Weeks passed by as Bruno continued with his daily life in the German Empire. With his work at the Central Division of the German Army’s High Command, as well as his micromanagement of several major corporations within a wide variety of industries, the numbers in Bruno’s bank account kept going up by the day.
But because of this, he was almost always busy, having no real time except on weekends for himself. After all, his family was a significant priority of his, and because of this, any free time he had outside of work was spent with them.
Even so, Bruno somehow managed to find the time to begin his workout routine, maintaining his physique, which had begun to come unraveled due to his rather complacent lifestyle, as well as increasing his overall muscle mass, stamina, and cardiovascular health.
In addition to this, Bruno began to take up wrestling and boxing, with the formation of the National Institutes for Sports underway to foster generational talent within a variety of athletic programs suited towards the Olympics. Bruno had decided to begin expanding his time set aside for himself by incorporating the two combat sports into his weekly schedule.
Though he was by no means training like a professional, the proficiency that Bruno displayed in both wrestling and boxing fundamentally changed the mindset of those few practitioners within Berlin who had begun training in temporary gymnasiums, which the German Empire was now sponsoring for the sake of raising proper instructors for the future generations of talent in these two athletic pursuits.
After all, the sports of boxing and wrestling would develop rapidly in the following decades, and it was during this time in Bruno’s past life, particularly in the second half of the 20th century and the first half of the 21st, that Bruno learned such pursuits.
Hence, the way he dodged and countered punches was completely unusual for the time. But today was an unusual day. Bruno was by no means a small man; in fact, by the standards of the 21st century, he would be considered a Light Heavyweight if he fought in Mixed Martial Arts.
But his opponent was what one might call a genuine heavyweight. As the man kept coming at him, Bruno found himself backed into a corner, where he used an illegal move by push kicking the man away in an act of frustration, followed by a jab, cross, and a leg kick.
The leg kick was so debilitating that the man fell to the floor, where Bruno stood over him smirking. Ultimately, it was the coach of the small and recently founded boxing club who stepped in and interrupted the match.
Though Bruno realized he had messed up and violated the rules of the sport while in a sparring match with his opponent, it was not he who was yelled at, but rather the heavyweight who climbed to his feet and limped around. Clearly unused to being kicked in the leg, and by such a powerful one at that.
“What the fuck was that? Are you taking a dive? I know that was an illegal blow, but are you seriously trying to tell me a kick to the leg is all it takes to drop a big potato-fed motherfucker like you?”
Bruno smirked when he heard this, making a comment to the coach about how little he knew about kickboxing, which wasn’t even a sport outside of Southeast Asia at this time.
“Do you want to experience it for yourself?”
The man looked at Bruno with stern eyes. He was a retired boxer from the United States, who had been enticed by the German Empire’s offer towards professional boxers of significant status to move to the country temporarily in an effort to create a proper national boxing associations for the sake of the Olympic Games.
The man was someone Bruno recognized from his past life and was posthumously elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame upon its creation in the year 1990. James J. Corbett, also known as “Gentleman Jim,” was by no means a weakling. Having been the Heavyweight Champ of the world during a time when boxing was still largely frowned upon.
Not that its reputation was much better in the current year. It was a sport that really only gained some form of legitimacy on the international stage upon being added to the Olympics a mere two years prior to 1904.
Even so, the man was not to be messed with. But Bruno had been a rather competent kickboxer in his past life. He was no professional, but he had a few amateur fights in his younger years before joining the Bundeswehr. And he was both competent enough with his hands and his legs/knees to know that he had a significant advantage over the boxer, whose style was very outdated.
Of course, Bruno’s words were a severe wound to the man’s pride. After all, it was not like boxing allowed kicks; how could he know how debilitating a well-placed leg kick was? Many a boxer had learned the hard way about such things in Bruno’s past life, especially when mixed martial arts started becoming popular in the 21st century.
Hence why he smirked and accepted Bruno’s challenge, wanting to beat some sense into the rule-breaker for daring to do something so dirty while he was the coach of this boxing club.
“Alright, let me get some gloves on, and I’ll teach you a lesson!”
After which, the man quickly laced up his gloves before stepping into the ring across from Bruno. His stance was heavily outdated by Bruno’s standards, who held his hands up high and took a Dutch kickboxing guard style.
As the boxing coach advanced forward with his hands held out in front of him, Bruno nimbly protected his head, moving it out of the way of every punch the man threw, before following up with some counter shots, both of which landed cleanly on the instructor. He finished the combination with a solid and exaggerated leg kick, gaining as much power as possible, knowing that despite telegraphing his attack, the opponent had no defense against it.
The end result was the man’s leg being kicked out from under him as he hit the ground with a look of complete and total shock on his face. All the while, Bruno smirked and offered the coach a hand to help him up, while also assuring him he also had the ability to kick him in the head.
“If you think that’s bad, wait until I kick you in the head as well…”
Bruno didn’t realize it, but not only would his actions at this boxing club, which would one day go on to be the National Performance Institute for Boxing, change the sport of boxing, forcing it to evolve much earlier than it would have otherwise, but would also create an entirely new sport, which was heavily reminiscent of modern kickboxing.
