Main eventing is a give and take. On one hand, I can rest and let the other fights of the night play out. I can see how the game is played on this sandy terrain. There's also this antsy feeling of wanting to get to the fight. There's a huge barbecue truck catering. The food these beachgoers are walking around with smells amazing. When I food coma, I food coma hard, so I don't eat heavily before my fights. But, if my jaw isn't broken or something when this is over I'm treating myself.

This card was one of the most hyped up of the year. The UFL's social media was buzzing. They announced 7 female influencers as special guests. A lot of the spectators were probably more excited about the chance to see baddies in swimwear than to watch the fights.

Whenever the event sells out, the pay for the victory is substantially more. As much as I'm an introvert, I've gotta love it when this many people are watching. The payday is nicer and the feeling of that many onlookers witnessing my victory is indescribable.

I tend to check what fans(and haters) are saying on the forums. As much as my last two performances changed the minds of many of my detractors, some people seem to think this particular fight is my first 'real' test.

My opponent is Aaron Travers An MMA fighter from New Mexico. His professional record is an impressive 8 - 1. Most of his wins were via TKO. A rush and scramble kind of guy. His first UFL fight came when an underground fighter had an open challenge. Tavers stunned the martial arts community with his acceptance.

He showed up and utterly dominated the guy. When he saw how much the UFL paid he seemed to appreciate it a little more. He's not new to decent paydays. He fights for Gladiator. The 2nd biggest MMA promotion in the U.S. But if you think about it. Fighting in the underground is a no-brainer.

Why fight an MMA guy who's trained for 8 months like you? Why do all the hassle things like cutting weight, paying a nutritionist, paying a coach, and worst of all? Paying taxes. When you can fight in the UFL, get matched up with some rando, and use your training to make it look easy and get paid to do so. His UFL record is 2-0.

He's a featherweight, this is my first fight with someone who doesn't outsize me by a significant margin. I think that fact alone makes me more confident. I'm not ignorant of the potential deep waters of this fight though.

His MMA experience means he's got submissions in his arsenal. If the fight ends up on the floor, I can end up choked out. The mistakes I made in my fight against Jean would NOT serve me well here. Overcommitting here means Travers can shoot for a takedown. Not exactly a strong set of circumstances for me. Much of my techniques require a full-throttle engagement. For this fight, I better keep my jabs quick, and my legs light.

As the fight starts, he extends his hand to fist-bump me. I'm reluctant as hell.

"What if he fakes me out and goes for a takedown or a suckered punch?"

But another thought quickly made its way across my mind.

"This honor shit will get fans on my side, maybe it'll finally win over anyone he still calls back to my first fight."

I reach out my hand. I try to make it look natural, as natural as I can without conveying the 5000 beats a second my heart is pumping at the moment.

We have a simple fist bump, he nods his head forward as we both step back. I suppose he genuinely just wanted to express the pre-fight respect. Hard to accept that fact. Always grew up with an assumption of the worst possible case with any stranger. Not even anything I adopted from training martial arts, just something I picked up from life.

The fight starts and he's immediately pressing forward, I expected it. Not surprised by this start, I charge forward as well. I start with a head bob backward, it wasn't in reaction to anything. More anticipation for his first potential swing. When I see he doesn't, I decide it's my turn then. I throw 3 jabs. Two with my left, and one with my right. He slips the first two, the third landed but not soundly. His left hand was up to an angle that protected him from the bulk of the damage.

He shrugs it off quickly, paying me back with a counter punch. His lands a lot more than mine did. I shift back, feet still in place. I use this shift back to add momentum to a hook. This one lands on his cheekbone. He pays me back right after with a hook. With this exchange only being the beginning, we're swinging non-stop. Our arms for a moment lose all function that isn't for the use of launching our bones at each other.

The crowd is absolutely loving it. That's that mainstream appeal. Displays of skill will never be appreciated in the same light as a medley of violence. What proceeded was something I'd yet to hear in one of my fights. What I'm used to are simple woos and ooos from significant strikes. The common "uh oh" the minute someone gets wobbled is nothing new as well. This fight though? This array of consecutive blows from me and my opponent garnered a righteous roar of cheers from the crowd. The spectators will always love a slugfest.

We throw punches for about a whole minute and a half. The pain is starting to build up. I've been resilient up to this point, some of his punches I slipped past. He's taken several punches too. Who's going to back away first? Shit, it's feeling like me. His jabs hurt like a truck after taking about 4 to the face. The absolute second I started to move my body to roll back, he broke the sequence.

The top half of his body lowered and he shot forward. His legs looked like that of an Olympic track runner at the starting line. His arms quickly wrapped around the top of my left leg. He's trying to take me to the ground.

I extend my right leg backward and use the kinetic force of the ground beneath us to keep us up on our feet. My take-down defense isn't anything special, just something I knew I'd need as a striker.

He tries to trip my free leg to secure the takedown. Since he's made himself close, I plan to get him off my leg and clinch him. Once he's in my in-fight zone, I'll either uppercut him or do a close-range oi zuki. I'd get the chance to do neither. This fucker used a gator role while still holding my leg. With his arms wrapped around my leg, he rotates his entire body with my leg in his grasp. The twist started from my leg and carried up to my torso. Flipping me off my feet and onto my side. I've been taken to the ground.

Slamming to the floor didn't hurt so much, the sand stung but it wasn't anything serious. I was from peachy though.

The twist made me feel like damn near popped out of the socket. This fired up the crowd more. Crowds don't like grappling, but they love when a guy gets slammed. Fight fans are fickle as shit.

He wasn't a wrestler in college like a lot of U.S.-based mixed martial artists. His base style is MMA. Given this, all his grappling skill is optimized for mixed rules fights. Working very well in this particular instance.

He passed my guard with no problem at all. What he's going to go for is a submission. Whether it's a choke or a limb's hold, the fight won't last long if he pulls it off. While passing my guard I assured myself my arm was extended far so he couldn't suppress it. The minute his head was high enough on my torso, I slammed my elbow down. Bone collided with bone.

One of my least favorite things from karate classes was breaking boards. I think we all as kids saw the "boards don't hit back" scene from Enter the Dragon. The perception was it was lame as hell. A party trick, nothing practical about it. Bruce Lee was cool because he kicked the shit out of the bad guys, not planks of wood.

Yet here I was, using the same form that we used to break boards. I wasn't using it to do away with miscellaneous materials, I was smashing my opponent's skull in. I slammed my elbow down about 5 times. The first two hit perfectly on target, they also had the most force behind them. I saw they had an effect though, his grip had loosened.

I began to sit up slightly and was able to prepare. I then firmly delivered another smashing elbow. That's the one that did the trick, he let go entirely and rolled back to recover. I was able to stand. The site of us both getting back to our feet brought out cheers from the crowd. As masterful as a grappling exchange is, crowds will always appreciate punches and kicks more. In the underground, jiu-jitsu or free-style grappler types aren't as popular as knockout artists.

Even if the UFL patrons were on fire, Tavers and I were exhausted. Our punch party earlier was enough to keep many down. Throw our trip to the ground in there along with me trying to put a dent in his skull and you have a recipe for two fighters who need a drink.

I think it's time I gave him that courtesy. I'll get him out of this fight so he can grab an ice pack and relax. I'll free him from this battle in the form of a loss.

We stood idle, then we started throwing feints and trying to tempt each other to take that first move. I went ahead to accept the honor of taking that first move. I sprinted forward, at full speed. Not my style typically, but I should take advantage of him still reeling from the elbow strikes.

Superman Punch

I jump into the air. I lead with my left knee. When I get to the peak of my jump, I switch gears. Thrusting my right arm down as I descend upon my opponent. The shift of energy from my left knee to my right fist gives my attack momentum unlike anything in the fight so far.

In most cases, you want to keep yourself grounded. You can't exert your force as much if you're not on the ground. With this strike, I used the kinetic energy from the earth to shoot me high. The fall back to earth is what will carry all the power. The awkward angle in which I drop is hard for him to guard. My punch lands clean. His head knocks down while his torso/neck are still where they are. It wobbles him enough to knock him off his feet. Travers is down. When he doesn't make an effort to get up after around 10 seconds, the officials have seen enough.

Fighting is a weird thing. I won the fight pretty easily. All things considered. But if I didn't use my elbow strikes, he could've used a submission technique. The fight would've been over at that moment. No matter how under control the fight is. That can change in an instant. Defeat happens the exact moment you fuck up. Victory is never guaranteed as long as your opponent is conscious.

Time to start studying grappling. Before I even get home, I use my phone to order 2 jiu-jitsu DVDs. They'll reach my home in 3 days. Those will be my days to heal from these wounds. Then, right back on it.

Crimson's underground fight record: 4 - 0.

Ranked match results:

Crimson: Rank 20 promoted to 15

Travers: Rank 15 demoted to 20