Jason was preparing for the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) finals. He and his best friend, Trey, had been training for the past three months. It took place in The Bronx in New York, where the most famous MMA fighters of all time competed. The population there was so big that there was traffic literally everyday. Jason was going against someone whom he expected to face.
“I can’t believe that he’s here,” Jason whispered.
“What? Who is it?” Trey asked trying to look where Jason was looking.
His name is Walter Rodriguez. Every single year I competed in the MMA finals, he was my opponent.” Jason said, sighing in frustration.
“Does it matter?” implied Trey.
“Trey, let me tell you a story from back in the day,” stated Jason and Trey decided sit down on the bench to listen to him.
“I was sixteen years old, and my dad encouraged me to try out for boxing, so I could compete against other people, then get recognized by other coaches; it was right in the same area of The Bronx. Summer had just begun.”

“Hey, Jay (Jason’s nickname). I think you should try out for boxing ,” Jason’s  father suggested, reading the flyer on the table.
“Dad, I honestly don’t want to do it,” I said, while sighing.
“Listen to me, Jason. I’ve seen you practice, and as a former boxing coach back in the day, I see potential in you. I think you should!” scolded his dad.
“Wait, now?” cried Jason questioning his father’s judgement. “I don’t want to follow your dream dad,”
“Yeah, put on your workout clothes, and get yourself out of here.  You look like you’re in great shape. I can’t let my boy sit here all day watching TV. Please, don’t become a couch potato; use your time wisely,”  his dad explained raising his voice. “I’m not making you follow my dreams when I was a kid, I’m making you do it because you always talk about doing a sport and it turns out its boxing,”
“All right, Dad, I’ll try out,” I said as he finally gave in to his father’s persuasion.
“Yeah, that’s my boy. Now, get out there and be recognized,” said his dad. “You look like you can beat all of those boys,”

“Then what happened? How did you do?” Trey asked.
“So, I arrived at the place, and noticed there were other guys competing. They were doing what I was doing, competing against others to get to the finals. They got all of us together and lined us up.”
One of the coaches blew a loud whistle.
“Guys, listen up!” The coach screamed. “Today, all of you have come here to compete against each other and for a chance to go against other fighters in a tournament to the finals later. Now, this is what’s going to happen: I’m going to call you up one by one and then you will put on protection gear. Then, you’ll fight. So, any volunteers?”
Nobody answered.
“Ok,... you, what’s your name? The coach asked, pointing at a skinny boy.
“Louis,” the boy responded very nervously.
“How about you, tall guy? What’s your name?” The coach asked Jason.
“Jason,” he replied.
“You two will fight first, and I want you to do the best you can,” said The coach.
“So, we geared up and started fighting. We fought and then I punched him right in the stomach,” said Jason.
“Was he mad?” Trey demanded.
“No, not at all. He had great team spirit. So guy after guy, I managed to win as a novice I was pretty good. Now this was where Walter Rodriguez comes in,” Jason said as he continued.
“Ok, Jason, you’re doing a phenomenal job. Let’s have you go against, uh, Walter,” coach called.
“He looked like he was mad at me from the start. His face turned red and had a frown on his face. It looked like he was ready to attack me or something. So it was our turn to compete against each other. I managed to punch him and he punched me back . Then I whacked him in the jaw. He fell to the floor, and all the other boys were shocked. He got up and got more and more angry.”
“One more clash, Coach. One more,” Walter kept repeating.
“So we went one more round. He got more and more aggressive and managed to knock me out with a punch to my face. He had a smile on his face and I was still dizzy. The coach chose him to compete in the finals because of his “aggressiveness.” Every year I competed for the finals, he defeated me. Now, since I’ve been training for the past few years, I know I’ll be ready,” Jason said, confidently.
“Well, you’re up,” Trey pointed to the board.
Jason made his way to the ring.
A couple moments later when Jason made it to the ring, the announcer came to introduce the two fighters.
“In this corner, we have Jason Ramirez!” the announcer exclaimed.
The fans in the arena cheered as Jason he made to the ring. Once he arrived, the announcer called the person fighting against him.
“In this corner, we have the one and only....Walter Rodriguez!”
Walter made his way to the ring while all his fans in the arena screamed his name. Once Walter made his way into the ring.
“Jason, Walter, are you ready?” The announcer asked, gesturing both of his hands to the boys. They both nodded their heads. “Fight!”
Jason and Walter were in a fighting stance bouncing around inside the ring, waiting for the other to punch. Then Jason attacked first and he threw some punches at Walter’s face, and Walter managed to block.
“Hey, is that all you got? Huh?” Walter kept asking as Jason threw some jabs at him. “Let’s see if you can dodge my fists,” Walter raised his gloves and started punching.
Punch after punch, Walter kept hitting Jason in the face and the stomach. Jason tried to dodge them as quick as he could, but it didn’t work. Then Walter made one more punch, and everything went pitch black.
Jason and Walter were in the hospital.
“What? What happened?” Jason asked Trey who was sitting across from his hospital bed.
“Well, both of you managed to punch each other at the same time, which resulted in the two of you being knocked out,” Trey explained
“So, it was a tie?” Jason asked.
“No,” Trey replied. “Although it was a good fight, I know that you didn’t expect it to go this way, but at least you got to go against your enemy.”
“Yeah. What happened to Walter?” Jason asked.
“Well, he fell to the floor when you knocked him out, and he got a bad concussion, so he can’t play in the finals. Since you were knocked out without a concussion, the officials agreed that you were the winner, and are able to advance.”
“No way!” exclaimed Jason completely shock.
“You did it!” exclaimed Trey.
“I can’t believe it, all these years I finally defeated him!” exclaimed Jason.