Saldano vs. Rodriguez - Queens of the Ring

Lorenza would not try to dance around Carmenâ€s question. Not in the slightest. “Yes,” she replied, coldly and simply, as the referee moved out of the way. She enunciated so that her words were crystal clear even through her mouthguard. “Yes, Rodriguez, you did lose. Donâ€t you remember? Or have I hit you so hard that your memory is all gone now?” She pounded her gloves together. “The judges said you lost. The crowd saw you lose. And you know you lost. Have you ever stopped thinking about me since that day?” Lorenza smirked. “Kinda cute, how obsessed you are.”

Of course, Lorenza was projecting some of her own emotions onto Carmen. But that didnâ€t mean that her trash talk was unfounded. Carmen had called her out for a rematch, long after the both of them had retired from their sport. She had not forgotten, even after two years had passed.

When Carmen came at her again, Lorenza would backpedal, drifting to her left so that she was no longer backing up against the ropes. She raised her gloves in front of her face as she retreated, and as Carmen began to roll again. Lorenza would brace herself, but the expected barrage of hooks didnâ€t come. Instead, Carmen threw out a simple one-two combination. Lorenza absorbed both punches with her guard, though the force of the blows still sent her stumbling back several steps.

Well, that little bit of trash talk had managed to rile Carmen up.

…good. Lorenza wanted the Puerto Rican to come at her with everything she had. The angrier Carmen was, the more likely she was to make a mistake. It meant a more ferocious storm for Lorenza to weather, but the light at the end of it would be all the brighter, if she could find her way through the clouds.

Lorenza blocked that first combination, but kept on falling back, circling around so that she was facing a corner and her back was to the wide-open center of the ring. This way, Carmen couldnâ€t trap her against the ropes. On the other hand, she could not rely on the ropes to catch her if she fell again.

Well, boxing was a game of trade-offs, and of double-edged swords. Lorenza was not about to second-guess herself on this strategy.

Carmen threw another punch, a straight right. Lorenzaâ€s guard stood between it and her bloodied, swollen face. The punch was easily deflected. Lorenza didnâ€t even have to stagger back any further. But Carmen was tricky, and the next punch she threw was another right—this one overhanded. Lorenza was not expecting that, and the black glove slammed right into her forehead, giving her yet another bruise on what had been a very pretty face. It didnâ€t look very pretty anymore. After that blow to the top of her head, Lorenza felt as if she had been lost a couple of inches of height. But she would not fall. She would retaliate, throwing a straight to Carmenâ€s guard, then following that up with a quick left hook, trying to force her foe to keep her distance.

The overhand shot had come at such an awkward angle. Lorenza did not have a prayer of blocking it, even if she were completely fresh. She didnâ€t recall having ever seen anything quite like it—not even in the first bout she had fought with Carmen.

It slammed into her forehead. Hard. That would leave an ugly black and blue reminder right above her eye, which was now swollen almost all the way shut by a big, ugly, throbbing red lump. Her nose was clearly broken and was bleeding profusely, and she had a multitude of cuts and bruises on her lips, chin, and cheeks. This last blow felt as if it had knocked an inch or two off her height. But Lorenza refused to fall. Her legs didnâ€t buckle. She would retaliate, throwing a cross which Carmen just barely blocked, and following it up with a powerful hook which clobbered Carmen in the side of her head. That would go some way towards changing the momentum.

Lorenza was not out of the woods yet, however. Carmen retaliated with a double left hook. The first punch slammed into Lorenzaâ€s belly, eliciting a groan from the Mexican. The next aimed high, and, though she threw up her guard, Carmenâ€s black glove still skidded against her forehead. Lorenza stumbled backwards and wobbled, but she stayed on her feet.

“Ugh…is that all you have left, Rodriguez?” she yelled through her mouthguard, pounding her fists together. “Come on! Come on and punch me harder!”

Lorenza glanced up at the big screen which displayed a closeup of the two of them in the ring and a clock counting down the time remaining in the round. Thirty seconds. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. She didnâ€t need to survive too much longer before the bell would come to her rescue and give her a chance to recover from the beating Carmen had given her in this eighth round. Of course, half a minute was still a long time. In the boxing world, it could almost be an eternity.

“Oh, no!” Lorenza said in reply to Carmenâ€s observation that her nose was dripping blood. The Mexican smirked, then added, her voice dripping in sarcasm: “A bloody nose? How could I fight through something that deadly!?” She laughed loudly, putting her gloves up and making a beckoning motion. “Come on, hermanita. Cut your crap and punch me.”

Carmen did just that, coming at Lorenza with a quick jab that the Mexican boxer easily blocked. She would follow it up with a combination aimed at Lorenzaâ€s stomach. The first punch got through clear, slamming into Lorenzaâ€s gut and forcing the former champion to stifle a howl of pain. Her ribs. They had been aching already, but something had…snapped with that last punch. A splitting pain radiated through her stomach. She would lower her gloves to absorb as many of Carmenâ€s blows as she could, backing up to put some distance between them.

Lorenza had done her best to soldier through the pain without betraying her agony to her opponent, but it was obvious that she had been unsuccessful. The look on Carmenâ€s face told Lorenza that her Puerto Rican opponent knew exactly where to punch her now. Things all of a sudden looked a whole lot bleaker for the former world champion.

Carmenâ€s left hook caught her right across her face, doing exactly what Carmen had intended it to: it stunned Lorenza and managed to get her to lower her guard. She was only dazed for a couple of seconds, but by the time she came to, Carmenâ€s first uppercut was already slamming into her gut. Lorenza stifled a cry of pain and staggered back, bringing her gloves down to protect that weak point. Carmen kept on punching, sending uppercut after uppercut into the broken bone. Most Lorenza managed to get her gloves in front of, but the force of the punches slammed her own gloves back into her stomach, hurting her and forcing her to keep stumbling backwards.

She felt her back hit the ropes, and she grabbed onto them for support. She had nowhere to go. Carmenâ€s uppercuts kept driving into her stomach. Lorenzaâ€s legs started to weaken. She was crying out in pain now, loudly. She wobbled uncertainly on her feet.

At last, sweet mercy, the bell rang.