The Year of the Tiger competition began in early February in accordance with the start of Lunar Year, and the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac. However, between various events and the specific nature of some of them, the timing was such that they couldn't be done in one day or evening... or even a couple. By the time they got into the "Cat Fights" section of the event, things became ever more obvious. Collision and Combat sports raised the risk of injury and that was a prime reason why football games were played once a week and MMA matches were often spread out even more. The purpose was to assure that the players or fighter would remain healthy through the course of the competition. This then came into play as the Cat Fights section began.
After Brett Horne had explained the rules to the gathered Tigers, Tigresses, and "honorary Tigers," they then moved into setting up the first round of the tournament and setting out the schedule of these matches. And this then alternated between the genders so that the Tigress Animalians had one round and then the Tiger Animalians followed. For Tuxing and Liao, who had come in as expected favorites in the tournament there was some element of confidence for both of them. After all, most of those they were likely to face had little real martial arts training or combat sports experience. Ava had largely worked in the Meat Market to earn the money so Steve could go to college after he graduated from Lyre High and WSA. Patty normally worked at the casino in Animalia. The only females that both considered as wildcards were Megara and Shelly. Megara because the Liger Animalian female was easily larger than all the other females in the competition. Shelly because neither Tuxing nor Liao knew her very well. That gave the two dedicated martial artists an advantage.
Or at least they thought it did. The points system was what was used to set the matchups and the rankings, which made some sense given what had been accumulated in the prior rounds, but the twist in the rules that then allowed the lower seed to pick the specific combat sport for the fights then changed the game completely. For because they were so highly placed in terms of points, Tuxing and Liao really wouldn't get the choice of picking an actual combat test of their prowess in Kung Fu or even the likelihood of someone picking an MMA match that would allow them to apply those skills. Most of the matches were set up as either Olympic Style wrestling or boxing, though this was where Mario and Courtny Domini who were critical as they provided lessons and guidance on those sports as well. It was helpful and as the two Dinotopians were able to provide training and explaining of the rules of these sports.
It then made for some interesting early rounds, but Tuxing and Liao made their way through them. They weren't necessarily the most skilled at boxing or wrestling, but they were still trained and dedicated, and thus they adapted quite well to the early rounds. Largely because of where they were in the early rounds. Many of those Tigress Animalians were strong and had gained some practice at wrestling, which to a degree Tuxing figured also made sense for a lot of Animalians based on carnivorous mammals. Wrestling was often a natural part of the animal's behavior and thus would reinforce many parts of those instincts into an Animalian. Even a few parts of Tuxing's mind seemed fairly relaxed around the sport, even if it wasn't the one, she trained for the most. Thus, the two of them made it through early rounds fairly well, though it was the following rounds where things began to become interesting. And through those early rounds, Tuxing and Liao found that they had fairly eager fans as Lenard Bearstone and Wayne cheered for both of them.
Inwardly Liao hoped to win Lenard's attention and force Tuxing to settle on Wayne, and to a degree, Wayne wouldn't be a bad partner. Excitable and to a degree fairly simple, but he was reasonably polite and wasn't a true "meathead" as Tuxing had surmised a fair number of the male Tiger Animalians to be. Of course, for Liao this played into her intent to win the tournament as part of her attempts to get Tuxing to be less of a mother hen toward her on some things, and she privately had to admit she didn't know for sure if Lenard was even interested in either of them. As when she looked to the stands, while Lenard was there rooting for her or for Tuxing, his younger brother, Mikey, was there. Though the attention was enough that Lenard seemed to trust Tuxing and Liao looking after Mikey during the male's matches.
"You'll be safe?" Mikey asked Lenard before the first matches for the males.
"I'll do my best," Lenard promised and lifted his younger brother up into a firm hug, chuffing as he then nuzzled the side of his head to Mikey's, cherishing seeing that the last of his own biological family was reasonably happy and safe, "now you will be good for Ms. Tuxing and Liao?"
"Where is Mizz taking Liao?" Mikey asked to Lenard.
"My name is Tuxing," Tuxing answered, as Mikey was placed in the seat between her and Liao and earning a bit of a giggle from Mikey.
"You'll root for my brother?" Mikey asked as he took Tuxing's pointer finger in one hand and Liao's in the other.
"Of course," Liao said simply.
"He deserves that for wanting his part in this to be for you," Tuxing agreed, "not for personal glory or for vanity... but you. I'd think everyone should root for him in that regard."
Mikey smiled and they settled into watching the first set of male's matches. Which went largely as to be expected. Heracles dominated his opening bought, using a combination of size and strength to pin his opponent, and to a degree made some sense. Normally in most combat sports, the organizers would want the combatants to be relatively even. It's why boxing and wrestling leagues had weight classes in the first place to make sure that there weren't obvious mismatches. But the Year of the Tiger contest was a bit different and thus competitors had to deal with the fact that Heracles and Megara, as Liger Animalians, were bigger than either of the animals used in the creation of the hybrid cat. And Heracles used that to his advantage in round one. But Lenard also did well and won his first match, though as the rounds progressed is where some things began to get interesting.
The biggest upset came in the second round when Steve managed to pin Diego. Diego had a clear strength advantage but had also seemed the most self-aware of the risk to his "sabers" and had been relatively cautious. Tuxing and Liao had both seen this in Diego's first round win, which even then he'd only barely won the match on points. Against Steve, this came back to bite him, as it appeared that through connections with Ava, the male White Tiger Animalian had gotten some tips and pointers from Shiva when it came to wrestling which he applied against Diego. For the Smilodon Animalian showed caution in many ways to avoid major blows to the head and particularly the teeth. And that was understandable, the muzzles built for him, and Patty were like all muzzles and were designed to prevent the mouth from being opened to bite. They thus couldn't guarantee the safety of Diego's teeth from any sort of concussive blow and the male Smilodon Animalian likely also remembered the accident that left him busted up after the stunt he had went wrong before becoming an Animalian.
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And as the rounds progressed, Nate and Shuixing arrived for their role in handing over the crown to whoever won the year of the Tiger Competition. They brought with them a picture on Shuixing's phone of them with Gōngniú before they left China, and joined the crowd, though not without ending up getting some questions from Liao.
"So... which one of us are you rooting for?" Liao asked to Nate, "Shuixing will be rooting for Tuxing, no doubt. Family and all that. But you married in. You're not bound to root for Tuxing. You could root for the one who is going to win, which will be me."
"Or I could root for the one I find the most beautiful," Nate countered, looking nervously at Liao.
"And that would be?" Liao asked with Tuxing and Shuixing looking on.
"Shuixing," Nate answered.
"We're not in the Year of the TIGER competition," Shuixing gave a soft smile while shaking her head.
"Doesn't matter, I'd still root for you," Nate answered as he looked to her, making Liao give a groan and roll her eyes at the lovesick look that Nate's eyes took on when he looked to Shuixing. "Besides, I'm really just hoping things are competitive. That'd make for good sport, right? Sports wouldn't be fun if everything is a blowout."
"True," Tuxing agreed with that.
"And at the same time, I'm not really wanting to get in the middle of whatever sort of rivalry is going on," Nate commented, "it'd only get me either hurt or in trouble."
That earned a few chuckles as Shuixing took Nate's arm and lead him to where their seats were placed to watch as the next rounds in the "Cat Fights" unfolded. And they did prove to be close and tight rounds, though not without their own surprises. Liao ultimately beat her opponent fairly easily and claimed that as the victory in moving on to the next round. Then came the next surprise upset when Patty upset Megara. Like her husband, the Liger Animalian female dwarfed the other Tigresses in terms of size, and while Smilodon could be of comparable size, that was referring to the South American Smilodon Populator while Patty was the North American Smilodon Fatalis. In this, Patty was comparable to Shelly in size and thus was smaller than Megara. But in the course of the match, Megara had managed to put her foot in a place that had her a bit off balance and Patty practically dove at the chance and got the take-down and earning the points needed to score the upset win in the match. Meanwhile, Tuxing had managed to pin her opponent while Shelly had actually knocked her opponent out. This then set the next round of Liao facing Shelly while Tuxing faced Patty.
The male's rounds also remained close as they progressed, and they continued to move through February. But it also remained one that looked ever more likely that Heracles would be the male winner, as his strength more than lived up to his name. From what she could observe, it almost seemed as though the male Liger did his best to beat his opponents as gently as possible, knowing he held a clear advantage in size and strength, which lead to Wayne and Steve both getting pinned in their respective matches fairly easy. But Lenard seemed to do fairly well and also continued to advance, which got Nate at one point to comment during one of the male’s matches to Shuixing that Lenard’s style seemed to have “rodeo influences.”
“Rodeo?” Shuixing asked, “isn’t that the sport where Humans ride bulls and wild horses?”
“Those are events in rodeos,” Nate nodded, “but there are other events, and one of times how quickly the competitor can rope a calf, wrestle it to the ground and then tie its legs together. And before you ask… they’d have to do it with a calf…”
“I’d imagine,” Shuixing commented, “adult cattle can be over 1,000 pounds. I’d doubt a normal Human could do that.”
“True,” Nate agreed, “but… I’m still saying that some of what Mr. Bearstone does… it reminds me of some things I’ve seen when national rodeos have been on TV.”
Which ultimately set the championship match in the male's bracket between Heracles and Lenard. The female's bracket, however, was where some of those late round excitement came into play. As by this point, many of the bottom tier and middle tier opponents were gone. Liao still had the points lead, but Shelly had largely kept pace in the main contest's points by winning her rounds and made the inevitable boxing match between them a tight one. Liao had observed enough from Shelly's bouts that when Shelly could pick the sport, Shelly tended to favor a fairly direct and overpowering strategy, which from a certain perspective made a degree of sense. With Megara upset in the previous round, Shelly as a Siberian Tigress Animalian was the largest one in the field. She likely could overpower opponents that way.
Typically, Liao would know to use many of the skills that Tuxing had taught her and even learned some techniques from the rest of the Elements, that the best strategy would then be to move quick and prevent Shelly from being able to extend and gain strength for her blows. It would then allow Liao to use Shelly's weight against her. But boxing as a sport had different rules from the training in Kung Fu that Liao had gotten, and while there were schools of thought and style in Boxing that Mario and Courtney demonstrated that could counter that power based style that Shelly seemed to use, and they were ones that required quick movement, it was still something that was outside Liao's particular training and Shelly managed a few very strong blows, including one to the ribs that knocked the wind out of Liao. And that dragged for the rest of the match before the match was called in Shelly's favor with both Mario and Joshua stepping in.
In the other semi-final, Tuxing faced off against Patty and one that presented an interesting set of stakes which Tuxing quickly recognized as something that would relate to the next round against Shelly. Unlike Diego, Patty was not as nervous over risking breaking her sabers, which was in part what helped her last as long as she did and was probably a big part of her upset win over Megara. However, Tuxing had also observed through many of the rounds that Patty had been in that she would more take advantage of things that popped up that could only come down to luck. A misstep or some distraction from the crowd, as there were a fair number of people that came to the Claw Coliseum for the "Cat Fights," and Tuxing figured that many of them were part of the typical UFC-A crowds that came in for those matches and their cheers, and the occasional "cat call," particularly during the female's matches, created distractions. Patty took advantage of this, but beyond that many of her wins hadn't necessarily shown any particularly athletic or strategic skill.
Tuxing judged this to luck in that many of Patty's prior opponents proved either not to be as disciplined or had fallen victim to one bad step, which was something that could happen. Tuxing, however, took a deep breath as their match began and did her best to keep her focus. Wrestling wasn't her preferred sport, but she was a reasonably quick study and her years of self-discipline to look out for her sisters and protect them as best she could had played a big part in everything Tuxing had done as the leader of the Five Elements. Which then made for an interesting round between Tuxing and Patty, and where Tuxing ultimately found that certain aspects of leverage could be used to deal with Patty's more muscular weight. It went a few rounds, but Tuxing ultimately did win on points in the match... and only just.
"You did well," Patty said with a polite smile after removing the muzzle after the match.
"So did you," Tuxing said politely.
"It was a workout," Patty shook that off, "but to be honest... I'd think I really got lucky more than anything else through this. I'm not much of a fighter... or even a daredevil like Diego is. It took me a while just to figure out how to look down without stabbing myself in the boob."
"Luck can play a hand in all things," Tuxing told her, "The fact that you made it this far can say a lot about your ability and potential."
"Thanks," Patty smiled again as Tuxing then moved off toward a side area where the Komodo Dragon Animalian, Dr. Joshua Komorowski, was looking over Liao.
Joshua looked up to Tuxing while running his hands over Liao's lower ribs and listening and feeling for any twitch that might indicate a real injury.
"I do not believe anything is broken and your student has regained her breath and has had no pains in breathing," Joshua spoke to Tuxing, "though I would still like to have some tests scheduled to make sure. Damaged ribs are hard to heal as there isn't much that can be done for treatment. And in this, even a bruised rib could take weeks to heal."
"Assuming it is bruised," Liao protested, "the only thing that's bruised is my pride... I won't win now..."
"The Cat Fights tournament," Joshua nodded, "Yes. The overall tournament... that remains yet to be seen. If your ribs aren't bruised, you'll be cleared to be in the race up the mountain."
"Not to mention that you were already in first and held pace through much of the tournament," Tuxing spoke, "the only ones that have truly gained on you in the competition's point standings are Shelly and I."
"She packs a mean punch," Liao answered, "and I doubt she'll pick an MMA style match."
Tuxing nodded. With Liao upset in the round against Shelly, Tuxing was now the highest scoring Tigress Animalian still in the "Cat Fights tournament." That would then give Shelly the right to pick the sport in the next match.
"True," Tuxing answered, "but that can be good strategy. If one's training is not suited to deal with what we have trained for in our style of Martial Arts, when given the choice, it can be wiser to change the nature of the match. The then test of the warrior is in how one adapts to the change."
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Ultimately, Liao didn't have any serious injuries to her ribs and was simply lifted with bruised pride. The loss to Shelly stung a bit, though it was enough to remind her of the costs of getting overconfident. So, for the male's championship match, she settled with Tuxing into their role of babysitting Mikey Bearstone while Lenard was pitted against Heracles. It also proved to be a tough match and one that finally went against Lenard. Lenard did fairly well, but Heracles had been in the past IAC, shortly after marrying Megara, and had more than proved his strength in the tournament thus far. That ultimately proved enough for Heracles to pin Lenard at the end of the third round. Though the match still proved to be tightly fought one and Liao also noted as Heracles stood and with Brett Horne declaring Heracles the winner of the "Cat Fights tournament" for the male's bracket, the Liger Animalian limped a little and rubbed at his thigh.
"Lenny lost," Mikey stated and looking down to his feet and the half empty bag of popcorn that Lenard had bought for him falling to the floor and barely held back a sniffle.
"Just this part of the tournament," Liao offered, "and he did remarkably well... particularly considering how big and strong Heracles is."
"Yes, there's still the mountain race, the last part of the Year of the Tiger competition," Tuxing added, "it will be after that that the final point tallies will be made."
"But Lenny's the strongest I know," Mikey argued, "he... he's looked after me, after the... the bad thing took mom and dad. It made Lenny strong."
"And he still is," Tuxing told him, remembering what Lenard had said on his and Mikey's parents dying from Covid earlier in the pandemic, "and as Liao said, he still has a chance of winning the Year of the Tiger contest on the male's side. And he's earned mine and Liao's respect for all that he's done thus far."
"Thank you," Mikey said and squeezed Liao and Tuxing's pointer fingers while Liao retrieved the bag of popcorn, which didn't spill anything.
"In the meantime, I'd best be getting ready for my match with Shelly," Tuxing spoke politely to Mikey and then looked to Liao, "and I trust you won't cause any trouble?"
"Of course," Liao answered.
It wasn't long after that that Lenard returned and took a seat next to Mikey. Liao had wanted to say something, but Mikey was quick to hug his older brother and Tuxing then appeared entering the ring with Mario and Courtney following behind them. Both shook hands and then were fitted with the muzzles and gloves for the match. Mario would then monitor things to assure that Tuxing would do well while Courtney did the same for Shelly. They weren't "coaches," but they did provide the help for things like water and the equipment, and Liao remembered that it had been a similar arrangement during her match with Shelly.
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In the arena, Tuxing then settled into the match against Shelly and it made for a powerful one. Unlike Patty in the previous round, by this point it was fairly clear that Shelly actually knew a fair amount about the sports that were often picked for the "Cat Fights." Tuxing wasn't sure if this was because Shelly had a career in these sports prior to her conversion or not, but even if she didn't, she'd likely studied a lot of the rules and practiced on her own or with someone with similar interests. Which meant that simply being disciplined wouldn't work for Tuxing as Shelly likely had a similar amount of skill and focus.
The only thing left was to execute on a strategy, and like Liao, Tuxing knew she had dive in close and land a punch or two and then back out. She wasn't big enough or strong enough to simply trade blows with Shelly. She would have to be quick to move in and quick on her reflexes to either avoid the blow or deflect the worst of it away and hope that Shelly tired herself out essentially punching air. Though this could also be taxing for Tuxing as well. Cats were by nature ambush hunters and sprinters. In nature they often dominated other predators and forced other predators, and the larger canids in particular, to become more social for their own defense. Canids tended to be more endurance hunters and would run down prey but were often forced to back down when facing a cat of comparable size. This difference then meant that cats couldn't go all out for long, and while both Tuxing and Shelly had trained to improve this, they couldn't get away from it entirely. One would tire themselves out throwing punches or the other would tire themselves out trying to dodge them.
Tuxing then went about the battle and she did her best to get in and land the punches that were largely quick jabs at Shelly's side and gut. Occasionally, a small hole opening but in moving quickly, Tuxing never really got any sort of hammer blow on Shelly that would stagger the Siberian Tigress for long. However, Tuxing also didn't stay in close for long and forced Shelly to move after her and had ready guards up to prevent against the sort of blow that knocked the wind out of Liao. It was something that equalized some things and changed the ebb and flow of the match, though Tuxing did take a hard blow from time to time, thankfully, though, the worst had been limited to her right shoulder. That blow sent Tuxing skidding back a bit, and nearly sent her outside the section of the mat that was set up for the "ring." But she managed to retain her footing and stay in.
The two of them went back and forth for a while and after a few rounds it was fast becoming obvious that both of them were tiring. Tuxing was starting move slower and taking smaller steps to hold her breath while Shelly's punches lost a lot of their "oomph." In this, both Tuxing and Shelly were approaching the point where their endurance was reaching its end and one of them was bound to give up from exhaustion sooner or later. In some cases, there would be room for calling a draw and not pushing further, but because of the nature of the tournament and the Year of the Tiger competition, Tuxing wasn't quite sure. Ultimately, between one of the rounds while the muzzle was off as per the break, Tuxing waived Brett Horne over.
"Yes?" Brett spoke slowly as he walked over, noting that both Tigress Animalians were panting a bit.
"Is there any rule on there being an outright winner in this?" Tuxing asked, "for clarity's sake?"
"With UFC-A matches, we could allow for a draw if BOTH participants agree," Brett answered, "though this tournament is such that there must be a clear winner. The scorers would then decide the winner if you and Shelly both decide to call it quits."
Tuxing looked over to Shelly, who was seated for the moment on one of the chairs and between drinking from large bottle of water and panting when she wasn't drinking. Tuxing then raised up one hand to Brett and raised her pointer finger and got up to make her way over to Shelly, panting a bit as she walked over the mat.
"Hey... some bout... right?" Tuxing asked in a low voice and one that was trying to catch her breath.
"Yeah... though you look pooped," Shelly countered.
"And you aren't that far behind," Tuxing spoke, "and... I think if this keeps up, we're both going to be on the mat and too exhausted to do anything."
Shelly panted for a bit, and said, "Yeah... but then one of us has to win, right?"
"I think we could settle on a draw," Tuxing said slowly, "at least so far as you and I... and Mr. Horne can rule and declare."
"And the "Cat Fights" Tournament?" Shelly asked slowly, "who would win?"
"That would... come from the score... keepers that have... likely monitored... the fight and how... many blows each... of us has land...ed," Tuxing spoke, "they'd make... the decision."
"And one of us wins on a technicality," Shelly said pointedly.
"Or we both keep going and it ends with one being unable to go any more," Tuxing countered, "and one could then argue that the other wins on a technicality."
Shelly shrugged to that, and actually noted a sort of humbleness in Tuxing. That was something she could accept. She could see in Liao someone that was confident, cocky, and expecting to win. That had only driven Shelly on harder to win that bout and endure what blows that Liao landed, and she had to admit that Liao had likely left a good-sized bruise on her left shoulder and to her own ribs. She'd just managed to avoid drawing attention from Dr. Joshua Komorowski. She then stood up and nodded to Tuxing as the two of them moved to stand before Brett Horne, who'd stood by quietly observing.
"Well will accept a draw," Tuxing spoke.
"And submit to the official score keepers on their ruling for the winner," Shelly finished.
There were a great many gasps that were heard from the crowd as Brett then announced that, and it was likely something that no one had expected. A fair number likely expected a bigger clash, but Tuxing knew she couldn't go much longer and had the sense that Shelly was in the same bout. In this, even if they continued to a more obvious victor, it wouldn't have come off in the same way. Thus, the viewers wouldn't have gotten that much satisfaction out of seeing one go down and then seeing the other collapse from exhaustion as well. They then waited for a few moments before the score keepers had their ruling and it was presented on the scoreboard, naming Tuxing as the winner of the match by a narrow margin with one hit to a key area more than Shelly had delivered.
"Well... well done," Shelly said politely, "you did better at boxing than I'd expected."
"You've also done well," Tuxing responded, "I'm sure the Polar Bear that's coached you will be proud."
"My wife is more into wrestling," Shelly smiled, "but yes, she will be proud. And the competition will move on to the mountain race..."
"Hopefully they give us a little while to recover," Tuxing spoke.
"Agreed," Shelly commented, though there would be about a week before that race was held and it would serve to end the month and close out the competition that connected to the start of the Year of the Tiger.