Season 4

Chapter 36

As Miguel had expected, Shawn immediately lunged at Miguel in offense, but Miguel expertly dodged him, before throwing a sweep at Shawn's leg. Any normal person would go down at that, but Shawn wasn't at all fazed, let alone tripped up. With Miguel off-balance, Shawn charged at him again, tackled him, and laid a vicious kick to Miguel's stomach. As he was about to continue pummelling Miguel, the ref quickly pulled him away and helped Miguel up.

Miguel 0-1 Shawn

As the fight restarted, Miguel was a lot more careful this time. Fighting Shawn was physically harder than even fighting Johnny and Daniel. At 6'4 and 6'3 respectively, both Johnny and Daniel were nowhere near Shawn's height and build. It was like Miguel was fighting a silverback gorilla!

Miguel glanced at the stands, and he saw his father grinning and clapping his hands for Shawn. Miguel closed his eyes and his father's sadistic, twisted tone came rushing into his ears.

"YOU'RE SOFT, BOY? JUST LIKE HER!"

That brief moment of distraction gave Shawn the opportunity he needed. Miguel had briefly lowered his arms, which allowed Shawn to send a crushing uppercut to Miguel's chin, sending Miguel flying backwards and landing in a heap on the ground.

Miguel 0-2 Shawn

"Oh, wow! Who would have thought? It's 2-0 in favour of our first time competitor. We are one more point away from definitely having a new champion this year!"

Miguel limped over to his corner, where Johnny, Jimmy and Hawk were standing. Miguel shook his head.

"I'm so sorry, Sensei. I can't do this. He's just sitting there, watching me. I can't... I can't. I'm sorry." Miguel whispered, his head in his hands in shame. The pressure from the past 6 months was all piling on him. Despite all of the expectations for him to do well, he was about to be knocked out in the first round!

"Hey, Miguel, listen to me!" Johnny said, holding Miguel up by his shoulders. "I have an idea."

"What is it? Anything." Miguel begged.

"As much as it kills me to say this, maybe it's time for you to take a page out of the Larusso Miyagi-Do playbook." Johnny said. "Clear your mind. Forget your anger and emotion towards Cobra Kai. Towards your dad. Only focus on the task at hand."

Miguel clenched his jaw, determined, and nodded.

"Got it." Miguel said, before walking back towards the middle of the mat. As he prepared for the fight, Miguel closed his eyes, tuning out everyone and everything around him. It was no longer the All-Valley. It was just him sparring with Johnny in the forest.

The fight restarted, and this time, with Miguel using a completely different strategy, he dodged every blow Shawn sent his way. He dodged, weaved, slithered, every tactic he knew to evade the attacks. However, he knew this couldn't last forever. He was quickly tiring himself out, and he knew that if he wanted any chance of staying in this tournament, he needed to attack too. But what to do? Hitting Shawn to the body barely did any damage. It was like a bee stinging an elephant - all it did was anger him. Suddenly, rather than his dad, this time it was Johnny's words rushed back into Miguel's head.

"It's time for you to take a page out of the Larusso Miyagi-Do playbook"

Johnny, you genius! Miguel knew exactly what to do! As Shawn sent a vicious hook punch at Miguel's head, Miguel intercepted it by punching him to the armpit, using Daniel's pressure point tactics that he had taught them while they were training together. He completely immobilised Shawn's left arm, and as Shawn sent a punch with the right, he immobilised that one too. However, his next move was different to Daniel's. Rather than taking him to his knees and punching him, Miguel sent his signature kick, the spinning Tornado Kick, right at the side of Shawn's head. It connected with a sickening THUD, and Shawn collapsed to the ground, knocked completely out cold.