throw the strike – then repeat his ground and pound methods.

[Jonathan Michaels]

Sure enough things happened for the most part as Odin described, the palm blow connecting with Jon's chest, leaving a stinging sensation, but nothing that couldn't be shrugged off and almost immediately Jon went for the finger-lock. Grasping the two fingers and pulling them back with the intention of having Odin submit to the pain and finally disengage the chaotic situation that was the mount. Odin however underestimated the vividness and how obvious a punch going for the opposing side and crossing Jonathan's entire form to hit his wrist of all things, instead of going to block it though Jonathan simply went with the motion of the punch, the blow was powerful that couldn't be denied, but it wasn't powerful enough to deny Jonathan his vice-grip on Odin's fingers.

More so however there would be a moment in time where both of Odin's hands would be trapped at his left side, this slight window in time before Odin could bring his fist to Jon's head was instead followed up by an assault on Odin's head, Jonathan sending his own quick jab to Odin's nose and then following up with something that had been absent from the fight for a long while, rapidly and powerfully lifting his hips upward with aide from his back and legs, Jonathan sought out to send Odin forward, knocking him off balance enough to allow Jon a window to escape. The blow itself may have connected and Jonathan may have had to deal with the pain of being punched in the face, but that was something that he was used to and probably something Odin hadn't expected, after all Jon's entire boxing strategy relied on taking hits in order to give them.

If the upheaval where to fail to at least knock Odin off him, which keep in mind it shouldn’t since Odin is leaning and focusing all his energy towards the direction the upheaval is going, Jonathan would still have the finger-lock maintained and like any good boxer the Jab was of the snapping variety so by the time it was done it was almost immediately at his face again, blocking in a typical diagonal fashion in order to compensate for the left hand missing.

[Odin Reeves]

After attacking the wrist Odin was searching for another headshot, going in with a backhand he felt a strike to the right side of his face – his face having been turned as he looked at his target, the wrist - then his body rising higher. Putting his right hand down by his opponent’s head he stabilized himself, the blade of his fist resting against the ground. He had been forced to lean farther forward, putting more weight on his right arm, and gaining a bit more leverage on his left. To neutralize the pain that was slowly growing stronger in his knuckles the boxer turned mixed martial artist tried to form a fist, putting as much resistance against the fingers as possible while pushing his elbow out to the side.

When he pushed his elbow out he also lifted it up, moving to force it down on his opponents and then continue to pull back. At the moment it was the most effective way of releasing his fingers from the lock, or at the very least provide less strain. The pain he was feeling was nothing, especially after all the fights he had been in an witnessed, not to mention his child-hood punching bag – the oak tree in his fathers back yard.

Speaking of elbows Odin’s right elbow was in a prime position to continue an assault, and after Odin had twisted his left arm around to break the only offense his opponent had been able to muster he began to drop his elbow – combined with a good majority of his weight – down toward the right eye, forehead, and upper cheek of his opponent. More then likely it would only take a few shots to cut someone, if not knocking them unconscious, thus was the effectiveness of the elbow.

[Jonathan Michaels]

OoC- My friend has gotten in a car accident (typing this from a sidekick), so I'm going to be gone for the next few days (and why I haven't posted since a few days back), sorry for the inconvenience Odin

[kai]

OOC: Regardless on the quality of the fight itself, Jon's admitted inability to continue the fight, coupled with the fact that he took several days to post his OOC notice and that this is the judging day for the fights anyway, means that I have to declare Odin Reeves the winner. You didn't do badly, though, Jon.

[Kyukaku]

If it wasn't for the bickering, I would of liked this one too. Odin's the winner.