The Final Punchout | Teen Ink

The Final Punchout

December 7, 2015
By Devourer BRONZE, Amery, Wisconsin
Devourer BRONZE, Amery, Wisconsin
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The area seems to be an old gym, but there was almost no one there.  A boxing ring sits in the middle, and a punching bag dangles in a corner.  The whole area smells slightly musty as well.  Sunlight shines in through the window, making everything seem orange.  Some of this light shines onto a belt.  Shining on the gold plating of the belt are engraved the words, “Major Circuit Champion” on the seal.  The sound of feet jumping on the stone floor, shifting to different positions. 
“C’mon, Mac baby!  You’ve got this!”
Grunting and something whipping the floor is heard, quickly speeding up.  The sound becomes less far apart, and eventually morphs into one sound.  A man in a pink sweatsuit is jumping rope, doing it very quickly and with finesse.  He continues for 30 minutes and then begins to slow down, leading to an entire stop.  He grabs a nearby water bottle and begins to drink while walking across the floor.  He put on his signature green boxing gloves and menacingly strolls to a punching bag and begins to punch it.  The boxer usually jabs, which is a fist straight out into the other person.  It is occasionally followed by an overhand, which leads to either a punch on the shoulder or side of head.  Next is a cross with his left hand, which is similar to the overhand, except parallel to the ground.  The man proceeds to do more quick jabs.  He continues for about 30 minutes and then went on to training with the man from earlier.
“Bob and weave, Mac, bob and weave!  Make old Doc proud here!”
Doc is a former heavyweight-Champion.  His full name is Jerome “Doc” Louis.  Doc is a large man and loves chocolate.  He retired and became Little Mac’s trainer.
Little Mac is a young man who is the age of 17.  He is short, only 5 feet 7 inches tall.  He has black, spiky hair, tan skin, and a chiseled face.  Muscles on his arms are not lacking.  Everyone has a goal, and Mac’s is to beat the undefeated Mr. Sandman.  
Doc has helped him win the Minor Circuit and Major Circuit championships before the World Circuit championship.  Both championships had happened earlier that year.
Doc hints, “Use your feet Mac!  Your punches aren’t the only way you’re going to win!”
Mac dodges every blow, feeling the wind sweep across his face.  He counters and lands a solid blow on Doc, knocking him down.  Doc chuckles, “You’re going places, kid!  You’ll win the World Circuit in no time with these moves!”
Mac smiles as he helps Doc up.  They leave the building, Doc on his bike and Mac running in his pink sweats.  They go for about 5 miles and then head back to their training area, which doubles as their home.
“Now you get your rest, you’ll want to be well rested for your fight tomorrow.”
Mac nods and heads to his bed, bringing water with him.  He drinks and lays down.  As he drifts off, he begins to imagine tomorrow.  Mac is in his formal boxing attire, a black tank top and green athletic shorts.  Both Mac and Mr. Sandman are wearing sneakers, meant for the boxing arena.  He can see Mr. Sandman dressed in his signature uniform, which lacks a shirt but has yellow athletic shorts with green gloves. 
Doc Louis rubs Mac’s shoulders to loosen the stress before the fight.  Mr. Sandman is shadowboxing, which is when you punch the air, imagining there’s somebody else there.  When Mac looks to Mr. Sandman’s eyes, he can see him almost boring holes into his very soul.  The match begins and Mr. Sandman lands the first blow, knocking Mac onto his rear.  He gets up only to be greeted by an overhead punch pushing him down onto the ground.  Mac rises once again and moves out of the way of the next blow.  This leaves Sandman wide open, allowing Mac to land a solid blow onto Sandman’s side, but this only angers the hulking giant.  Sandman lands a jab after jab into Mac’s stomach knocking him to the ground.  Sandman begins to uppercut him 3 times, shouting “Dream Land Express!”  It knocks out Mac and awakens the youth.
As he bounces up from the nightmare, he feels sweat covering his face.  He gets up and looks at his surroundings seeing that he hasn’t left where he fell asleep.  Sighing in relief, he gets up and washes his face off.  He looks in the mirror and sees his reflection staring back at him.  Doc Louis shouts, “Time to rise and shine, Mac baby!”
Mac throws on his boxing gear and grabs his pink sweatsuit, sprinting to the car that is going to drive them to the big match. 
“You’re going to do great, Mac.  You’ve got this in the bag!  Sandman’s reign of terror will be put to an end,” proclaims Doc.  He looks to Mac and sees him staring out the window at the rain dripping outside, seemingly mocking blood down the side of a cheek in Mac’s mind.  The dream still plaguing his mind, he can only imagine what the match will be really like.  They stop and get out at the arena.
The arena looms over them like a mountain, and as they walk in they know there was no turning back.  As Mac walks in, he can still picture his nightmare.  Cringing, he walks into the entrance and hears the sound of people cheering, “Little Mac!  Little Mac!”  This brightens Mac’s mood and he begins to smile as the announcer speaks his name with grace.  While climbing into the ring he hears Mr. Sandman being called up. Sandman’s fans cheer and they exclaim, “Put him to sleep!  Rest his dreams!”  Sandman climbs into the ring and uppercuts 4 times in a row before staring at Mac.  He’s taller than Mac had dreamed by about a foot, hair freshly cut.  They look into each other’s eyes and instinctively know this fight won’t be easy for either of the two powerhouses. 
“Let’s keep this fight clean, no low blows, you both get that?” says the referee.  They both acknowledge, as they’ve heard it many times in their careers.  The bell rings and they shuffle forward, guarding their faces.  Mac pulls out the first blow being an overhand to his opponent’s head.  Sandman counters by jabbing Mac, causing Mac to back down.  Mac’s feet glide along the floor, ready to dodge any incoming attacks.  Mac goes for a couple of jabs and lands them right into Sandman’s stomach, which makes him reel over.  This leaves the enemy wide open and Mac hits his head with a cross.  Immediately after Mac lands his blow he is greeted by an uppercut to his chin, flinging the dreamer back. 
Sandman stands up and says to Mac in a low voice, “You’ve managed to land a couple decent shots on me, I’ll give you that.  But you forgot I became World Circuit champ for a reason.”  He overhands Mac on his shoulder, forcing him back down onto the ground.  Mac stands up and jabs Sandman in the stomach again, this time making sure to wail on his head at the same time to knock him out.  Sandman responds by grabbing him with one hand and jabbing him repeatedly.  Mac lands a blow onto Sandman’s nose, forcing him back.  Mac runs up and hits him in the stomach, making sure to land the occasional blow on his face.  He can feel a stream of tears dripping from his eyes, mixing with the sweat as he only thinks of his nightmare.  This monster wasn’t going to dash his dreams.  He cries out as Sandman suddenly pushes him back.  Blood drips on Sandman’s cheek and Sandman begins to be much more aggressive, letting down his defense. 
As Mac gets up, he notices the lack of defense and punishes him for it, hitting him relentlessly.  Each blow lands harder than the last, damaging the giant.  Mac sees his own crimson water dripping from his own eyebrow down to his cheek, mixing with the sweat.  He lands one final decisive blow, knocking out the giant hulk of a man.  As Sandman lies on the ground, the referee calls a knockout and claims Mac as the winner.  Mac smiles the widest grin of his life, face covered in sweat and blood.  He ignores the pain as Doc grabs his arm and raises it up in triumph.
“I told you that you could do it!”  boasts Doc Louis.  As they put the belt around his waist, the bright lights shine on the gold engraving, which reads “World Circuit Champion”.  The duo walk back to the training center and Doc says, “We’re going to get you patched up my champion, you took some nasty blows up there.”  As Doc nurses the injuries, Mac thinks of what he’ll do now that he’s the champion. 
Years later, Mac fights strong, remaining champion.  He vowed to himself on that rainy day he became the champ that after 3 losses, retirement would be imminent.  He hasn’t lost a match yet and still seeks someone to match up to his skill level.  He thinks back to Mr. Sandman and all of the foes before him.  How did they get to where they were?  He glances at the belts that shine in his workout area and sees the light shine on the engravings on the gold belts.  A smile sneaks onto his lips before going back to his jump rope exercises that he has done throughout the years.



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