Chapter 3

They squared off and Daniels gave the command to begin. Carmella moved launching a series of combinations that caught Patrick Connors by surprise. Time after time they connected stinging him. Carmella's jabs set him up as she countered his every swing. Carmella was showing that she really knew how to use his hands. It got to the point that he finally decided to give up on the stand up game. Instead he decided to take her to the ground.

Shooting forward he went for her legs. Even as he started to pick her up she gave him a vicious right hook. Both of them went down slamming onto the mat as Patrick was stunned. Striking with a flurry of forearm shots she forced him to cover up hiding his face. The headgear softened the blows but they still stung. Shifting her hips she leg pressed him off with a mighty heave.

Sprawling Patrick came back to his feet at the same time Carm did. Grappling with him she tied up his hands bringing powerful knee strikes into play weakening his midsection. Breaking contact she kicked him in his lead leg setting up more strikes to further weaken his base. Daniels could find a number of different martial arts styles in how she fought and wondered if she had picked them up from her opponent in those street fights.

Daniels was pretty impressed with what he had seen so far. She had a good defense as well as great offensive potential. The only fault he could find in her technique was that she couldn't seem to finish her opponent. It looked like she didn't have the power to make that final blow. Daniels decided that was something they would have to work on. It was his full assessment of her until he saw her last counterpunch. Patrick came forward swing a right hook hoping to catch her by surprise with his speed. Carm quickly countered his hook with a right cross knocking his lights out, and sending him spinning to the mat.

Daniels seeing the entire exchange reassessed her at that moment. He bumped her up a grade in estimate realizing she did have some power. He had seen at least one power punch and they could work off of that if need be easily. Daniels had to admit the timing and striking power it took to pull it off had been a thing of beauty.

A question occurred to him and he decided to ask it. "Why didn't you try something like that earlier? I saw plenty of opportunities. Did you simply lack the confidence?" Daniels asked.

Shrugging Carmella answered, "You asked to have a real look at me not see how fast I could knock him out. If you had said otherwise I would have knocked him out at the first opportunity."

Daniels and Connors could only stare at her in shock. Just to make sure he sent one of his other boys against Carm who didn't even seem winded. Maybe a minute into the fight the young man left an opening and Carm took it. Smashing him with a left hook she stunned him before again coming with a right cross finishing him off. The man went down for the count his legs buckling. He had stood pretty close to Carm's height and had a much larger build but she had still picked him apart.

"How many fights did you say you've been involved in?" Daniels said as she took off her gear sitting on the mat.