Chapter 336: The art of striking (1/2)

*Bang!* *Bang!*

”That's it! Good!” Ricardo was holding up a pair of red hitting mitts, targets for the young man in front of him to unleash punches on.

”All right, you've got the 1-2 down. Not bad!” Ricardo nodded in appreciation. Ben's technique was amateur but at least this kid was packing surprising power. Ricardo's hands were even numb from the shock. When he first felt it, it only reaffirmed Ricardo's willingness to train Ben to become a champion. However, it would still be a long road.

”Ok, that's enough for today.” The middle-aged trainer took off the mitts as he told Ben when to come back. Today, he trained Ben one on one to show him the basics but he'd soon join the standup class.

Meanwhile, breathing heavily, Ben wiped the sweat from his brow. Striking wasn't simple, and he made a lot of mistakes even while learning a couple of simple punching techniques. Yet, progress was progress. Having finished for the day, he removed his red thick boxing gloves before he said goodbye to Ricardo and heading towards the locker room.

Unlike before, when Ben went into the locker room nowadays, he received respectful nods and greetings. After all, everyone there already heard about the white belt that won the purple belt tournament against Nick. That was no easy feat. In terms of achievements, they could now consider Ben a senior amongst them. Plus, that wasn't the only area he was crowned champion. Within the locker room, he was also a senior of the shvontz…

Soon leaving the gym, Ben returned to his college life, going to classes, work, and now training more often at Barbosa's. He didn't skip out on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes either. In fact, Ben had received permission to move up to purple belt class so it was more interesting for him. This time, however, he didn't get any trouble from the purple belts because they'd seen or heard about him winning the tournament. Instead, they approached him with friendliness in order to avoid the Poison Dragon's vicious breath.

However, as good as Ben was at BJJ, the same couldn't be said for standup. Or at least, he was having a lot of trouble.

For the most part, the classes involved various exercises and then drilling techniques. However, at the end, like in BJJ, there

was open practice, and Ricardo never let Ben go home without staying a little while extra. On this occasion, it wasn't only the two of them. Ricardo was at the side of the cage watching Ben touch gloves with another young man. It was a sparring match.

”Isn't it too early for him to be sparring?” A thick beauty walked over from the side as she gazed at Ben with interest. It was Valentina, approaching her father.

He looked at her. ”Too early? We started sparring when we were little kids in Brazil. He needs to hurry up!” Ricardo turned his eyes back to the cage.

*Pow!* *Pow*

Ben's gloves were covering his head as his opponent wailed on him. There wasn't much Ben could do but take the punches. He tried to use his superior speed but his opponent was more experienced, finding ways to cut him off so Ben had nowhere to go. At this rate, all he could do was take a beating.

*Ding* *Ding*

Ricardo rang a bell at the side of the cage which he got from god knows where…