As soon as the bell rang throughout the arena, both fighters took their stances.
Damon naturally shifted into his Muay Thai stance, balanced and poised, while Brian adopted a traditional kickboxing stance, light on his feet, hands up high.
From the commentary booth, James Nix began, "Here we go, folks, the finals of The Supreme Fighter... Damon Cross versus Brian Walker. This is the moment they've both been working toward for months."
The fighters circled each other cautiously, testing distance.
Damon was the first to act, but instead of the standard jab or leg kick Brian expected, Damon went high, launching a question mark kick with lightning speed.
The kick started low but arced upward, snapping toward Brian's head.
"Oh!" Jim Logan shouted, as the kick landed flush against Brian's temple.
Demien Korvier exclaimed, "What a question mark kick! That caught Brian completely off guard. He thought it was going low, and Damon went high!"
Brian staggered back, obviously shaken, but able to remain upright.
Without waiting for him to recover, Damon rushed forward.
He feinted with a jab, causing Brian to cover up high, and then followed with a crushing leg kick to Brian's lead thigh.
Brian winced but fired back with a quick one-two punch.
Brian grunted and struck back with a quick one-two.
As the two clashed, the crowd erupted, but it was obvious that Damon was already in command and controlling the fight's tempo.
"Brian's looking a bit hesitant here," Nix observed. "That kick really rattled him, and Damon's just flowing."
Brian tried to regain momentum, throwing a hard body kick, but Damon blocked it effortlessly.
Damon responded with a swift left hook, followed by a sharp elbow that barely missed Brian's chin as he pulled back just in time.
Brian threw another jab-cross combo, but Damon's head movement was too slick.
He slipped to the side and countered with a powerful body shot that echoed through the arena.
"That body shot!" Demien reacted. "Damon is systematically breaking Brian down, so early on"
Brian was starting to look flustered, his breathing heavy as he tried to keep up with Damon's pace. Enjoy new adventures from m-v l'e|-novelhall.net
Damon remained calm, his eyes laser-focused on Brian.
Damon didn't just want to finish Brian, he wanted to humiliate him.
With a powerful surge, Damon drove Brian backward, slamming him into the cage with a move that echoed the one Kofi had used against him.
The force of the impact rattled the entire structure, and Brian's body smacked against the fence hard.
Damon had him pinned, the same way Brian had done to one of his earlier opponents.
It was a reversal of fates, and Damon wasn't about to let Brian forget it.
Damon locked Brian into a clinch, pressing him tightly against the fence, giving him no room to escape.
He continued delivering brutal knee strikes to Brian's body, one after another, each hit driving the point home that Damon was in control.
Damon tightened his grip, pinning Brian against the cage, his eyes locked with his opponent's, adrenaline coursing through him.
He was in complete control now, and he wanted Brian to feel it, to remember it.
With each knee strike, Damon talked smack, something he didn't normally do, but in this moment, it felt right.
"Come on, is this the man of the house?" Damon growled, and his voice was low but full of disdain. "This is disappointing. I expected more. But what can I say? You've struggled all this way through. To be honest, your little brother is better.
You should quit fighting."
From the commentary booth, Jim Logan remarked, "Oh, it looks like there's some talking going on in the clinch, but we can't quite hear what Damon's saying."
Demien Korvier chimed in, "Yeah, Damon's not usually much of a trash talker, from what I've seen in the show, but you can see he's trying to get into Brian's head right now."
Damon could feel Brian weakening under his relentless assault of knee strikes.
Each blow sapped more and more of Brian's strength, and he wasn't done yet.
He could sense Brian gearing up for a knee strike of his own, but Damon wasn't going to let that happen.
Damon groaned as he shifted his hips, repositioned his grip, and used a burst of strength to lift Brian off the ground.
The commentators erupted as the crowd roared in excitement.
"Ohhh! Damon just lifted Brian off the mat!" Logan shouted, his voice barely audible over the deafening cheers.
"This is pure dominance right here!" Demien said, and you could feel the excitement in his voice.
The arena shook with energy as Damon carried Brian, fully in control, ready to show that he was the true force to be reckoned with.