The Pazienza Devil

Chapter 1: The Introductions - Ashley's POV:

The famous Vinny Pazienza, or as everyone calls him 'The Pazienza Devil'. He hasn't won a match in years and I reckon he should just give up on his career now. All he does in the ring is jump around and not hitting at the right targets. My dad Kevin, who's a former boxer who's now a trainer, always watches his matches and yells at the screen each time he falls. He's best mates with Vinny's father Angelo, his manager. Today Pazienza was against Mayweather, and to no one's surprise he got knocked out again. There's been talk that no one will want to match against him as it would be an 'easy' match. Believe me I would be able to beat him too. As being an only child and daughter, my father insisted that I become a boxer, to 'protect' myself if I was in any danger with men, but in reality I reckon he wants me to relive his boxing career. Don't get me wrong I love boxing, it's something to release my anger out on, however as a female it's much more difficult to find matches than it is as a male. First you have the different weight classes, and no woman wants to be a boxer as that's not 'feminine' or that 'boys' won't like that. So even though I would consider myself a better boxer than someone like Pazienza, he could be able to get multiple matches as he is a man.

It's Monday morning and I'm driving myself to my dad's gym. It's not in the best shape, but hey it's a sacred and safe place for me to train. There are some guys that train there with me and they're pretty decent, they just don't have a persistent manager like Pazienza does to get matches. Some of them don't even want to do it professionally, it's more of a hobby and it also helps their mental health, which is crucial for a boxer. For example, all the comments that people make and if you lose a match, there's talk all through town. If you don't accept that, it's gonna be much harder on not only you but everyone who is trying to help you succeed. I actually got a match in a couple of months against Linsdey Mallark from Houston, Texas. I'm pretty excited as it'll be my fourth professional boxing match, so hopefully everything goes smoothly and I win, but you never know. I enter the gym with my bag and my dad is talking to someone new. I can't see their face so I'm just assuming it's a new client, which is always exciting for dad. He notices me and makes a hand movement for me to come over to the conversation. As I get closer I finally see who the person is, it's Vinny Pazienza. What's he doing here? I think to myself. My dad then speaks,

'Hey darling I'd like you to meet Vinny Pazienza, he'll be training here for his upcoming match. Vinny, this is my daughter Ashley, she's an excellent boxer and also has a match in a few months, very proud.'

'Hey' Vinny responds with a handshake

'Hi' i reply back with a handshake

'Now that the both of you have met, I've quickly got to go and grab a few things before we can begin Vin okay?'

'Sure' Vinny replies, Dad walks away to the storage room, leaving the two of us alone.

'So do you actually box?' he asks me, what kind of question do you ask someone whose father literally just told them that you box?

'Umm yeah?'

'No offense,' he begins, 'but i would not have guessed that you were a boxer'

'What's that supposed to mean?' i say in a stern tone

'You know what i mean' he simply replies,

'No I actually don't, do tell me?' I say fully knowing that it's because I'm a female. Seriously, can men just normalize women doing 'masculine' hobbies?

'I'm just saying I would have never thought that a female would be boxing like seriously,' he says cockily, 'people want to watch that?' Is he being serious for real? Like sexist much!

'Well, since you don't believe that I can box,' I enter the ring, come and fight me then?' he stand there a bit stunned,

'Nah i can't' he begins saying,

'Why not?' I say putting on my gloves, 'are you too scared?' that messes with him,

'Fine, one match though,' he says whilst entering the ring, 'but just warning you, don't start crying to your dad 3 minutes in' i walk up to him to be face to face,

'I think you're just talking about yourself in second person there Paziena' I say putting my mouth guard in.

We both enter the ring, at opposite corners, both wearing gloves, mouthguards and helmets.

'You ready?' i ask him as i'm bouncing up and down,

'Always,' he replies, and so we begin.

Even though Vinny is taller than me, I take that as my advantage. He's much slower than I am so I'm able to get those vulnerable hits. I also take a few blows to the stomach, but it doesn't affect me that bad, like I've had period cramps worse than his blows. I manage to get him to try and hit me in the head but I duck and uppercut him, leaving him unaware of where he is. After a couple of seconds he hits me in the side of the face which I was not ready for. I could tell he had a smirk across his face. This gives me the adrenaline to just keep punching him. I know from watching him he focuses on blocking rather than punching back. I continuously do this until he's had enough and goes to attack me, as he's trying to make me move he steps on my foot and we fall. He ends up being on top of me, well this is awkward i think to myself. He quickly gets off of me and we finish off the match. Finally he's getting tired so I just hit him with a big stomach blow which causes him to get winded. he's done, i did it, i bet the famous Vinny Pazienza, i remove my gloves and helmet and i offer to help him up, which he refuses, so i say to him,

'Next time, don't underestimate me' I get out of the ring and head off to the showers to remove all the sweat that's on my body. I wasn't planning on boxing anyone today, but I guess that's my workout instead. As i'm about to head to the showers my dad goes up to me,

'I saw ya box against vin' i'm assuming he didn't want me to on his first day here,

'Yeah, sorry if i ruined your plans on training him today'

'Nah you did great darling,' he says, 'it puts him in perspective to what he really wants and how much he needs to work for it' he pats me on the back and heads towards Vinny, who doesn't seem happy, i can hear their conversation from afar,

'So i watched ya box against Ash'

'Yeah well i went easy on her,' Vinny begins saying, knowing damn well he's lying, 'i just wanted to let her feel a win' like he's gotten one, please.

'Yeah sure sure, my daughter would box anyone who was halfassing it. Let's be serious here vinny, you lost, accept that, this is what we can work with to improve your skills'

Vinny seems truly annoyed, 'oh shut up kev, i'm all good, seriously i was playing easy'

'Yeah, well that last blow really took ya out,' my dad replies, 'come on lets begin training'

I just don't understand how women are in love with Pazienza, like seriously he's an asshole, cocky, sexist and can't accept that he needs help in boxing. I reckon they only like him because of his body. Yeah that's what happens if you box, sure he's got a good body, does not mean he's a good person.

NOTES:

this is my first chapter y'all i hope you enjoyed it ahha just letting you guys know that posting will be inconsistent lol