Читать книгу The Fighter Within. Everyone Has A Fight-Insights into the Minds and Souls of True Champions онлайн

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I faintly heard my corner yelling in the background, through my barotrauma, better known as ear popping. My heart rate was vividly audible through my muffed hearing as it raced like a machine gun spraying bullets at the range, my skin wet and clammy with sweat, and my mind pulled in a multitude of directions. I thought to myself, “What are they saying?”

My corner yelled again, “Hit him harder, Chris! Hit him harder!”

I started throwing faster combinations, landing a few hard shots, but my opponent, at least twenty pounds heavier than I, was experienced and thus able to cut the ring much better than me. He ended his combinations with hard-hitting kicks. I was not fast enough to check them, so I absorbed each shot from his sculpted, tree-trunk legs.

The bell rang to signify the end of the round; “Could it have been that quick?” Moments felt like an eternity in the fight, but once the round ended, it felt like we had just started exchanging. It was an eerie feeling; I had lost all track of time and place. If not for the sixteen-ounce pillows on my hands, I would have pinched myself just to check if this was all part of a surreal dream.