Well, due to his lazy appearance and attitude during this training session, the coaches at this gym were not so lenient as to what opponent Klay would face in this sparring.

  The sparring to enter an MMA top team is often the most competitive a fighter will experience within the training gym. These young men are not just sparring for the sake of evolving themselves as fighters, at that instance they are fighting to survive and step into the harsh world of martial arts.

  One coach, in particular, decided to pin Klay against one of the biggest guys that had appeared that day, out of spite. He was the only coach who noticed his lack of involvement in training and wanted to make Klay pay for it.

  Despite Klay's resentment, there was nothing he could do to pick another man to spar, he had already managed to get through the harsher part safe.

  Also, this might be the opportunity he needs to prove himself to Samuel and the other coaches. If he can defeat a foe bigger than himself, he might achieve his goal of being accepted and sponsored by the gym during this tryout.

  Once yearly, the UK Top Team gym is known to offer full and even half sponsorships to talented athletes. For this and many other reasons, Klay and Reece targeted entering this place as the top 1 goal to begin their careers a step ahead of others.

  This goal turned into an obsession in Klay's past life. He felt like if he didn't enter this gym like Reece as his beginning entry, he could not rise to fame or glory. As mentioned, Reece managed to get in on his first, this tryout in his past life with a sponsorship. This was a half-off sponsorship, the gym covered half of his costs.

  Klay needed a half-off sponsorship or a fully paid sponsorship to cover the costs of belonging to such a high-profile gym. At 16, without a job, and only now leaving school for college. His family was not financially well off then, and it surely isn't now.

  The need to perform higher than those around him fired a rage in Klay's eyes as he squared off against his opponent. Getting himself geared up and composed, he glanced upwards at the man standing before him.

  Klay did not know the name of his opponent, barely anyone who was not well off with each other did even talk to one another. His opponent had to be at least 5 inches higher than he was, built like a tank around 85kg or so.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  In comparison, Klay at this time was a little taller than the average for his age, around 5'9'', scrawny as nails, 67kg. There was a clear height and weight discrepancy between the two, but of course that wasn't going to demotivate Klay.

  This man standing before him also had distinct pale skin, black hair, freckles and a roughed, mean face, he sure looked like a rugby player.

  *Whistle*

  The sparring session had begun.

  Klay's presumption appeared to be right, the rugby guy sure looked tight in his stance. He had a tight and narrow boxing stance. Judging from Klay's perspective he appeared to be training boxing before trying to get into MMA.

  Since his stance was tight and trunked, Klay knew he had a vital flaw when transitioning to MMA. This flaw and possible exploitative weakness presented was the lack of movement in Rugby's legs. They were like still logs ready to be gnawed on.

  So the fight started and Rugby attempted to rush towards Klay with boxing combos, but Klay kept his distance from him and hit him with leg kicks further away from Rugby's hand reach.

  After some leg kick exchanges, Rugby began to lose composure, he attempted to land some leg kicks of his own in retaliation only for them to be checked and retaliated against with more devastating ones. Rugby knew he didn't know how to defend against such kicks from range, even if he tried to check them, he did not know the correct technique to do so and got caught in between their timing.

  But there was one thing Rugby knew, he knew that he was bigger than his opponent. In his failed assaults he had driven Klay away towards the matted walls of the gym, and with nowhere else for his opponent to go he attempted a double-leg takedown against him.

  This takedown was unavoidable for Klay, he knew how to defend against such a move but with the size discrepancy, Klay was just rag-dolled down towards the mat against the wall and then the floor. The two now encountered themselves in a full guard position on the ground with each other, Klay lying down at the bottom.

  With Rugby's size and position advantage, he took the opportunity of this situation and began unleashing a ground-and-pound attack from this position by elevating his body above Klay's head to get a position to strike.

  Although this was not Klay's original optimal situation for this fight, in this desperate situation he sensed a chance at winning. The rugby guy appeared to be inexperienced in the world of grappling, in this position he only knew to attempt to punch and punch.

  And that's what he kept doing, unleashing a barrage of punches from the guard position he hit some strikes on Klay's headgear. Timing Rugby's next punch, Klay raised his leg over his opponent's shoulder and hooked both his legs onto each other, effectively performing a triangle choke from guard.

  The rugby guy rattled and kept striking Klay, even under this submission attempt, trying to bulldoze his way out. In the end, he did not tap out and was submitted unconscious. A coach even needed to intervene after they noticed Klay's opponent pass out.

  Feeling accomplished, Klay stood and entered the waiting room where only the early spar finishers like himself were situated. Surprisingly some people had finished their spar fights faster than he did.

  To simulate real fight circumstances in this sparring session, defeated opponents via intervention from coaches are not allowed to continue sparring, usually in regular training sessions people just continue training. This is why Klay and all these people now awaited their invitation to this gym in this room.

  With such a spectacular early finish, surely Klay was bound to join this gym on a full sponsorship in this lifetime, or so he thought...

  Geared up - By that I refer to placing on his gear: