His kicks were heavy. Every kick landing on his guard made him slightly buckle under the power. His arms and legs with which he blocked the attacks were already sore. His consciousness and his will were slowly chipped away with every hit.
He could feel how his body could take less and less punishment with every exchange. The hits that went through his guard were unsurprisingly even worse. He was sent down on a knee more than once.
During the fight he realized something as well. He was too good. Especially, the groundwork. It felt like he was already experienced with leverages, guards, rolls, escapes, and all kinds of moves one would expect from someone who had trained it for a few years before.
So, he refused to take the fight to the ground if he did, his opponent would most likely win. His chances were much better standing up. At least, his own hits that landed were doing a lot of damage. Even those on the guard seemed to be damaging enough.
Both were going hard on each other. Both looked the worse for wear. Both were getting more exhausted, and their technique suffered for it. And both knew who would win if it continued this way.
One was dominated with strong hits, be it on the guard or a direct hit, while the other was landing a hit once a blue moon. Although those hits were heavy and sent his opponent winded, the other was accumulating a lot more damage with the numerous hits he had to tank.
His opponent was just too good. It didn't feel like fighting another kid, it was more like an experienced fighter who had lived half his life in the ring and knocked down numerous opponents. His opponent read his pattern, dictated the rhythm, used split seconds to exploit gaps in his guard, his sense for angles and distance was too precise.
He used feints and fakes to poke a hole in his defense and punish him dearly for it. It was like he knew what he would do before he himself knew and it frustrated him to no end.
His breathing was already ragged, not because of how painfully exhausted he was but because of the broken nose and his battered chest. He felt a rip break a couple of exchanges ago.
His eye had swelled, and it made it hard for him to see as well. His guard had been lowered since the previous round as he had no strength keeping them up. His shins hurt with every step he took.
Another sharp kick on the guard made his opponent take a few steps backwards. He knew that he couldn't win but he had to try! Give it his all!
The headbutt to the face after he had driven his opponent into the corner were small mercies. He felt the crack of his opponent's nose and knew that he broke it. Proving again that if his hits landed, then they were devastating.
He knew that his attacks were more powerful, faster, and sharper than his opponent's, but he landed too few. He could surprise him a couple of times, but it only ever worked once.
His opponent just dominated the fight in every sense that was important. It didn't matter that Leo was the stronger and faster of the two. His sense of combat was just too lacking.
And with every hit he took, the distance between their physical prowess diminished and with-it Leo's chance of winning. He felt like all his options had been closed off by Lenny. Feints and fakes didn't seem to work anymore. Lenny could somehow tell them apart from the real deal almost immediately.
He wasn't fast enough to surprise him, and his power wasn't enough to break apart Lenny's guard anymore. There wasn't anything that he could think of to turn this around apart from a lucky shot.
Maybe that was how that girl felt when he picked her apart in their fight. That thought went away as quickly as it came. He couldn't lose focus after all.
'It is clear, isn't it? Lenny knows it, the referee seems to know it and the audience know it as well. I have lost already. I am just too stubborn to give up.'
Even when Lenny held him in a standing rear choke Leo didn't gave up. Lenny lifted him from the ground, but Leo quickly used the moment to lift his legs high-up. He quickly slammed his legs downwards and used the momentum to break the choke.
He landed heavily on the ground and before Leo could try to stand up and create some distance, Lenny had used a step forwards to prevent himself from going to the ground with Leo's momentum.
Using the opportunity, he quickly rotated around Leo and swiftly kicked Leo's sides lifting him from the ground. Leo felt another rip crack, this time on the other side. He stood up as fast he could, but he already noticed a shadow coming his way from the corner of his eye.
As he wobbly tried to stand up Lenny had punched his downed opponent on the chin, knocking him out completely. The referee announced his victory. However, the victory wasn't received as well as the other age divisions.
Although, the audience majorly favorited Lenny, the fight was a bit too brutal for this age division. Especially after seeing Leo grit his teeth to remain in the fight even with numerous injuries, had moved the many fighters in the audience.
So, the applaud mainly went out to the barely woken up Leo, who was being carried out.
It took Lenny all 8 rounds to defeat Leo. He was better than he remembered, Lenny thought as he looked at Leo who was now being taken care of by the nurse.
He was also never this resilient. He was always stubborn, but he never could take this much punishment that he had dished out today. He was also a lot stronger than he previously thought was possible for a child.
With this kind of skill and the trajectory in skill growth he showed, he would be quickly renowned in any fighting organization. It was like he was fighting a much better version of the already prodigiously Leonidas Thompson.
'I would have never guessed that my presence alone would change the past this much. I have only entered the ranks of the prodigious to be trained by Mang Tou and befriended Leo earlier but other than that I didn't change much yet. At least, now any serious damage to Leo's right knee has been averted.'
Lenny mused as he was announced as the winner of this tournament, but his win wasn't on his mind at all. He couldn't help but think about the ripples his travel into the past had.
Before he went back, Lenny wasn't talented enough to be mentored by Mang Tou, however, he was diligent to the end. He had seen the gap in talent firsthand. He used to look at Shunlei and Leo in awe and envy. Oh, how he used to wish he could surpass them!
But alas it didn't seem to be meant to be. In only one year they had shown their monstrous talent and how different they were compared to the rest of them. Their growth didn't stop, and their diligence wasn't lacking.
It was clear as day and night that their gap would be unsurmountable. He knew that and the other students knew that as well. The rest of them, the less talented students that began training with the two started slacking or straight out quit.
It would be a lie if he said that he was an exception that he didn't think about quitting. Their skill was frightening, and it made them feel inferior. It didn't help that they were so damn nice as well. Prodigiously talented, diligent, and humble, how could they not resent those that had everything?
Lenny had been in a dark place, but he believed that he could one day surpass them, so he worked his ass off every day. He still feels ashamed of how happy he was when he heard of Leo's injury. A broken shin and kneecap in the tournament finals against Theo Lamperd.
His injury had long term consequences. It wouldn't be able to heal perfectly and would have spelled the end for most fighter's careers, but Leo was too stubborn to give up. He powered through and continued to train diligently.
But even with his determined mind he couldn't step into the same realm that he had been. His performance lacked in comparison to before. From then on only Shunlei was being called the prodigy of the Saphed School.
Leo started to hang out more often with the 'lesser' students and they befriended quickly. Lenny felt guilty when he thought about how happy he was because of another's suffering, especially someone that became like a brother to him afterwards.
They laughed, fought, teased, and trained together. It was like they were attached at the hip and it made his slow fall in the following years only that much worse.
Even with his injury, he had claimed himself a spot as one of the greatest fighters with Lenny only being slightly behind. The two became renowned fighters but Leo's knee and his right leg was more prone to injury since childhood.
He had always been careful but a lucky hit there a malicious opponent here made it only worse. Every injury stacked upon each other until Leo started becoming slower, his kicks softer, his evasions sloppy.
Every loss he suffered impacted his mind and with it his body deteriorated. He used all methods and techniques he found in foreign countries to remain relevant, his movements became a lot more efficient but no amount of increase in skill closed the gap for his broken body and as time went on his mindset became a defeated one.
To go into the ring with such a mindset was like throwing the towel before it began. Leo had realized it himself, so he retired at 25. Many called it a shame that he had to retire, some said that he should have retired earlier in his peak instead of withering away in the ring like he did.
Of course, they would say something like this, but Leo made the decision to continue. The man had suffered a career ending injury as a boy only to become one of the greatest but even that wasn't enough for Leo. He wanted more, to stand at the very top unthreatened by other fighters.
He was stubborn like no one Lenny had ever met afterwards. Looking back if Lenny saw his previous version being happy about his brother's suffering, he would have ripped him a new one in a bloody frenzy.
To see such a talented, stubborn fighter hang up his coat to retire, not because he achieved his dream instead because he would distance himself from his dream the longer, he tried. But in the end, there was a silver lining in Leo's life, his childhood friend and later wife, Laura Everlast. His friends and his wife that gave his life in his words a colorful outlook.
But even this slice of fortune was him denied as his death came sudden and early. The icing on top of his tragic life.
Beaten to death by a crowd of thugs in a back alley. Thugs that he could have beaten with one leg and arm behind his back while being blind and deaf if he were in his peak. A brutal ironic and unjust death to someone he looked up until the end.
However, it was only the beginning of a dark future. At least, he was spared the ugly future that came after his death. A future that he will prevent no matter what! This he swore with his life!
He was lucky enough to return to his younger self and he would use this opportunity to not only change his own but Leo's, Shunlei's, Laura's and Rosy's future as well.
This time no one will die! Lenny internally vowed with his determination that only grew with every day into the new future.
"Why the fuck do you look so mad?!" Leo's beaten-up face came into view. Leo quickly put him into a headlock and ruffled through Lenny's hair. "If I don't see a big smile on his face when we celebrate, I will kick your ass!"
Lenny chuckled before completely breaking into a full laugh. With a grin on his face, he propped Leo up with a shoulder before joining the small crowd of friends and family waiting for him.