Chapter 183 183: Sparring With The Boys 2
Crill really impressed Adam with his aggressive, fast hands. Adam clearly can't just overcome Crill with technique. If Adam wants a one-sided battle with Crill, then he will have to use his superior muscles to overwhelm Crill.
But that's not what Adam is trying to do right now. He has all the power and speed he needs. Right now, it's all about technique.
His eagle-like eyes start predicting where Crill's head would be rather than where it is right now before throwing the punch, landing every punch he throws right past Crill's defense.
Though both are getting hit, Crill is getting overwhelmed. He has thrown three times more punches than Adam, but Adam has managed to tag him way more.
Every punch Adam has thrown has made contact with his head. If these were real punches, Crill is very aware that he would be on the ground, knocked out cold right now.
But since this is a spar and he is not down yet, he decides to take it up another notch. He starts throwing kicks into the mix.
His fast kick makes contact with Adam's thigh, surprising Adam.
He was too focused on the punches that he didn't see the kick coming. This made him realize that he cannot let down his guard even for a second.
As for Crill, he was surprised by how hard Adam's thigh felt when he kicked it.
The spar continued, and Crill started using a variety of combinations, including punches, kicks, and knees, or a combination of two or three of the three, and it started working.
Crill started pushing Adam back, but Adam is a fast learner. Even though he is on the back foot right now, his defense is still solid. Now that he is not on the attack anymore, he can defend almost all of Crill's punches, which are not that hard to defend against.
Sure, they are fast, but they have no power behind them right now. Adam's powerful arms don't even feel most of the punches.
Right now, Adam is just observing, planning, thinking about how he would react to these furious attacks if they were happening in real life and there was intent to hurt or even kill behind these moves.
His eyes observed everything until he locked down the pattern.
No matter how fast or aggressive Crill's attacks are, they follow a pattern, a pattern that has been instilled into his muscle memory through years and years of training and pad work, and when you are kicking and punching so fast, you fall into these patterns on instinct, and Adam sees through it.
He sees an opening, right between a knee, then an uppercut. Adam blocks the uppercut with one hand while simultaneously attacking with a fast hook. He knows the uppercut is coming before Crill even throws it.
As Crill falls into his pattern and goes for an upper cut, his face meets Adam's fist; this time, there is a little more to Adam's punch.
Crill gets dazed, and he goes down.
Crill falls on his ass and is surprised by what just happened, he didn't even see that punch coming, it's as if Adam saw an opening and punched him through his blind spot... That's exactly what happened.
"Time!" Zydan speaks for the first time, and it's to call an end to the spar.
Though he has not said a word this entire time, he is looking at Adam with a surprised gaze. Zydan has been friends with Crill for years now. He has sparred with Crill multiple times throughout the years, so he knows how good Crill is.
So for Adam to drop him is a big deal, but it's not just that. Zydan saw how Adam managed to tag Crill multiple times throughout the spar.
If this were an official bout, Crill would have been knocked out cold by now. Adam is a light heavyweight, while Crill is a middleweight. The power advantage Adam has over Crill is immense.
If Adam was not pulling his punches, he might actually seriously hurt Crill. Thankfully, Adam seems to have a lot more control over his own body than most fighters.
This is very rare to see, and Adam, being someone who just started this, it's absurd how good Adam is at this.
"Shiiiit, that was amazing... I can't believe you are already this good. No wonder Coach Rangsan said you were ready. In fact, I think you could probably skip the whole amateur circle and throw hands with the pros," Crill says, getting back to his feet.
Though he feels a little dazed, it's not serious. He has taken way worse punches during spars.
It's just that the weight behind Adam's punch was too much for his body to take. Weight really does make a difference.
"I got lucky," Adam says, trying to stay humble.
"Sure, sure, now, let's see how you do against this guy. If you can beat him, then I might just give up on MMA, because what am I doing training for years, only for someone like you to waltz in and destroy her with just a month of training," Crill says, laughing.
His words sound as if he is jealous, but Adam can tell that Crill is just joking; he really doesn't seem to care that he got dropped in a spar by a guy who just started training a month or so.
'How can some people be this carefree, all the time?' Adam wonders and looks at Zydan, who looks at him as well.
"Don't think Zydan would be as easy as I. This guy's a beast, and you both are also in the same weight class.
Don't look down on him just because he says he has only eight years of wrestling experience; that's the time he was a professional wrestler. He has over eighteen years of wrestling experience; he has been doing this since the age of 10," Crill says, grinning, hoping to see Zydan teach Adam a lesson.
Even though Crill really doesn't have any hard feelings for getting dropped by Adam, he still wants to see the rookie suffer a loss, and who better than Zydan, a national-level wrestling champion.
Adam is surprised to hear Zydan has over 18 years of wrestling experience, but this is good. Adam can learn a lot from Zydan.
Rangsan has been drilling him about wrestling for a while now. He should be prepared for most of the things thrown at him. Now he is curious: how will he fare against a former national champion?
"I am ready when you are," Adam says, taking his corner.
"Wait, right now? Are you sure? Don't you want to rest?" Crill asks as it's not even been three minutes since their spar ended.
"I am fine," Adam says.
"Well, if you wish. Zydan, show him what you are made off," Crill says and steps away as Zydan takes his position.
Seeing that both Adam and Zydan are ready, Crill signals the start of the spar.
Since it's wrestling this time, both Adam and Zydan circle each other carefully, looking for an opening.
Just like before, Adam doesn't plan to use his strength one bit and focus on technique. Even someone like Connor struggles against Adam when Adam uses some of his strength.
Since this is just a spar, Adam wants to focus on his technique.
As they continue to measure each other, Zydan seems to have found his opening, so he lunges in fast. For a guy who is so wide and built, he moves very fast, probably because of those massive leg muscles.
Seeing this, Adam tries to counter by dropping down and catching Zydan by his neck, but to Adam's surprise, it turned out to be a fake.
Zydan switched, grabbed him by his torso, flipped, took control of Adam's back, and pinned his back to the ground.
It happened in the blink of an eye, and Adam lost. If Adam had allowed himself to use his strength, then maybe he could have resisted Zydan's attack, but this is all about technique, and Adam lost.
Like Crill said, Zydan turned out to be a beast when it comes to wrestling.
"Two points for Zydan," Crill says, grinning. He expected this. Zydan is a beast. It's his striking game that he lacks. If Zydan improved his striking game, he could easily rank among the best in the world.
Adam was definitely caught off guard, but he is also extremely impressed. His mind had already picked up what Zydan just did to him and immediately started coming up with ways to defend against it.
"Do you want to continue?" Crill asks.
"Sure, let's go again," Adam says as he gets back to his feet.
Crill is surprised. He thought Adam would give up, seeing how vast the skill difference is between them.
Zydan, too, is surprised, but he doesn't say anything. He just gets back to the position, and they start all over again.
Twenty seconds in, Adam finds himself on his back once again. Zydan used a different technique this time, so Adam didn't have an answer for it. He did put on a struggle, but Zydan is just too good.
They go back to sparring again, this time, Adam holds off Zydan for an entire minute, surprising both Zydan and Crill.
They literally see Adam improve right before their eyes. But Adam still loses.
This goes on for a while. Every time Zydan finds it harder and harder for him to take down Adam, his defense just keeps getting better with every spar.
Not long after, Zydan starts feeling tired, and Adam takes advantage of this and finally scores two points against Zydan.
The scorecard is 20-2.