by Carl Alves
Jake eyed Paulo Santos across the cage. He had met his opponent at the weigh-in, and the Brazilian seemed like a nice, affable fellow, but now he was staring at Jake with hatred in his eyes. Jake held his opponent’s stare. Santos’ new found contempt was hardly a surprise. Most fighters he knew were entirely different people inside the cage.
Joe was giving Jake last second instructions, but Jake tuned him out.
Jake walked to the center of the cage to meet his foe. As the referee gave them their final rules for the bout, Paulo Santos spat in his face.
Chaos erupted. The referee turned to reprimand Santos. Joe was screaming from the side of the cage, while his opponent’s corner men were shouting in Portuguese. Jake was too stunned to react.
Santos laughed and said, “You’re going down, Jakey. Going down hard.”
Jake froze. He had briefly spoken with Santos yesterday and could barely understand his broken English. Santos now spoke in perfect English and sounded just like Cotter.
Chapter XXXV
With trepidation, Jake walked to his corner. He wasn’t sure what kind of games Cotter was playing. With all the training and preparation he had gone through for this fight, he now felt unprepared. Cotter was wild and unpredictable, liable to do anything.
From his corner, Joe said, “He’s just trying to get in your head. Stick to the game plan.”
Jake shook his head. His trainer had no clue what was happening.
Jake glared at Cotter across the cage. If he wanted a fight, Jake was going to give him one.
When the bell rang to signal the start of the bout, Jake moved forward. Normally at the beginning of the fight, he would touch gloves with his opponent as a sign of respect. Not tonight.
Cotter rushed at him winging wild punches. Jake raised his hands to block while stepping to the side. Cotter landed a shot to the side of Jake’s head. The blow didn’t have enough force to do damage. Jake popped Cotter with two jabs followed by a right cross. Cotter threw an overhand right so telegraphed Jake could have avoided it with his eyes closed. He countered with a straight right that sent Cotter to the canvas.
Instead of pouncing on him, Jake let him get back to his feet, wanting to give him the beating of his life.
“You’re nothing, Jakey. I’m going to enjoy killing you, then I’m going to fuck your girlfriend.”
Jake responded by giving Cotter a thudding kick to the thigh that made him step back. Cotter threw a couple of sloppy punches. Jake ducked them and landed a solid combination to Cotter’s ribs, causing Cotter to wince.
“You like that?” Jake asked. “I’ve got more for you.”
Jake feinted with a punch and came back with a roundhouse kick to Cotter’s temple, which sent him crashing to the canvas once again.
Jake held his ground. He had never fought like this before inside of a cage, but this was not about winning or losing a match.
“Get up!” Jake shouted.
When Cotter got to his feet, he was laughing. The guy was just plain nuts. Maybe crossing over from the spirit world had made him lose his mind.
Cotter came forward and, instead of punching Jake, wrapped his arms around his waist. Before Jake could break free, Cotter head-butted him on the forehead.
Jake reeled backward, his orientation shot as his world spun around him. He dropped to his knees. In the background, Joe screamed at the referee. Jake looked up and found the referee reprimanding Cotter.
Fighting dizziness, Jake managed to stand.
The referee was holding Cotter’s wrists. “I don’t know what kind of crap you’re trying to pull here, but I won’t stand for it.” He led Cotter to each of the judges at cage side and instructed them to deduct one point from him. Like Cotter gave a rat’s ass about a point deduction.
The referee walked over to Jake. “Are you okay?”
Jake nodded.
“Let me have a doctor look at you,” the referee said.
Jake shook his head. “I’m fine. Let’s keep fighting.”
The referee took a long look at him. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Let’s start back up.”
The referee restarted the fight. Still woozy, Jake had to remind himself Cotter couldn’t hurt him conventionally since Jake’s fighting ability was superior, which meant Cotter was going to resort to dirty tactics.
Jake pressed the action landing a jab-hook combination, followed by a round house kick to Cotter’s ribs. Cotter threw a couple of punches Jake easily side-stepped. Jake landed a punch that cracked Cotter’s jaw, sending him to the canvas once again. This time, Jake followed him to the ground. Jake landed a couple of punches before transitioning to the mount position, pinning Cotter to the ground.
He hammered Cotter with punches and elbows as Cotter’s head thudded off the canvas. Jake continued to pound on him until Cotter reached up and thumbed Jake in the eye. Jake’s eye began to water, and his vision blurred. Seizing the advantage, Cotter got out from underneath Jake. The next thing Jake knew, a knee smashed the side of his head.
Immediately, the referee jumped in and stopped the action. “Eyepoke and an illegal knee to the head on a grounded opponent.” He brought Cotter to the neutral corner. “I warned you before about these illegal tactics. I’m not going to tolerate it.”
The people in Santos’ corner began shouting in Portuguese. Jake had no idea if they were disputing the referee’s claim or chastising their fighter.
Meanwhile, Joe seemed as if he was about to blow a gasket. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he grabbed the cage. “What the hell is this shit? What’s this son of a bitch trying to pull?”
Using the cage, Jake pulled himself to his feet. The knee to the head had dazed him, but the thumb to the eye had inflicted more damage. He couldn’t see at all out of his right eye. He could tell it was swelling shut. He staggered to his corner and stood in front of his trainer.
“I can’t believe this.” Spit flew from Joe’s mouth. “This son of a bitch’s a dirty fighter. A dirty fighter, I tell you.”
Jake couldn’t remember Joe ever being this enraged. He looked like he was ready to get inside of the cage and choke out Cotter.
“You okay, Jake?”
“I’ve felt better.”
Joe shook his head. “He can’t get away with this. The ref needs to disqualify this bastard.”
“No way.” This was his chance to dispose of Cotter. He couldn’t let the referee end this fight yet. He knew there was crazy risk involved, both to himself if Cotter tried to gain control of him, as well as to Paulo Santos, a poor kid out of Brazil just trying to make a living in a rough sport who didn’t ask for any of this, but he had to take the chance to eliminate Cotter.
Jake rushed over to the referee, who was conferring with a member of the New Jersey state athletic commission, discussing whether or not to disqualify Cotter.
Jake grabbed the referee’s wrist. “You can’t stop this fight.”
The referee took a close look at his busted eye. “You need to be seen by the doctor, son. Your eye is in bad shape.”
Jake shook his head. “I’m fine. Listen, don’t stop this fight. I know Santos has been committing fouls. Let me decide the outcome. I’m begging you. Don’t take this opportunity away from me.”
The referee led him to the ringside physician.
Jake cursed under his breath. He couldn’t tell how badly his eye looked externally, but he knew he could not see out of it. Under normal circumstances, he might be okay with a stoppage, but not tonight. Not against Cotter.
The ringside physician opened his right eye and shone a light in it. “Can you see?”
Jake knew that if he told the physician that he couldn’t see, the referee would stop the fight. No questions asked. He couldn’t allow that to happen. “No problems. The eye isn’t bothering me at all.”
The physician furrowed his brow. “Your eye can’t open unless I force it to open. How can you see from it?”
“I can see with my other eye. My visi
on isn’t great in my right eye anyway. My left eye is my good eye.”
The physician continued to examine his damaged eye. “I’m going to let you go for now, but I’m going to take another close look at the end of the round. If I feel the damage is too severe, then I’m stopping the fight.”
“Yeah, no problem.” That gave him a couple of minutes to put a hurting on Cotter.
After conferring with the physician, the referee brought Jake and Cotter back to the center of the cage. He gave Cotter a stern look. “I won’t tolerate another violation of the rules. You do anything else, and I’ll disqualify you, and the commission will fine you. Do you understand?”
“Oh, yeah,” Cotter said. “I understand perfectly.”
The referee gave the signal to resume the match.
“Did you like that?” Cotter asked.
Jake landed two jabs and an inside leg kick. “I liked it just fine.”
“I got some more tricks in my bag.”
“So do I.” Jake staggered his opponent with a front kick to his chin. He backed Cotter against the cage and grabbed the back of his neck in a Thai clinch. He landed knee after knee to Cotter’s body and face, shattering Cotter’s nose. Blood spurted down his face and onto his chest. He let go of Cotter, took a step back and landed a spinning back fist that sent Cotter sprawling to the canvas. The crowd was in a fever pitch, cheers resonating from the arena.
Amazingly, Cotter got up. Jake stared in amazement through his one good eye. The other eye was closed shut, rendering it useless. He had been landing just about every strike in his arsenal against Cotter, but nothing stopped him. For all his faults, Jake had to credit him for being a tough son of a bitch.
Jake pressed forward with a left, right combination to the head and a crescent kick that cracked Cotter’s jaw, sending his mouth piece flying across the cage. Yet, he still stood. Cotter attempted another punch, which Jake ducked. He leaned inward, lowered his shoulder and executed a judo throw, slamming Cotter to the canvas.
From side control, Jake landed knees to Cotter’s ribs, rearing back and putting all of his weight behind them. Cotter groaned, but Jake would not relent. He wanted to shatter Cotter’s ribs. He continued to land knees, trying to make each strike more devastating than the previous one. The referee loomed over them. He looked as if he was ready to stop the fight.
Before the referee could stop the fight, the bell sounded signifying the end of the round. Amazingly, Cotter got to his feet and started to laugh. What the hell was wrong with the guy? Jake had unleashed hellfire on him, and he thought it was funny.
Jake sat on his stool in his corner, staring at Cotter on the other side of the cage. Jake might have one eye swollen shut, but Cotter was a mess. Blood flowed from his nose, and he had a gash above his left eye. His face looked puffy and both eyes were starting to discolor.
Joe applied an endswell to Jake’s eye to keep the swelling down. Jake cringed as his trainer pressed hard with the endswell.
“You’re doing great out there, Jake. This guy fights dirty, but you’re landing everything you want on him. Keep up the pressure. You have some opportunities on the ground that you’re passing up. Take him to the ground and pound him out.”
The ringside physician came to look at Jake’s eye. Jake tried to act as if it wasn’t bothering him, but it was hard with the doctor poking around it. “How’s your vision?”
“Perfect,” Jake said. “Never better.”
“Smart ass,” the doctor muttered under his breath.
“Jake, listen to me,” Joe said. “I want you take him down. Go for the double leg.”
Jake shook his head. “The game plan is out the window.”
“What are you talking about?” Joe asked.
“That’s not Paulo Santos out there.”
Joe scowled. “What do you mean that ain’t Paulo Santos?”
Jake looked into his trainer’s eyes. “I can’t explain it to you, but that’s not Santos. He’s someone else.”
Joe frowned. “Have you lost your marbles?”
This was the reason he couldn’t tell his trainer about Cotter. Joe was too firmly rooted in reality to believe it. “Never mind.”
Jake had a sudden thought. What if he rendered Cotter unconscious? Would that be enough to drive Cotter back to where he came from?
The bell sounded for the start of the second round. It was a three round fight, with each round five minutes long. Five minutes would give Jake plenty of time to execute his new plan.
Jake met Cotter at the center of the cage.
“I see you’re still standing,” Jake said.
Cotter nodded. “You didn’t do shit to me. I got more tricks in store for you. I’m going to mess you up good.”
Cotter came out swinging, punches Jake easily avoided.
“First, you have to catch me,” Jake said.
Cotter missed with another wild punch. This time Jake popped him with a jab and a low leg kick, prompting Cotter to throw more punches. Jake got caught by one of those punches, which he shrugged off. He jabbed his way inside and wrapped his arms around Cotter’s neck in a Thai clinch. Once inside the clinch, Jake drove repeated knees into his opponent’s abdomen, eliciting a grunt from Cotter. Jake spun around and took Cotter’s back. He wrapped his arms around Cotter’s waist and locked his hands together. Wrenching Cotter off the ground, he slammed him to the mat with a German suplex. Cotter’s back, neck, and head crashed onto the canvas with a thud. The crowd roared in appreciation.
Cotter was now underneath him, and Jake still had his arms wrapped around Cotter’s waist. He punched the side of Cotter’s face, then let go of his opponent’s back, Jake spun around and drove him to the canvas, bringing his right hip down on Cotter’s shoulder. Jake then reached his right hand between Cotter’s head and shoulder and gripped his own triceps on the other side of Cotter’s body. He triangled his arm and gripped high onto Cotter’s back, forcing his left bicep into his opponent’s neck. He dropped to his right hip while kicking his right leg under his left. Using the arm triangle grip, Jake torqued his upper body to the left, forcing his opponent to roll, completing the anaconda choke.
Cotter probably had no concept of what was happening, although he undoubtedly was gasping for breath. Cotter wouldn’t be tapping out even though he was losing consciousness. Jake could only hope the referee would not stop the fight too soon. He held onto his grip, further sinking in his choke. The referee hovered closely over him. Underneath him, Cotter went limp. The referee reached for Cotter’s hand and raised it but got no response. The ref called for the end of the fight and told Jake to release his choke, but Jake held on. He had to make sure Cotter was unconscious.
When the ref pulled him off, Jake finally let go of the choke. He got to his feet and stared down at Cotter, who was out cold.
The ref got in Jake’s face. “When I tell you to break, you break. You’re lucky I don’t disqualify you, except your opponent did worse shit than you did in this fight.”
Sportsmanship and rules didn’t apply when dealing with Cotter.
Joe ran over and lifted him off the floor with a big bear hug. “Great job, Jake. You did it. You took all the crap he was giving you and still crushed him. Nice anaconda there.”
Jake did not respond. He continued to stare at Cotter.
“What’s wrong with you?” Joe asked. “That was the biggest victory of your career. Raise your hands. Show some emotion.”
Half-heartedly, Jake raised his arms. He was trying to figure out if the man he was looking at was Cotter or Paulo Santos. He had a glassy-eyed look, which could mean it was Santos returning to the land of the living, or it could be Cotter reacting to having been choked unconscious.
As the announcer asked him questions in the post-fight interview, Jake gave short answers, barely paying attention to what the announcer was asking. All the while, his eyes followed his opponent as he left the cage.
Chapter XXXVI
Back at Jake’s locker room, J
une and Kenna were waiting for him.
Upon seeing him, June cringed. She reached for his badly bruised eye. “What was going on out there? The other guy, he was like an animal.”
“It was Cotter,” Jake said.
Kenna’s eyes went wide. “What?”
Jake glanced at Joe, making sure he was out of earshot. “Yeah, it was Cotter inside the guy’s body. That’s why he was fighting so out of control.”
“How do you know it was him?” June asked.
“After he spit in my face, he told me as much. Trust me. It was Cotter.”
“Well, now what?” June asked.
“I don’t know. My plan was to choke him out and force him to leave his body and return to where he came from.”
“What makes you think that would work?” Kenna asked.
Jake shrugged. “It seemed like a good plan at the time. I was also concerned that in those close quarters, he might take control of my body. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Maybe,” June said. “I realize this may be a bad time, but Lawrence is throwing you an after-party to celebrate your victory. Most of our MMA class is going to be there. If you’re not feeling up to it, I can tell them to cancel.”
Jake waved his hand. “I’ll take Kenna home and make an appearance.”
“You sure?” June asked. “We can do something low-key instead.”
Jake winked. “Maybe later.” He put his arm around Kenna’s shoulder. “How about you guys watch the rest of the show? I have something I need to take care of, then I’ll come and get you.”
“You sure you’re okay?” Kenna asked. “You don’t look so hot. Maybe you should go to a hospital.”
“The physician at cage side looked at my eye at the end of the fight. I’ll be all right. I can always get it checked out tomorrow. Right now, I need to take care of something. Okay?”
“Sure,” Kenna said.
