Fighter's Brew – S3: E3 (Audio + Transcript) (Patreon)

• Fighter's Brew

[Note: Read the manga images from right to left.]

"Match over," the announcer declares. "Now we go to the judges for a decision."

"He couldn't get the sub," says Kohei.

"Yeah, but it was a hell of a match," a stunned Muroi says.

"Who's in the lead?" asks Chika.

"I have no idea," replies Ayako.

"Takayanagi is still in high school, right?" asks someone in the crowd.

"We will announce the judges' scores," the announcer says. "The three judges score the fight 24 to 23, declaring the winner by decision, Meguru Takayanagi!"

No one is more shocked by the results than Meguru.

Meguru shakes hands with Mitsuya and his coaches.

"A one-point difference?" exclaims Chika.

"By the skin of his teeth!" says Ayako. "Awesome."

Chika gives Ayako a side-eye. "What do you mean awesome, Aya?" she says. "At this rate, he might end up fighting Muroi-san in the finals!"

"I know, but..." Ayako is flustered.

"I can't blame you," Chika says. "After a match like that, it's hard not to root for the guy."

"I won, right?" Meguru asks Watanabe. "It hasn't really sunk in yet."

"Meguru, don't put your opponent on a pedestal," Watanabe says. "You'd have won that way easier if you'd just stayed calm and stuck to outboxing."

"Easy for you to say," Meguru thinks. "You're also a wrestler. You guys aren't so easy."

"After seeing that match," thinks Muroi, "I think I'm starting to get why that kid keeps winning despite not having any real specialty. He can turn a match around at any juncture. His striking, throws, and subs are all average at best, but MMA is all about how well you string it all together. That's how he keeps coming out on top. Whatever, I gotta focus on my match."

"Match 40, lightweight division semi-finals," exclaims the announcer. "In the red corner, from SJ Absolute, Masaomi Takehara. And in the blue corner, from OST Martial Arts, Kensho Muroi."

Muroi has fought Takehara before and has lost to him by decision. Takehara is a samboist.

Muroi's family cheers him on from the crowd.

"Fight!" shouts the ref.

Takehara lunges in with a left hook, but Muroi blocks. Since Muroi is not attacking, Takehara ties him up.

Takehara tangles Muroi's arm and jumps to guard. He has an armbar. Muroi defends and gets out. Takehara grabs Muroi's ankles and topples him over. He transitions to an ankle lock. Muroi tries to free his leg, but Takehara transitions to a heel hook. Muroi stands and escapes.

Takehara's game plan is obvious, attack Muroi's bad knee.

Takehara closes the distance again with a wide hook into a clinch, but Muroi uses the momentum to throw him.

[When you hook an opponent's leg, your legs become a mutual structure. Your opponent's leg goes where your leg goes, initiating your takedown. However, your leg can go where your opponent's leg goes for a counter throw. When you hook a leg, you're also balancing yourself on one leg, which makes a counter throw so effective.]

Boom!

Muroi lands on top. He goes for his own leg lock, only to be reversed. Takehara spins for his bad leg. Muroi stays calm and counters with an armbar.

[When you're too internally focused on what you want to do, your attention is no longer on your environment and paying attention to what your opponent is doing.]

"Dumbass," Muroi thinks. "You were way too focused on my knee."

Muroi extends the arm for a tap. Since Muroi knows his opponents are after his bad leg, it's easy for him to gameplan for them.

Back at Fighter's Brew, class is over, but Yudai and Maki pretend to keep working out to overhear how Meguru is doing.

At the tournament, Meguru is hitting pads with Watanabe. Muroi plays with his oldest son. Meguru feels uneasy.

"It's not every day a high schooler and a 36-year-old man face off in a match," Watanabe tells Meguru. "That's amateur shooto for you. I'm sure it'll be hard to wail on him in front of his wife and kids. Plus, his knee's busted. So, I don't blame you for being hesitant. It's normal to feel that way. But listen, if you go easy on him, it won't do either of you any good. Don't worry, though. This is an amateur sports match, not a death match. You have to give it your all so you can look each other in the eye afterward."

Muroi rubs his aching knee. "Even if I win this," he thinks, "will I even be able to compete at the Nationals in September? And what if I go pro? How many fights have I got left in me?"

"It's almost time," says Kohei. "Let's go out there and show everyone what we got."

"I never knew my old man," Muroi thinks as he walks with Kohei back into the gymnasium. "He ran off when my ma had me at 17. But the man she married after was a real piece of shit. He beat me and my ma practically every night. I'd lie there, too hurt to move, and I'd think to myself, 'If only I were stronger.' I guess that's how I ended up here. But what kind of father have I been?"

Muroi looks at his wife and two kids. He smiles. They smile back.

Kohei has his match and wins the bantamweight division by triangle choke. Afterward, Kohei bursts into tears. Muroi puts his hand on his shoulder and says, "You showed them, Kohei. Now, it's my turn."

It's 17-year-old Meguru vs. 36-year-old Muroi in the lightweight finals.

"I know everything about you," thinks Muroi, "but it's MMA. You never know. Still, I'm going to have to knock your lights out."

The fight begins, and Meguru opens with jabs.

"Nabe-san told me to set the pace and keep Muroi on the defensive since vets tend to start slow to observe," Meguru thinks. "So keep him guessing. Strike, throw, submit. Simple."

Muroi defends Meguru's jabs and lands his own.

"Don't exchange, Meguru!" Watanabe shouts. "You've got kicks and takedowns, too!"

Meguru shoots for a tackle, but Muroi stops it before it starts and counters with an uppercut. Meguru barely dodges. Muroi thinks he knows his patterns. Fighting is all about patterns and breaking patterns. Muroi is good at reading them but Meguru, on the other hand...

Muroi uppercuts and jabs Meguru to keep him upright and out of range for takedowns.

Muroi moves away from a potential kick. Meguru switches stances to throw an inside low kick but is countered by a right hook.

[If you know where your opponent is aiming, you also know where they'll be for your counter.]

Meguru drops his head and takes it on the forehead but is still knocked down.

The ref starts the count, but Meguru is okay.

The ref restarts the fight. Muroi charges in with a hook. Meguru ducks. Muroi counters with a knee, but Meguru blocks.

Meguru runs away from Muroi and gets a warning. The round ends. Since this is the finals, there are two rounds.

"He's going to keep circling to your left," Watanabe tells Meguru. "You can't rely on boxing. So how can you stop that movement?"

"Left mid kick," says Meguru.

"Exactly."

The second round begins.

"Three more minutes," thinks Muroi, "and the win is mine."

The two touch gloves. Muroi fires jabs, but Meguru counters with a left body kick as Muroi moves to his left. Muroi counters with a left hook. They both disengage.

Watanabe is shocked by Muroi eating that kick.

[There are many ways to throw a kick (or do anything). None of them are right or wrong; they just have different effects. Leaning back during a kick keeps your center mass further from your opponent, making it less likely to be countered. The result is less mass in the force of the kick. However, you can make up for this by throwing the kick faster. Still, if you eat a clean body kick, even if your opponent leans back, it's going to hurt. The leg is bigger than the arms, and the hips are more powerful than the shoulders. It doesn't take much.]

Muroi takes control with jabs.

"Think about the exchange," Ayako tells Chika. "If he could return with a left hook after taking the body kick, it means Takayangi-kun's kick had to be weak. Takayanagi-kun leans too far back, which removes all the body weight from the kick. If you want to stop your opponent, you have to put your weight into the kick. I think it's a mental block. He's afraid to commit to any attack, afraid of being countered. It's self-fulfilling."

Muroi continues to play it safe from the outside.

"Sorry, kid," Muroi thinks. "I have to win this."

Muroi had a promising boxing career 15 years ago. He lost it all because he beat his stepdad, who was assaulting his mom. His boxing license was revoked, and he spent time in prison. The only person there for him was his wife. His mother never visited him, and it was her testimony against him that sent him to prison. But he still has his wife. He has to win for her.

Meguru throws a head kick, but Muroi blocks. Meguru can't get through Muroi's defense.

"I can't keep throwing one kick at a time," Meguru thinks. "What should I do?"

When pushed into a corner, most fighters stick to what they know. Meguru, on the other hand, improvises.

"Every time he kicks, he switches stances," thinks Muroi. "I'll time him next time."

Meguru switches, Muroi counters with a left hook, but no kick arrives. Instead, it's a jumping punch. It misses, but it takes Muroi by surprise.

[A common kickboxing tactic is to fake a kick into a punch.]

Muroi backs up. Meguru presses with jabs. Meguru throws a left body kick, but Muroi blocks.

"He's not throwing a hook?" Meguru thinks.

Meguru fakes a kick and steps in with a left punch. Now that Muroi can't predict Meguru's movements, Meguru takes the initiative. Muroi blocks a jab but eats a leg kick.

[If you keep switching up your attacks, you become hard to predict. Sometimes, all it takes is one move to change the course of a match.]

"I want to give my family something to be proud of," Muroi thinks.

Muroi moves away from Meguru's jab, baiting the left kick into a step-in punch. Meguru throws the kick and then steps in. Muroi throws a right straight to counter the incoming punch, but Meguru drops into a tackle. Muroi goes down.

[Muroi is anticipating rather than being present in the moment. He's predicting what he thinks Meguru will do rather than attuning to what Meguru is actually doing. Since Muroi leans into the punch, Meguru can get underneath him and access his leg without obstructions.]

Muroi works to get up, but his knee fails him. Meguru jumps on his back.