Jhun Thai O: The Fall Of Thomas Brady

Jhun Thai 0 Chapter 6

"Cmon Thomas! This ain't a dance with a gal!" shouted Thomas's trainer, Douglas Drieber.
Falling back against the ropes, out of breath, Thomas put both his arms up to cover his face as his sparring partner, Steven Harson, rained blows on him. Harson was slightly shorter than Thomas. He was covered with padding across his chest, groin, knees and head to allow Thomas to hit him hard. With a finely sculptured physique, Harson was certainly a strong athlete and as Thomas found out, he could hit pretty hard as well. With no body protection, Thomas felt the power of Harsons punches as they rained in on his body and head. Even with his hands covering his head, he could still feel the impact of the blows coming down on him. It felt like having small bags of sand thrown at him and it was beginning to hurt and wear him down.
He could not understand his lack of luck during his training session tonight at the Gladiator Gym in Longport, Burslem. He could see a few of the other martial artists looking on, surprised at seeing the champion getting his ass kicked by a sparring partner.
"Where the hell did you get this guy?" said Thomas through his gumshield. He felt like spitting the thing out as it was restricting his breathing.
"Breath Thomas godammit!" yelled Douglas.
Thomas grabbed Harson and with a burst of strength he tossed him back and then followed up with a heavy front chest kick that pushed him back further. Frustrated, Thomas began to hit back with his own kicks and punches. Yet despite his heavy onslaught, Harson could still fight back and a left cross and uppercut dazed Thomas slightly, sending him staggering back against the corner where Harson, seeing the advantage, dived in with more close up body and head punches.
"Godammit Thomas! Get out of that corner!" shouted Douglas , his blood pressure looking like it was rising. "Move godammit, move!"
Thomas just held onto Harson, taking in lungfuls of air before shooting out a volley of punches of his own. He hit Harson with everything he got, staggering him back before knocking the small mans gumshield out with a well place round kick across the cheek. He was about to move in for the kill when Harson bulldozed back into the fray, trading blows with Thomas, who was now clearly getting tired.
"Okay cut!" shouted Douglas, stepping into the ring.
He broke both fighters up and told Harson to step out of the ring. Then he turned to check Thomas. "What the hell was that?" he asked Thomas, pushing him back to the corner turnbuckle. "My eighty five year old gran could move better than you. That was a pathetic display. You fought like a girl. If you went up against Mark Tudor right now, I guarantee, you would be carried out of the ring on a stretcher".
"I knew what I was doing," said Thomas through his gumshield. Sweat was falling from every pore of his skin and he was breathing quite heavily. "I nearly had him".
Douglas shook his head in disbelief. He told Thomas to step out of the ring and he followed him, handing Thomas a bottle of water while he took out some sissors to cut his gloves off. "You were out of shape," Douglas told him, removing Thomas's gloves. "I could see it a mile away. My guess is that you were out last night drinking. I don't need your brother to tell me that. I just know it. It's not good to skip a training session and I told you before about your heavy partying. If you wanna stay in shape you need to listen to what I am telling you, otherwise you can kiss that title belt you hold goodbye".
"I'm fine," assured Thomas, taking out his gumshield. He sat himself down on a chair next to the ring and opened his bottle of mineral water, taking a huge mouthful of it as he did.
"Stop trying the bullshit on me," said Douglas, putting Thomas's gloves to one side. "Paulson has got you a fight in the next few weeks, but it's not a title fight with Mark Tudor".
Thomas looked up at Douglas , clearly surprised by this. "A fight with who?" he asked.
"Some guy in Tudors camp, a Jon Portland. He's a top heavyweight contender, never been beaten, real badass".
"Why not Tudor?" said Thomas, clearly annoyed by this. "I can beat that punk in two rounds. This is an insult. Okay, I'm sorry Paulsons experiencing financial difficulties with his wife losing her job. But if he can give me that title shot, I can make us all a lot of money".
"After what I've seen tonight, I'd be surprised you would last two rounds against Jon Portland. He's no pushover. Beat him, and Paulson will definitely put you in line for the title fight against Tudor".
Thomas thought about it for a while and then nodded slowly as if agreeing. "Okay, I'll fight this Portland guy, but I'm pretty pissed because I ain't got that shot at Tudor. I beat Portland. You give me Tudor".
"And I'll say to you, get your act together. Put that ego of yours on a back burner," advised Douglas. "Because one day that ego will cost you everything you worked hard for".