Page 10 of Undefeated

“I’m on a time crunch so I’ll make this quick. I overheard you telling your girl you were going to slap her when you got home. You’re not going to slap her again, ever. I have your driver’s license, so I know who you are, and where you live. I’m going to come check on her, and if I find out you’ve touched her, I’m going to beat you worse than the beating you get tonight,” I explained as I unzipped my hoodie.

As I pulled my hoodie over my shoulders, he took a swing.

As I leaned back, his punch went by my face. I dropped my hoodie to the side and grabbed his hair on each side of his head. Immediately and with tremendous force, I thrust the top of my head into his nose. I felt his nose crush under the force.

As I released his hair from my grasp, I swung a fairly strong uppercut toward his chin. The punch impacted his jaw, knocked his teeth together, and lifted him from his feet. Immediately, he fell into a pile on the sidewalk, unconscious.

You should hold your jaw tighter than that. Boxing 101.

I looked down at his lifeless body and shook my head. I reached down and got my hoodie from the sidewalk, and zipped it up. I stood over him as people watched and waited for him to become conscious.

As soon as he began to moan, I walked to my bike and fired it up.

Well, Paul, see you in a few weeks.

SHANE. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right. Be the best you can be at whatever it is you choose to do. Sweeping the floor or washing the car. Nothing should ever be done half assed. I strive to be the best at anything I ever decide to conquer.

Ever.

If I am attempting it, and I do not succeed, you can believe that I gave it my best effort, regardless of the outcome.

I choose to do very little, and be exceptional at what it is I decide to do. I would much rather be perceived as being great at a few things than be a failure at many. I have always been honest with myself and conscious of who I am, but that doesn’t always help me understand why I am the way I am.

On the outside, I am always kind, polite, and considerate of others. On the inside, demons reside. I don’t know why or what fuels the demons inside of me, but I am very aware of their existence. My consciousness of their need, necessity, and deep desire to be fed is what has caused me to choose boxing as my main outlet.

I keep the demons fed, and they allow me to live an otherwise peaceful life. Fulfilling their hunger allows my desire to live a tranquil life to be met. As long as I continue to fight, they’re fed. When they are fed, I am allowed.

Allowed to live.

I have been training in one way, shape, or form since I was eleven. From what my trainers have always told me, I have tremendous stamina. I can train, fight, or work out for hours on end without becoming exhausted. For this I am grateful.

I have never been in a fight that I didn’t feel was necessary. In the ring, people agree to fight me, knowing of my ability and my undefeated record. Boxing is a sport, and nothing more than a contest between two men – a contest of strength, stamina, willingness, and raw talent.

I have been in more street fights than I can count. Each time, I gave my opponent the ability to walk away. If they chose not to, I did what I had to do. In the ring or out, I have always stood the victor. The majority of my street fights were a result of me attempting to stand up for what I believed to be morally right.

I have never been afraid to stand up for someone that can’t stand up on their own, and there’s not a shortage of people that act in a manner contrary to what I believe to be moral. Line every one of them up – every one of them that abuses a woman, child, or the elderly, and I’ll beat them senseless one person at a time.

“So, what did you decide? Did you buy them?” Mike asked.

“No. I’m going to wait until the price goes down to something more affordable,” I answered as I set my sandwich back onto the plate.

I wiped the mayonnaise from my mouth with my napkin and looked down at my boots.

“Dude, those fuckers are raggedy. Shit, I can see your socks through the bottom of the sole,” he laughed.

“Yeah, but a hundred thirty bucks is a hundred thirty bucks,” I shrugged my shoulders as I picked the sandwich up.

“You’re one weird motherfucker, Dekkar. One weird motherfucker,” he shook his head and laughed.

Mike was my first fight when I arrived in Austin two years ago. Even though I knocked him out for the first time in his career, we had become the best of friends, and never discussed that particular fight with others. I had no desire to be disrespectful to him or to his talent as a boxer.

Any man, on any given day, can be beaten by any other man. When the time comes, I will be beaten. Until then, I will remain grateful for my successes.

“Why you go and say that, Ripp?” I mumbled, my mouth half full of sandwich.

“Well there are maybe a handful of people here that know you, because you’re a fucking hermit. But I do, remember? Your father, no disrespect, died in Afghanistan. Your grandfather died two years ago – right before you came here. You inherited everything from both of them. I don’t have any idea how much it was, but your father was a year from retirement. Your grandfather was retired. I’m just going to guess you have a hundred and thirty bucks for a new pair of boots,” he said over the top of his beer bottle as he drank what was left in the bottom.

“Well, but I hate to pay a hundred thirty if they’re gonna go on sale for a hundred - or maybe ninety. Shit, that’d buy me a lot of turkey sandwiches,” I responded, smiling.