I was down for a three count before I got up and the referee looked in my eyes and asked if I was good and I told him yes and we went back to it. I had to remember who the fuck I was, who was watching and what was riding on this. That last hit had only pissed me the fuck off. I had to shake back.
He came for the finish and I didn’t give it to him.
Fourth round I flipped it.
I started pressing him the way I had pressed every man who had ever gotten comfortable in a ring with me. Forward and relentless and not giving him the distance he needed to do what he did best. He landed. I walked through it. I landed. He felt it. Round after round we went and by the seventh round I could see it in the way he was breathing.
He was tired.
I was not. I was working his ass like a 9 to 5. I needed him to lay down and stay down.
Eighth round I caught him with an uppercut that stood him straight up and followed it with a right hook that sent him into the ropes. When he came off them he was gone in his legs and I put him down with a left hook. This time he didn’t get up before the count finished.
The referee waved it off.
And the building lost its mind.
Gutta was through the ropes before I finished turning around and he hit me from behind with both arms and we went down to the canvas together. I let him hold on because my cousin had been here from the very beginning. From the basements, the alleys and the courthouse to this arena and this moment. While they announced my new undefeated title, all I could hear was my cousin in my ear. Damn near about to lose his voice.
“THAT’S MY BROTHER. THAT’S THE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD RIGHT THERE.” Gutta yelled and it hit me. I’d won! I’d really won the title. Everything my father wanted, everything he worked for, I got it for him. This shit was unreal! It was bigger than anything that anyone on the outside could understand.
Coach Ray was in the ring. Legal was climbing through the ropes with my brothers and my mom on his side. I hugged my mom so tight while she cried into my chest. I put my belt in her hands, and we held it in the air together while the whole crowd cheered.
My whole corner was in the ring and the noise was at a level I had never experienced before in my life.
Then Kyla was there.
She had gotten through the ropes somehow and she was in front of me. I picked her up without thinking about it and she wrapped her legs around me. Now, we were on live television in front of millions of people while I kissed her and she kissed me back. The cameras caught every second of it.
When I put her down she was crying and laughing at the same time and she grabbed my face with both hands.
“I’m so proud of you Xavier! You did everything you said that you would!” she said. “You know your father is proud of you.” She cried.
I looked at her and couldn’t say anything back so I just held her. This was really my life. And I had a good ass woman on my side to share it with. She didn’t come with drama, nor was she indecisive. She knew what she wanted and she showed up for me repeatedly.
—
The interviews took forever. After getting pictures with my family, I sent my mom home. It was too crowded and busy for her to stay. She and my brothers left together.
Every camera, every network, every reporter who had a credential wanted two minutes and I gave them all that two minutes they requested because this moment was real and it deserved to be documented. Legal stood nearby through all of it with that expression on his face that I had been seeing my whole life and understood better now than I ever had before. He cried real tears from the moment and I knew what it meant to him.
He had promised his best friend that he would look after us.
He had kept that promise.
When the last camera stepped back I moved through the corridor toward the exit and my people cleared a path to the black truck waiting outside. I held Kyla’s arm tight as I led us out of there. The night air hit me when the back doors opened and I stepped out, walking toward the truck.
And then I stopped.
Brielle was standing on the sidewalk twenty feet from the truck.
She had been crying, and not just recently. For a while. Her eyes were red and swollen, she was holding herself like she was trying to keep something in but she was losing the battle. When she saw me she took two steps forward. Ignoring the fact that Kyla was with me.
“Xavier.” Her voice was broken. “I need to talk to you.”
I felt Kyla step up beside me and her hand closed around my arm tight.
I looked at Kyla. Her eyes were moving between me and Brielle and I could see everything she was thinking written all over her face.
