Ellen looked at herself in the locker room mirror and nodded in satisfaction at what she saw. Clad in a turquoise bikini with a halter top her 5' 7" 38C, 29, 42 figure looked pretty good for a woman of 46, despite the slight paunch. Her shoulder length blonde hair, highlighted and tied back in a pony tail, shone in the lights of the empty room. For a moment she thought back on the strange chain of events that had led her to here, the gym of the local higher education college, at 9 o’clock at night, about to fight a woman she’d only ever spoken to on the phone.
Years ago, Ellen has wrestled at the Amazon Club, a women’s combat club. The fights were serious, the girls fought topless and one, an entrepreneur, who owned the gym where the fights took place, filmed them and sold the resulting videos. It had been a good source of income for her and she’d enjoyed it. She’d been moderately successful, holding the club title eight times, but she’d given it up years ago when she realised that she was no match for the younger women coming into the club.
She still worked out at the gym that was home to the club and she went along to events from time to time to watch the youngsters fight it our and reminisce with some of the other “veterans” who also hung out there but she’d never had the urge to get back in the ring.
Then a couple of weeks ago she’d had a call from a woman calling herself “Jan”. Jan explained that her boyfriend was a female fight fan and Jan wanted to make a movie of her fighting someone as a 50th birthday present for him. She’d gone on to explain that she had some experience herself (at “cat fighting” as she put it) and was willing to pay Ellen two grand to fight her, whatever the outcome. Times were hard and Ellen, a lone divorcee with a struggling business, couldn’t pass up the offer of serious money so she reluctantly agreed.
So here she was, two weeks later, about to face 47-year-old she’d never met before in unarmed combat – her first fight for almost 14 years.
She took a deep breath and walked out of the locker room into the gym proper.
A collection of mats were laid out on the floor creating an area of around 20ft by 20ft. One edge was against a wall with climbing bars, the other three gave out into the gym floor. The wall bars had mats tied to them for padding/protection. Above the wall bars was a stop clock. Three women were standing in the middle of the mats talking. One, a brunette with straight bob cut clad in a yellow bikini, was clearly her opponent for the evening. A younger woman wearing a t-shirt and denim cut-offs Ellen assumed to be Jan’s daughter, who would referee the match. The third was a blonde woman in her early forties wearing a t-shirt and leggings – the film crew thought Ellen. This was the woman who had met her at the front door, introduced herself as “Jan’s friend Jill” and had shown her to the Ladies locker room. “Jan’s using the men’s” she’d explained “she felt you’d be more comfortable in the Ladies.”
Pausing in the doorway Ellen took a moment to size up her opponent. Jan was probably 3 inches shorter and 25lbs lighter than Ellen. She looked tanned and fit in her yellow bikini. Her breasts were probably 36B, her stomach was flatter than Ellen’s, she was about 38 in the hips and her thighs looked strong and toned, a size 12 to Ellen’s size 16 but size isn’t everything. All in all, she was a compact and powerful looking package. Jan mentioned she’d done a bit of cat fighting and Ellen was suddenly concerned about how experienced she was. She thought about the rules Jan had given her. Ellen was “old school” when it came to fighting – she was used to a “best of 5 falls” match over 10 three-minute rounds. What Jan had suggested was unlimited falls, unlimited rounds and (almost) no holds barred – certainly not what she was used to.
She stepped into the room and Jan looked across at her, smiled and said: “Hi Ellen, I’m Jan, but you probably worked that out. Come in, nice outfit – are you ready to take me on?”
Ellen nodded and made her way over to the group.
Jan said: “Introductions first, you’ve met Jill, she’s making our little movie tonight and this is my daughter, Paige, who’ll be our referee tonight.” Then she grinned and added: “Don’t worry, she’s not too biased.”
Jill had positioned two fixed cameras on tripods at opposing corners of the mats and had a third, hand held camera for close ups. There was no doubt in Ellen’s mind that this lady was a professional movie maker and she was treating this just like she would a wedding or a christening. By each tripod was a towel and bottle of water. Clearly they were intended to act as corners for the fighters between falls.
As if reading her mind Jan said: “That’s yours, next to the wall – I’ll use this one.”
“OK ladies” said Jill “let’s start with some introductions. Ellen first, then Jan and then Paige, who will talk us through the rules. Ready?”
Everyone nodded, Jill pressed a couple of buttons and said “we’re rolling, let’s get started.”
Paige took Jan and Ellen by the hand and led them to the centre of the mat.
Jill took her hand-held camera and zoomed in on Ellen and nodded. Hesitantly Ellen said:
“Hi, I’m Ellen, I used to wrestle and Jan has asked me to fight her tonight.”
Jill turned to Jan who grinned and said:
“Hi, I’m Jan and I’m going to whip Ellen’s ass.”
Then Jill zoomed in on Paige who said:
“Ladies, you will fight for 30 minutes. No scratching, no gouging, no biting, no hair pulling – anything else goes. Where your bikinis are concerned what comes off stays off. You can submit a fall at any time and there will be a 1-minute break between falls. The combat zone is the mat, if you come off the mat, I will tell you to break the hold and resume on the mat. The loser will be the person who has conceded the most falls after 30 minutes or who fails to beat a 10 count from me. Ladies – let’s fight!”
With that she spun the two combatants to face each other and stepped back – the fight was on.
Ellen was caught off guard by this start. Used to coming out of a corner she found herself forced to lock up immediately. Jan had no such reservations and immediately put the blonde into a headlock and delivered a series of punches to her abdomen that dropped the larger woman to her knees. Paige told her mother to break the hold and started to count. Ellen got to her feet at 6 and immediately found herself on her back as Jan scythed her legs from under her and followed up with a leg drop across her throat. Ellen rose more slowly this time, clutching her injured throat. Before she could stand up straight Jan hooked her left leg over Ellen’s right shoulder, rolled to her right and took them both to the mat, Ellen locked in a perfect head scissors. Her face firmly in the yellow clad crotch of the brunette it took Ellen just a few seconds to realise there was no escape and, as Jan piled on the pressure with her powerful thighs, tapped out her submission.
Jan released the hold and, as Ellen gasped for breath Paige announced: “After 45 seconds, the 1st fall goes to Jan, Jan leads by 1 fall to nil”