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. Changgong Lee, Getting Ready for His Debut! <4>
After suffering for all of the 30 minutes, sprawled out onto the floor after his stretching. Jungtae took off his sweaty shirt and sat down on the floor.
“You should have taken it a bit easy.”
Dongsub spoke those meek words after having said Changgong had to experience the dangers of grappling.
“I’d like to take it easy, too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know what he’s been eating, but his energy is nothing to laugh at. His reflexes are so fast that if I don’t go in all the way, he somehow gets his body out.”
“

It’s that bad?”
“To put it simply, he has the strength of Daeseung, and the reaction speed of Doyoon. And did you see his joints?”
“What’s wrong with his joints?”
“I thought he was Dhalsim.”
“Dhalsim? Yoga fire from the Street Fighter?”
“He’s really flexible. Once he gets the knack for it, he’ll be able to get out of any of the joint skills. God, my joints hurt.”
Jungtae massaged his arm as he said that.
The Daeseung that Jungtae spoke about was 192 cm tall, and a formidable light heavyweight fighter who usually kept his weight around 110 kgs.
And Doyoon was a 174 cm tall featherweight class fighter at 72 kgs.
That just couldn’t be possible.
The power of a heavyweight and the speed of a featherweight.
Jungtae must have been exaggerating a little, but it was still surprising. Changgong was still growing so his muscles hadn’t fully taken there place, yet he was still making it difficult for a veteran grappler. He wasn’t a normal guy.
“That guy’s going to make it.”
“He’s going to make it big.”
At that moment, Kiryong came into the gym.
“Hello!”
Everyone bowed their heads and greeted him.
A young man followed behind Kiryong, and Changgong, surprised when he noticed him, ran to Dongsub.
“Isn’t that the high school fighter Hwanseong Jung?”
“Yeah. He’s the master’s son.”
“Son?”
Changgong was surprised once again as he looked back at Hwanseong.
Changgong, who had watched mix martial arts matches on TV occasionally, knew of Hwanseong before he got into MMA.
The genius fighter who debuted at the X-1 at age 18 and had a record of 4 wins by TKO out of 4 matches. He even had an interview on a major channel even in this country that had relatively little interest in martial arts.
That person was the master’s son.
Now that he looked at them, those emotionless faces did look a little similar.
“But why’s he here? Isn’t he at the Gangnam chain?”
Jungtae asked.
“He came because he has something to do.”
Dongsub answered without really answering.
“Kiddo, where are you?”
Kiryong spoke.
There was only one person Kiryong called kiddo. Changgong quickly ran over.
“I’m here!”
Kiryong nodded and looked at Hwanseong.
“This is the 18 year old, our youngest, who’s debuting soon. This is your sparring opponent, Hwanseong.”
“Oh, yes. Hello, nice to

 sparring?”
“Yes, sparring. We have to prepare for your match.”
“This suddenly

”
“The more sparring you do the better. He’s one weight class below you, but right now you guys are at similar weights and it should be a good match.”
What kind of crazy situation is this?
He was randomly sparring the genius fighter he had only seen on TV.
Hwanseong looked Changgong over and spoke.
“You have a good frame.”
“Thank you.”
“I heard your base is boxing. You hit?”
“I don’t really

”
“You’ll have to hit well. If you don’t want to die.”
“Excuse me?”
“I won’t go easy on you because you’re a beginner. Unless you want to become a retard, you better pull yourself together.”
“

”
“Not that anything will change even if I tell you to.”
It felt chilly.
It felt like he just got stabbed in the chest

like shit it did. He was quickly put off by Hwanseong.
He thought he was a pretty nice guy since he smiled easily during the interviews, but he was actually this kind of bastard, huh.
‘He’s pissing me off.’
And this bastard’s only a year older than me.
A weird mental battle went on between Changgong and Hwanseong.
Kiryong laughed to himself.
The atmosphere was already burning up after putting these to hot-headed guys together. Well, maybe it was only natural since they were at the age where they fought from a single eye contact.
“Hwanseong, go warm up. Kiddo, you rest. You guys will spar in 30 minutes.”
Kiryong finished what he had to say and went into the office. Hwanseong glared at Changgong till the end and followed Kiryong into the office.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Changgong complained to Dongsub.
“The master dragged him all the way here to spar with you. He’s a rising star, yet he’s dragged out here because of a rookie who hasn’t even debuted yet. It’s understandable for him to be annoyed.”
“

I never asked him to spar with me.”
“That’s how much the master is expecting out of you. Think of it as a good learning experience.”
“Learn, my ass. What would he know?”
“Do you think you can win?”
“You don’t know till you try.”
“Then try, if you can.”
His exclusive trainer was being sarcastic instead of encouraging him.
Of course, he was going to win.
He had never lost a fight. He may be older than him, but a fight was a fight.
He was thankful for him coming all the way out here, but Changgong couldn’t just let the talk about dying or whatever go.
Dongsub smirked as he watched Changgong stretch his neck side to side.
Was he full of confidence, or was did he just know no fear?
After warming up for some time, Changgong got into the Octagon first and started shadow boxing.
He was used to the octagon now. It was thanks to the light spars he had with the other fighters after registering as an athlete.
Hwanseong slowly creeped out of the office with only 1 minute until the agreed time.
He didn’t have a drop of sweat on him. His hair was flattened, too. As if he just woke up.
“This motherfu

”
Changgong cursed to himself.
So he’s just going to blatantly look down on me, I see. And here I am working up a sweat.
Hwanseong carelessly put on his gloves and came into the octagon. Hyukchan refereed as Changgong and Hwanseong faced each other.
Changgong’s current profile was a height of 183 cm, weight of 79 kg, and a reach (arm span) of 187 cm.
Changgong and Hwanseong were the exact same height. However, Hwanseong was about 2 kgs lighter, with reach longer by 2 cm.
There build was fairly similar so it would be difficult to say one had an advantage over the other physically.
“Okay, to your corners.”
The two went to their respective corners.
Changgong took deep breaths, lighting up his eyes.
‘Let’s see just how good the genius high school fighter is.’
“Fight!”
Ring! The bell rang.
“Hyah!”
Changgong let out a kihab as he quickly went towards the center of the octagon.
5. Changgong VS Hwanseong <1>
“Who do you think will win? Let’s bet a meal.”
“Is there even a bet? Of course it’ll be Hwanseong.”
“Then, whether or not he lasts a round. How about that?”
“I say he doesn’t.”
“You bastard. You keep betting on the advantageous side.”
The fighters mumbled amongst themselves. As they didn’t bother to lower their voices, Changgong could clearly hear what they were saying.
‘Well, aren’t they enjoying this.’
They made it seem like he was put up against Mike Tyson or something. He may be a rising star, but he was still just a high schooler who knew how to use his fists in this small little country.
It was as he thought that while he closed the distance between them.
Smack, smack!
He got hit in the face with a one-two punch.
Changgong quickly put some distance between them.
‘What

!’
What just happened?
It wasn’t a distance for a punch to get in.
What was that?
As Changgong was still confused, Hwanseong closed the distance. Changgong side stepped around the ring to keep his distance.
Hwanseong used his instep to quickly get in another one-two and a high kick. Changgong hurriedly retreated to the ends after barely guarding the attack.
“Man, Hwanseong is going all out from the beginning.”
“Take it easy Hwanseong! Our rookie’s going to get hurt!”
The senior fighters raised their voices in concern.
“

”
Dongsub, however, simply had his arms crossed as he watched the match.
Their reaches and build were similar. Yet, Changgong was busy blocking and couldn’t get one punch out.
On top of that, Changgong’s strong point was punching, and objectively speaking, Changgong’s punching technique was better.
But strangely, Hwanseong was dominating Changgong with his punches.
‘It’s a good thing he had this match with Hwanseong.’
In MMA, there were occasionally times when fighters with a boxing background actually lost in punches.
There was no special reason. They already lost confidence because of the added kicks and tackles, but the pattern of punching was different, too.
The punches from the front leg.
While it may have looked clumsy when Jungtae used it, those same punches from a skilled striker could create this kind of situation.
Dongsub purposely hadn’t told Changgong about this.
Eyes that were used to boxing had to be adjusted of one’s own accord. If Changgong couldn’t get through this dilemma, he wouldn’t be able to measure the distance accurately and would have a hard time for a while.
Thwack, thwack! Thwack!
Another one of Hwanseong’s one-two punch got in, followed by a hook. It had hit Changgong’s guard, but it was obvious that Changgong was still flustered.
“The kiddo’s struggling.”
Kiryong spoke.
“It’s only natural.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to tell him?”
“I thought it would be better not to.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s a hard habit to break. It’ll help Changgong to realize it from being beat up.”
“

That’s good, too.”
Kiryong slowly nodded his head in satisfaction.
It would be difficult to hold his tongue as a trainer. But for the athlete to grow, this type of learning was necessary.
Dongsub had grown to be a fine trainer with Changgong as his charge.
“Raise him well. The growth of the athlete depends on the trainer.”
“I will be sure to keep that in mind.”
It was then.
Slam!
It was the sound of someone hitting the floor.
“Woah!”
The coaches and athletes exclaimed.
Dongsub and Kiryong turned their eyes back to the octagon.
One guy was standing while the other was lying on the floor.
The one on the floor was Hwanseong.
‘This asshole

’
Hwanseong fought off Changgong while lying on the floor.
Changgong could only nudge Hwanseong’s calves with low kicks, unable to dive into his space.
Everyone was surprised.
Hwanseong had never been downed by hits ever since his debut. The coaches who had been betting on whether Changgong would last a round were not looking down on Changgong.
But how did the situation turn like this?
A counter punch had turned the tide.
Hwanseong continued to annoy Changgong with his irregular punches and kicks all the way to a corner. And right when Changgong’s back touched the fence, he stretched out a right hand straight.
Boxers move their torso in a weave or sway out of habit when pushed into a corner. That was just the right thing to do.
But obviously, swaying was impossible in the fenced off octagon.
Hwanseong had taken that into consideration when he steered Changgong into the cage to throw a strong punch.
But at that moment, Changgong, who had up until this moment been getting beaten up, touched Hwanseong’s jaw with a left jab.
He hadn’t even hit him that hard. He really just tapped him.
Hwanseong fell before he could stretch his arm to the hit point because of that jab, and now here they were in this situation.
However, nothing followed.
‘You

 you really don’t know what you’re doing.’
Changgong could do nothing once his opponent fell to the floor.
If his opponent was at least groggy, he could dive in and pound down on him, but if he was as aware as Hwanseong was now, he would lose against grappling.
“Stand up!”
Hyukchan called for a stand. Hwanseong stood up and the two went back it.
There was no longer any sounds of concern or whispering.
Lasting a round was not the problem. Everyone held their breaths thinking that Changgong might actually pull off something amazing.
Swoosh, swoosh! Smack, smack!
Hwanseong’s punches started to miss. They hit Changgong’s guard if they did land.
It wasn’t because he lost confidence. Changgong had already adjusted to the MMA pattern of punching.
That was not the only change.
Smack, smack! Slap!
Changgong changed from the defensive to aggressively punching and even throwing out a low kick. It was the one-two low kick combination he had trained so hard for his debut match.
Changgong had regained his confidence.
“That’s it!”
Dongsub shouted before he even knew it.
Just as Dongsub shouted, Changgong got in another punch, middle kick, and high kick consecutively. Pulling the kick with his abs. Just as he had learned. A rush of punches followed. Hwanseong was corralled into the corner in the blink of an eye.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Changgong swayed his torso side to side as he got in a variety of hooks. Hwanseong’s guard wavered.
Boxers were not only at a disadvantage in the MMA.
Of course not.
If the opponent on the defense gets pushed into a corner, he was a sandbag for the boxer. Because of the difference in pattern and technique of punching, boxing could only be the strongest regarding punches.
Thwack! Thwack!
Changgong kept his breathing in check as he threw out his punches. He didn’t get over excited. He kept wary of Hwanseong’s counterattack and even got in some counters himself.
Dongsub clenched his fists.
Today, Changgong would pull off something amazing.
It was then.
Smack!
“Gasp

”
Changgong spit his mouthpiece out and held his stomach as he retreated backwards on shaky legs.
Just as Changgong got a right hook in, Hwanseong had kneed Changgong right in the stomach.
“Changgong!”