[b]12:37 PM, November 3rd
 The Wedge; Hub City[/b]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/H5kYOij.jpg[/img]

"Hey, he's actually [i]not[/i] getting his ass beat!" Karen noted with no small hint of amazement, noting that Hayes was landing a fair deal more than Ives. She had honestly half-expected this to be an almost painful slaughter, given how one-sided the predictions had all been. While she was hardly a boxing enthusiast, she knew the reputation of Christopher Ives. When she learned who his opponent was, she had instantly felt compelled to root for the underdog.

And he [i]was[/i] an underdog, to be certain. It was hard to believe they were in the same weight class.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Karen's eyes widened when Hayes let his guard down. "You're attacking?!"

She couldn't help but feel that was a mistake, at least this soon into the fight. She had [i]thought[/i] that his strategy had been to stay ahead on the score cards and frustrate Ives until he became tired and sloppy. That would be smart, and was probably his best chance at actually winning. Now, he seemed to be relying entirely on his speed to evade Ives' punches, and that-

"OW!" Karen winced when a hard body hook from Ives rocked his opponent. She winced harder still when he performed a what wasn't a half-bad imitation of a shoryuken on Hayes, knocking him flat on his ass. "Owwww...and he was doing so well..."

Exhaling, she chewed her lip while the smaller fighter slowly lurched to his feet. Her brief spark of hope when it came to his chances of winning had thoroughly faded after [i]that[/i] display.

The gunshots were getting closer to her house now, but that wasn't anything too strange. Hopefully they wouldn't be firing in her direction.

Hayes managed to recover somewhat after his down, but he was never able to regain the momentum he had earlier. A few good hits on Ives didn't compensate for all the punishing blows the diminutive fighter had taken, and it was pretty obvious who won the first round. 

Sighing, Karen offered a light shrug to her television. "I guess it was too good to be true."