Week 24
Mike the Mascot 18-6-0 (13/3)
Well, time has come to write final edition of Mike the Mascot. I'll do a quick review of his final few fights, and give you some final words.
At week 109 Mike fought against Shorty Hoo from Les Miserables for the straw-weight championship. As I said before this was very hard bout for Mike, since I was 2 aps down. I had to keep the endurance as close as possible, so I started the fight with 4b/8!/8 ring. That didn't work very well, and I got warned in 1st round. I kept going with 4b/8/8 in 2nd, and switched to 5b/7/8 coming to 3rd to gain some advantage in score to make Hoo open up. In 4th and 5th I went 4b/8/8 again, and after fifth round I was already tired. I tried to rest next 3 rounds to gain some lost endurance, but got stunned in 8th. Something went wrong with my fp, and I rested 9th round too, and put myself out of the fight scorewise. I tried to close the gap and went 11/1/8 in 10th and 10/1/9 in 11th and 12th. I won all of those rounds, but the fight already over and I lost 114-115. I got 73 ips in that fight.
Next fight was against IWillWhoopUrAzzMLTB from Hrulez. This fight continued the streak of bad luck haunting Mike. I started the fight with 4b/7!/9 ring, and got dq'ed in 1st round.
The following week Mike was fighting Tipof Theday "Throw in the towel from Les Miserables for J.Fly championship. I started the fight once again with 4b/8!/8 ring. This time Les Miserables was the unfortunate one, and Mike won his first Scandinavian title by 1st round dq.
This week Mike was defending his J.Fly title against old friend IWillWhoopUrAzzMLTB from Hrulez who had won S.Fly belt last week. This time I didn't try to cheat and the fp worked like a wonder. I started the fight with 4b/7/9 ring, while Hrulez threw the endurance battle away from the start by going something like 8/1/11. I kept going with 4b/7/9 ring in 2nd and swiched to 4/7/9 in 3rd. At this point I was 3 rounds behind in score, but had pretty much secured the endurance advantage already. In 4th I went 6/7/7 ring, and tied the round. Hrulez rested in 5th and I won the round easily. In 6th I went 7/5/8 ring, and lost the round again when Hrulez was slapping his way around. In 7th I kept going with 7/5/8 ring, while Hrulez tried to end the fight by going allout. That didn't work for him, and Mike won his second Scandinavian title and moved to contenders. Allout isn't usually very good idea, unless you are sure your opponent is using very low pow, or doesn't have any str at all.
This has been very funny series to write, although very frustrating from time to time. When I began this series I thought that my chances to go to contenders undefeated were pretty good, and I would get at most about 2 losses while doing so. Instead I ended up wrapping 6 losses and lots of fights against very talented opponents. This goes down to prove how much this region has improved in recent times and how competitive even the smalles weightclasses are, largely thanks to Les Miserables. I would like to thank following gyms for great fights: Les Miserables, PityPart, Hrulez, PYM and Tappara. I hope that this series has helped some gyms to understand the game better, especially the role of efficency and the importance of getting the endurance edge in fights. Mike fought against many types of opponents and I hope this series has gave you some insigth how to beat them. Surprisingly many of Mike's fights ended by dq, especially against Les Miserables, I hope you understand the necessity of cheating in these type of fights, where getting the endurance edge is absolute crucial for winning the fight. Thank you all very much, and good luck in the ring.
-Flat Out