Punch Drunk

Ash DeLeon vs Kenny Starr, Gut Bash 14 (BG East)

"You're not going to cry, are you?" - as spoken by Kenny to Ash at the start of Gut Bash 14 - may be one of the hottest come-ons I've ever heard. Kenny says it smiling, baring his teeth, his arms winding as he loosens up, fists tucked into boxing gloves as big as his head. I don't think the line was meant to scare Ash, and if it was, it fails, since Ash laughs it off, saying, "That's a silly question." However, I do think the line is an invitation to some pain-for-fun, which both guys appear to be up for.

As the series title suggests, Ash and Kenny focus on body punches, which they deliver with more expertise than I expected, dancing around each other, ducking into their punches, which land with a resounding smack but not much fury … at first. Then Kenny hits Ash on the chin. No real damage done, but it's clear that it's not just a love tap. Ash complains that Kenny can't follow instructions, failing to limit his punches to the chest and abs.

Ash puts his hands behind his head and offers Kenny some free shots at his midsection. Kenny delivers a quick one-two. Now it's Kenny's turn. He adopts the same pose, and Ash returns the punches. The trade-off repeats six more times, each time the punches bring more sting than the last time, and sometimes exceed two. Then Ash gets serious and throws a volley of punches to Kenny's torso, backing Starr into a corner. With only a faint vestige of the former leer on his face, Kenny yanks off his gloves and proposes they go at it, bare-knuckle style, with faces now fair game. This is just five minutes into the 31-minute fight.

Kenny gets Ash in a headlock and wrestles him down to the mat. Ash fights his way loose by hammering Kenny's well-cut abs. You can see the pink imprints, so you know it's real. Then he strips away Kenny's and his own baggy trunks, revealing the form-fitting trunks beneath. When Starr teases him over his metallic gold trunks, DeLeon wrestles him to the mat and pounds his abs some more, following up with a kneeling reverse bear hug. It's a tight hug, tight enough to make Kenny gasp for air, and, again, I think the gasp and the ensuing panic are real.

For the next 13 minutes, the action is give and take, the blows convincing enough to stir up a solid boner. These guys play authentically rough. Often, Ash slams into Kenny, letting his knuckles rest in place, needling into the crevices of Starr's sculpted stomach as his other hand grips the man's adam's apple. There's more than a hint of sadism in how these dudes toy with each other. As the match approaches the 19:00 mark, the trunks start to come off, leaving the fighters in just jockstraps and shoes.

The final 12 minutes is an all-out beatdown, with one man taking a decisive lead and tormenting the other guy against the turnbuckle and intertwined in the ring ropes, where the poor sap is treated like a punching bag. Humiliating, but tasty.


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