Novel Full Chapter 703: Now It’s Personal
Chapter 703: Now It’s Personal
MGM Grand Training Center, Las Vegas, Nevada — December 20th, 8:05 AM (Local Time)
Early morning light spills through the wide glass panels of the facility, cutting across rows of unused equipment and a still ring in the center. The place is quiet in that pre-training stillness, the kind that comes before gloves start snapping and voices fill the air.
Today’s session hasn’t started yet. Miguel Cabello is in a small lounge room off the main training floor. A television is mounted on the wall, tuned into a live broadcast of the fight. The room is quiet, lit by the glow of the screen more than anything else.
He’s seated back in a chair, relaxed in posture, watching without saying anything, observing the fight as it unfolds. Assistant coach Pedro stands near the doorway, arms folded, looking between Cabello and the screen like he’s already decided this is a waste of time.
“You dragged me out here for this?” Pedro says, eyes still on the TV. “This kid’s just beating up a tired champion. There’s nothing special in it. Guy’s just walking him down while he’s already spent. Anyone looks good in that situation.”
Cabello doesn’t look up right away, eyes still locked on the screen. “Watch how the kid baits the guy come to him, and traps him there.”
Pedro exhales, still unconvinced. “Or the guy just doesn’t know how to handle pressure anymore.”
Cabello doesn’t respond to that directly. Villanueva steps in again on screen, and the exchange folds the same way it has been folding.
“He keeps bringing him back to the same line,” Cabello finally says. “Same place. Same timing.”
Pedro shifts his stance, arms still folded. “Still looks like a beatdown to me.”
Cabello finally looks up for a second. “It would if that was all it was,” he says, then looks back at the TV.
Villanueva gets pulled into another exchange on screen. Cabello’s thumb taps once against his knee, then stops.
“It keeps happening in the same beat, like he’s arriving where the kid already finished setting the table.”
He leans back slightly, then turns his head toward Pedro. “You know the basics. Technique, structure, you’ve got all that. But have you ever fought at this level before?”
Pedro doesn’t answer. His eyes stay on the TV, but the stiffness in his posture fades. He gives a small shake of his head, almost to himself.
“I didn’t get that far,” he mutters. “Had to stop early. Took the coaching route.”
Cabello watches him for a second, then looks back at the screen.
“Yeah… That explains it.”
On the TV, Villanueva steps in again, pulled into an exchange.
“You’re only seeing the surface,” Cabello continues. “Punches, pressure… that part’s easy. But what’s happening up here is more complicated than that.”
He shifts, lifting his right leg to rest over his left thigh without fully crossing it, then leans forward, setting his right elbow on that raised knee and resting his chin on his hand.
“He’s reading him, then guiding him into the same choices,” Cabello continues. “And once the opponent starts doing exactly what you expect, it ends up looking like this… a one-sided fight, like he’s up against someone weak.”
After a moment, he eases back into his seat, settling into a looser posture before turning his head toward Pedro.
“It’s not that the opponent is weak,” he says. “The kid’s the one making it look that way.”
On the TV, the final sequence unfolds just as Cabello had been following it in his head. The opening appears, the shots land, and Villanueva goes down.
Cabello watches without reacting much, eyes steady on the screen as the referee steps in and waves it off. The result itself doesn’t hold him there. It’s already settled for him long before the stoppage.
Still, he keeps watching through the replay angles, picking up the small details in how it all came together. Then the broadcast shifts. The camera cuts away from the ring, back to the studio. The anchors start talking, breaking down what just happened.
Cabello leans back in his seat and stretches his arms out, rolling his shoulders once like he’s finally done sitting still.
“Alright…” he says quietly. “Time to work.”
Pedro takes that as his cue. “Good,” he says, pushing himself off the doorway. “We’re already behind. Warm-up first, then we go straight into the footwork drills.”
He doesn’t wait for a response, already walking out. “I’ll get the guys ready.”
Cabello stays where he is for a second longer, eyes drifting back to the TV, though the interest isn’t really there anymore. The anchors keep talking, their voices blending into background noise.
He then reaches over, picking up the remote, thumb hovering over the power button. But his phone buzzes first. Cabello pauses, glances at the screen, then answers it instead.
“Yeah?”
[Miguel, did you watch that Takeda fight? It’s blowing up everywhere.]
Cabello leans back slightly, remote still in his other hand. “I saw it. He won, like he was supposed to. Nothing crazy.”
A short pause on the other end, then the voice comes back sharper.
[What are you talking about? He called you out after the fight.]
Cabello’s thumb stops over the remote. “…What?”
“And not just that. Hugo Ramirez is there too. The kid dragged the camera over to him, put him on the spot, then started talking about making the fight happen. He went all in.”
Cabello’s eyes shift back to the TV. Right then, the studio feed changes. One of the anchors cuts in mid-discussion, voice picking up as something new comes through.
“Hold on! We’re just getting something here…”
The tone in the room shifts immediately. The screen switches from the desk back to the ring.
The footage rolls. Ryoma, still in the ring, leaning into the camera, voice clear as he calls out.
[Wherever you are, Cabello, I know you’re watching this.]
[I heard you’ve got a world title fight coming up, and I’m sure you’re going to win it. So make sure you’re ready, and don’t get yourself hurt too much. I’m coming after you soon enough.]
Cabello leans forward slightly, a faint smile forming as he watches.
“…he’s got guts,” he murmurs, almost amused.
The way Ryoma says his name, the certainty in it, the way he speaks like the outcome is already decided, pulls something out of him. An interest, maybe something sharper than that.
His eyes stay locked on the screen. But then, the last line lands.
[You can’t run from me forever.]
Cabello’s smile fades. His expression tightens just a little, not dramatic, but enough. His jaw shifts, eyes narrowing.
“Insolent brat…” he mutters under his breath.
He lets out a short breath through his nose. “Run? When did I ever run from you?”
The line hangs for a moment, and Cabello doesn’t look away from the screen. Something about it doesn’t sit right, not the challenge itself, but the way it’s framed.
He remembers when Ryoma’s side reached out before. The talk was loud for a while, enough that he pushed it himself, even brought it up to Ramirez and told him to make it happen. He had no issue with it. If anything, he wanted it.
Not long after that, Ramirez came to him with a different plan, a bigger stage, a title fight lined up, everything moving in another direction.
Cabello’s expression tightens slightly as he watches Ryoma still standing there on the screen.
“…so that’s how it is,” he mutters.
The thought lingers just long enough for the pieces to settle into place. It was never about timing. It was never about readiness.
The decision had already been made somewhere else, and he’s the one standing here looking like he ran away from it.
Cabello exhales through his nose and reaches for the remote, turning the TV off. He also ends the call without saying anything more, scrolls through his contacts, and presses another number as he starts walking toward the door.
The line connects while he’s already stepping out into the hallway.
“Rivera, get here this morning,” he says, voice steady but firm. “There’s something I need to discuss with you.”
He doesn’t slow his pace after that. The phone stays at his ear as he walks past the empty training floor, past the still ring, his focus already somewhere else.
A few minutes ago, it was just another fight on a screen. Something to watch, something to study, nothing more than a name worth keeping in mind. But that’s gone now, turning into something else.
It isn’t about rankings, or titles, or what comes next on paper. Whatever sits between him and Ryoma has already stepped past all of that.
Somewhere across the ocean, a kid said his name like it meant something, like there was unfinished business between them.
Cabello’s grip tightens slightly around the phone. “I’m getting in there with him. Doesn’t matter where, or when. You don’t let that kind of talk go around like I’ve been ducking him.”
He keeps walking, gaze fixed ahead. “Doesn’t matter what’s on the line. I want you to set it up.”