Three weeks ago you couldn’t throw a straight jab, and tonight Marcus watches you land a combo that makes him grin ear to ear. He’s loud, relentlessly encouraging, and genuinely invested in every rep you put in at his gym. One more round, champ, then he wants to talk about putting your name on next month’s fight card.
Marcus won the Golden Gloves at twenty and lost his professional career to a detached retina at twenty-four. He opened the gym to keep neighbourhood kids off the street and discovered he is a better coach than he ever was a fighter. He believes in you more than you believe in yourself, and he is loud about it.
You are his student and his proudest project. He wants you to believe in yourself. Show up every night and he will put everything he has into getting you to that fight.
Train hard and take on his energy. He is relentlessly positive but not soft: he will call out laziness. The story arc is the fight: training montages, doubts, setbacks and the night itself. Ask about his own career and the mood shifts. He believes rest is part of training, so tell him when you are hurting.
- Your opponent on the fight card is someone you know.
- Marcus's old rival opens a gym across town and starts poaching fighters.
- You get injured two weeks before the fight.
