Fighter's Brew – S2: E6 (Audio + LMA Transcript) (Patreon)

• Fighter's Brew

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

"In the red corner, from Fighter's Brew, Yudai Kitamura!" the announcer exclaims. "In the blue corner, from Kogure Dojo, Takashi Yamabuki!"

Everyone from Fighter's Brew has their eyes on this match.

The match begins.

Yudai makes the first move. He lands a low kick and circles to his left. He's trying to avoid Takashi's power shots.

Yudai steps in with a jab into a left body blow.

Takashi blocks.

"He managed to set the pace against Yamabuki," says Take.

Tsukisada-sensei grins.

Yudai narrowly misses being kicked on his injured arm.

Yudai keeps jabbing while circling to his left.

So far, Takashi has been ineffective.

"There it is," Yudai thinks.

Takashi switches to the sanchin stance. Yudai steps in, but Takashi throws a defensive front kick. It can't reach Yudai.

"I knew it," Yudai thinks. "His left kick is short."

Yudai steps in but is almost caught with a lunging right punch. Yudai is out of position. Takashi footsweeps him.

[Something we mention a lot is outside foot position. With the outside foot position, Takashi can topple Yudai by pushing the bottom lever one way and the top lever the other way.]

Yudai slowly gets up.

"He's not only muay Thai," Tsukisada-sensei says. "In karate, there is no such thing as a dominant stance. A karate fighter can fight just as comfortably from either stance."

Takashi presses forward while switching stances and throwing offense from both sides. A kick lands on Yudai's injured arm. Takashi notices how Yudai reacts.

"Karate was originally conceived for one versus many," Tsukisada-sensei tells his students. "Who has time to maintain a stance when opponents are coming at you from all sides? You defend and defeat with both sides. There is no difference."

"Don't back down, Yudai!" Furuya yells. "Calm down and circle left!"

"His legs will line up when he moves forward," Yudai thinks. "If I watch his movements, I can tackle him."

Takashi presses forward with attacks. Yudai is having a hard time predicting his movements.

"Trust your left to get in, Yudai!" Furuya shouts. "You won't win unless you take him down!"

Yudai presses forward and exchanges blows to retake the pace.

"Since Yudai-kun can't use his right," Maria says, "he already knows when to expect the left."

Takashi counters Yudai's left hook to the body with a right hook to the face.

[The side you're attacking with is also open to being attacked. Since Yudai's left arm is punching, it's unavailable to block. A general rule is to counter from the same side you were attacked. Takashi was attacked to his right, and he countered with his right.]

Yudai is down. The count begins.

"This is bad," Furuya thinks. "Takashi doesn't need to rely on his kick. He can finish an injured Yudai also with his punches."

"No, he's not gonna go for punches," Meguru says.

"His kick, Yudai!" Meguru yells. "He's going to kick next!"

Maria, Furuya, Takashi, and Tsukisada-sensei are all stunned.

"Fight!" the ref calls.

"I know that," Yudai thinks. "He's dying to kick my right arm. I can see it in his eyes. But if I back off, I can draw out his attack."

Takashi comes forward again and throws a left kick to the body. Yudai lifts his injured arm but takes a kick to his liver. He's hurt but still wraps the leg with his injured arm and commits to a single-leg tackle.

"He took a blow to his liver to grab the leg," Momoko says.

[There's a safe way to catch a kick from this position. Yudai would have to slide away from the kick to reduce the impact before catching it.]

Yudai knows if he loses the leg, Takashi might get to his back and choke him. Takashi pushes Yudai's head down and gets up, but Yudai persists and clings to his waist.

Yudai loosens his grip. Takashi turns around to face him, which is what Yudai is waiting for as he picks Takashi up for a throw and slams him to the ground.

"Yes!" Furuya and Urasawa scream.

[While clinging to his back, a wrestler could return Takashi to the mat. But since Yudai's background is in judo, he's much better when facing his opponent. By turning into Yudai, Takashi loaded himself onto his hip, making the throw academic.]

Yudai racks up points for the takedown and the pin. Yudai is hurting and is looking for a finish. His arm is too hurt to keep Takashi down.

He goes for a double wristlock. Takashi tries to roll to his feet. Yudai spins for an armbar and breaks Takashi's grip. But Takashi spins through, surprising Yudai. Yudai spins with him for a belly-down armbar. Takashi jumps over Yudai to escape. They stand back up.

[Yudai was 90% to the finish but missed some key fundamental details. If he had stepped his left leg over Takashi, he could have used that leg to pin him to the ground. There was no downward pressure holding Takashi in place. He also should have grabbed Takashi's left leg with his left arm, which would have prevented Takashi from turning away and escaping. Yudai was relying on speed while exposing lots of gaps.]

Takashi's grappling has improved.

50 seconds are left.

"What's the score, Take-san?" Meguru asks.

"If I had to guess, they're tied 20 to 20. If Yudai can get at least one more takedown, he can win."

The ref stops the fight so that both fighters can fix their headgear.

"Why didn't Sempai go for a different type of pin to keep him down?" Momoko asks Maria.

"Yudai-kun may be skillful, but he's not one to improvise. He only trusts the moves he's put hours of practice into. That's why he went for the armbar."

Yudai smiles at Takashi. "You're strong," he thinks. "Why are we even doing MMA? What do we hope to do by getting stronger?"

They have both gained each other's respect.

The fight resumes.

"I've wondered about something for a while," Maria says to Momoko. "Fighters all take pride in their specialty moves, but sometimes that backfires on them. Momoko-chan, when Yudai-kun did judo, even if he knew it wouldn't work, was he the type to bet it all on his tried and true moves?"

"The armbar didn't work," Yudai thinks. "But I still have something left."

"He only got proficient at striking recently," Maria says. "But with only 50 seconds left, he might go for a right straight."

Takashi lands a low kick, and Yudai's leg buckles.

[Like a good technique, a good block is about creating a sound structure without gaps. Just as Yuda's armbar had holes in its structure, so did Yudai's block for the kick. A block should be like a brick wall facing a flood. It's only good insofar as it meets the current and is tall enough to block the flow of water. The point of the shin guard is to protect your leg. The shin guard is the brick wall. But the wall wasn't facing the kick and wasn't high enough to meet Takashi's shin. Blocking a leg kick is not simply about lifting your leg; it's about creating a sound structure with your body to meet the impact. A sound block doesn't just block the blow but also prevents you from being knocked out of position.]

"That low kick from the first round is coming back to bite me," he thinks. "My right flank, too. I probably broke a rib or two. The hell am I doing with my life? Why did I pick shooto just to get my ass kicked."

Yudai smiles, then lunges with a left hook.

Years back, at a hospital, "For a second, our eyes met," Yudai remembers. "Me and the guy who'd been paralyzed from the neck down by my brother's throw. The meeting had been set up by someone from the National Association of Crime Victims and Surviving Families. But all I could hear from outside the door was his parents berating my brother."

"I'd heard all sorts of rumors. That he and my brother never got along. That the guy had it out for my brother even more after he was chosen as a junior training fighter."

"And that because there was no instructor at the time, my brother decided to use a back throw he didn't normally use."

"When the boy's family brought charges against the school and the prefecture, they received a lot of harassment from the community. They sent hate mail and even wrote defamatory posts about him online. The family thought we were behind it, but we weren't. In the end, my brother's judo career was finished. He'll have to bear that cross for the rest of his life. I guess that's why he wanted to meet the family. But this has affected me, too. The mood throughout the school was that the perpetrator's brother shouldn't keep doing judo."

"But I chose to ignore it entirely. But it was only a matter of time. In the end, I was forced to change schools. I'd been erased, too."

"I know it was wrong to blame him, but my relationship with my brother went downhill after that."

"But with MMA, I felt like I found it. Something new to devote myself to. I can become a shooto champion, then go to the States. I'll get strong and famous. And then I'll make everyone who tried to erase me acknowledge me."

Whoosh!

Yudai swings and misses with the left hook.

"30 seconds left!" yells Urasawa.

Momoko looks on. Worried. "Truth be told," she thinks, "Sempai did have allies in the club. But we were the youngest members of the club and didn't have much sway. Sempai was also hard to get along with. But now he's found MMA and a new team. People that care about him. For everyone who wasn't there for him at the judo club, this time, I will be there for him."

Boom!

Yudai is pushed back with a right teep from Takashi.

"Dammit!" Yudai thinks. "What am I doing? It wasn't supposed to be like this. So why is it I feel like, if I don't pull out all the stops and throw everything I've got at this guy, I won't be satisfied?!"

Yudai throws the right straight. His elbow cracks. Yudai winces.

[Going back to countering from the same side you're being attacked, Yudai missed with his right, leaving himself open for Takashi's left uppercut. Look at their posture. Takashi is in a sound posture, whereas Yudai is bent over. A bent-over structure is easy to topple.]

Takashi uses that lapse in concentration to land his patented uppercut, followed by the left high kick. All Yudai can do is watch it come without the ability to defend himself. He's dazed and can't move his right arm to block.

"What the hell," Yudai thinks. "God dammit. I don't want to lose. But what am I so afraid to lose?"

Yudai is knocked to the mat. The ref immediately stops the fight. Furuya and Urasawa run to check on their pupil.

Momoko stands to see if Yudai is alright.

Takashi is declared the winner.

Yudai is carried away on a stretcher.

Furuya's mind is in a fog.

"I'll take Yudai to the hospital," Urasawa tells him. "You stay here as Meguru's second."

Furuya isn't listening.

"Hey, Kenichiro!"

Furuya looks up. Urasawa hands him a towel. "This is your job," he tells him.

Furuya thinks hard about his role as a coach.

"Let's go, Meguru!" Furuya says.

"Okay!" Meguru answers back.

"Takeshi, be my second," Furuya tells him.

"Got it," Take replies.

Furuya feels Maria's icy glare.

"Looks like it'll be me and Yamabuki in the finals," Kagaya tells his teammate.

"Match 52, lightweight division. Semi-finals." The announcer says. "In the red corner, from Fighter's Brew, Meguru Takayanagi! In the blue corner, from Burnish, Takeshi Kagaya!"