Advance essay #1 Friends First Rivals Later By:Keyonne Johnson
Ok! Left, right, left, right, uppercut. As I am getting ready for my very first match in the ring, I look over at the edge of the ring and began to noticed its design. This ring is surrounded in sleek, black padding on the sides and cold, metal, medium sized chains in the middle of every square on every one of the sides. The flexible, yet compressed mat will soon have painful shades of red blood from punches and kicks to come as well as sweat from all of the massive bodies that have spent countless hours in the ring. “Are you ready to go champ!” My coach proudly said, “you have been practicing for this for a very long time, so get up there and win this thing!” “Thanks coach, do you really think I can win this fight” I replied “ Hell yeah, he answered enthusiastically. “ Just because he has more experience than you, does not mean a thing. You worked just as hard as he did and winning this fight will show you that you have what it takes to be the best fighter in the world.” After that fiery speech he gave, my coach really got my blood boiling and I became filled with a force of adrenaline that forced me to put my heart and soul into this fight! The biggest moment of my life had finally come and I was ready to fight in my very first MMA match, but it was not just against anyone, it was against someone I had considered to be like a brother. In a weird way, this standoff was also a confrontation against myself and my own set of skills, that up until now had not yet been tested.
Even at this point, my confidence in myself still lagged and I still did not have enough courage to convince myself that I had worked just as hard, if not harder, than my opponent did to get to where I was at that moment. Where I am, at this point, is in this ring right in front of him. The irony was clear that I was indeed fighting myself, testing my own skills, but also fighting against my best friend and rival. When our MMA careers started, he was overwhelmingly better than me, but as time went on he started to lose more bouts than I did and I could tell that his daily involvement in mixed martial arts was beginning to take a toll on him. But that was all in my head and I couldn’t lose sight of the fact that I have to continue to focus on what is in front of me at this moment. As we tentatively entered the ring, we stand across from each other and at first we act like we are not trying to hurt each other, because after all we have been friends since kindergarten. We try not to stare angrily at each other because we were friends long before we were enemies in the ring. The referee pulls us up to him and says, “ I want a good, clean fight, no elbows, no donkey kicks, and when I pull one of you back, you better back up or you will forfeit the match, am I clear?” Before we begin, we both shook our heads to confirm we fully understood the referees rules and then the referee says “touch gloves.” Ignoring the referees command, we instead do our little handshake that we had become accustomed to over the years of our friendship.
In this moment, we both knew that one of us would be victorious and win the match and that even when the match was over and the winner was given the belt, there would be no doubt that we would still have each other’s back no matter what the situation was outside the ring. The referee laughs then we go to our corners and the bell ring and the match starts when...
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