“You have got to be kidding me.”

I looked across the octagon and knew I was about to get creamed.  This was one of the first mixed-sex bouts so they were still figuring things out, but if we stood side by side anyone could predict who would win.  She was almost a head taller than me, and had the toned, lean muscle of a seasoned professional fighter despite this being an amateur match.  Her blond hair bounced while she hopped from side to side, and when she looked at me I saw murder in her blue eyes.  The only way I could win this was if she suddenly keeled over from a heart defect.

“Weight classes, my man,” my trainer said, squirting some water into my mouth.  “Ya might not look it, but you’re in the same category.  Besides, you’re both undefeated, so I know ya can take her!”

“That’s not a fair comparison either!” I shot back.  “This is my first fight and she’s got 39 TKOs!”

“Gotta make your name sometime.”  My trainer shoved a mouthguard into my mouth and I bit down.  “Now, go out there and defend your undefeated record!”  He clapped me hard on the shoulder, then gave me a shove into the octagon.  There was no backing out now, and I strode toward the middle with my chin held high.

She walked to meet me, presenting the same bearing of confidence I tried to, with the difference that hers was earned.  Each step made me doubt my already shaky chances even more.  The height difference was more pronounced the closer we got, and her compression shorts did nothing to hide her long, solid legs.  Her arms matched, practically long enough that she could be a windmill, and I guessed she had at least four inches of reach on me.

We touched gloves and I fell into a defensive stance.  The only chance I had was to let her get gassed punching a small, easily defended target.  For a big we circled an invisible spot between us, trying to find an advantage.  She knew as well as I did that I would not be making the first move, so she was in no hurry.

With each step she had been inching closer, and she saw her opportunity.  A left hook flew at my temple, and I did not see it with enough time to block.  It connected hard, forcing me to turn while my vision filled with stars.  I looked back toward her, but before I could fully recover two quick jabs hit my nose.  The strikes staggered me back, and I shook my head to clear the cobwebs that were forming.

I looked back to her, and something seemed different.  She was a full head taller than me now, at the very least.  With another shake of my head, I pushed those thoughts out of my mind.  It was just a psychological effect to make her seem bigger the more she beat on me.  All I had to do was give some back and it would normalize.

Before I could get my guard back up, she grabbed both sides of my head and yanked it down.  Her knee slammed into it with a loud crack, and my vision went white for a moment.  I was still dazed when she reached around me and slid an arm under my armpit.  I tried to back away, but her grip was too strong and she held me in place.

With a grunt she lifted me into the air, and pain exploded along my side when I hit the ground.  She kept her hold on me, and quickly moved to make it more dangerous.  Her arm wrapped around my throat, cutting off blood to my brain.  Each second she held me her hold seemed to get stronger and tighter until it was inescapable.  Out of desperation I jerked my head back, just managing to catch her chin.  Her grip relaxed a little, and I managed to slide out of her hold.

My opponent curled her body then pushed up with her arms, launching herself into the air to get back to her feet.  We squared off again, and I immediately noticed something was wrong.  Now I only came up to her chest.  This went beyond any possible psychological effect; somehow, I was getting smaller.  Twenty seconds into the first round, however, I did not expect any relief soon.

She hit me with a jab, knocking my head back harder than she had before.  As soon as I recovered she jabbed at me again, striking me between the eyes.  Immediately she followed with an uppercut, sending me staggering away from her.  Each blow seemed to hit harder, and I doubted I could take this level of punishment for much longer.

Her arms reached down and joined hands behind my knees, then jerked toward her.  I was swept off my feet, and she kept her grip on my legs.  No sooner was I on the ground than she fell on top of me, pinning me to the ground.  My legs were spread wide by her body, and seemed to be getting pushed further apart the longer she held me.  I struggled to get out from under her, but she was strong enough to keep me from getting too far.

Finally, as though she had simply let me go, I managed to slip from her hold.  I scrambled away but could not yet withdraw from the fight.  Turning back to her, I realized I was not as far away as I had expected.  Further, I had apparently gotten even smaller over the last few seconds, and only came up to her waist now.  I had no idea how I could beat someone twice my size with just my hands.

One thing was certain: playing defensively would not win me this bout.  I went on the offensive, striking her with a flurry of punches in the thighs and abs.  When it was done, I might as well have tickled her for all the good it did.  She was not pushed back an inch, and there was no sign she even realized I had hit her.

In response, she jerked her knee up to strike me in the chin.  While I was dazed, she seized me by the armpits and lifted me into the air, then rotated her hips and slammed me back to the ground.  She did not let me lay down, and instead kept her firm grip under my arms.  My opponent dragged me around the octagon before she finally let go, throwing me into the chain link fence around the edges.  I bounced off it and rolled twice before coming to a stop, then took my time pushing myself back up.

When I got back to my feet she was waiting for me.  I only came up to her knees now, so punching was out of the question, but her legs twitched with anticipation of striking me.  She snapped a kick aimed at my head, and I moved to the side just before it landed.  Thinking quickly, I grabbed her leg by the ankle and held on, wrapping my whole arm around it.  No matter how hard I tried, however, I could not use it to push her over, and her heel knocked me over as it struck me in the shoulder when she pulled it back.

She stomped her foot down on me, pinning my body beneath it.  Her foot stretched from my shoulders to my butt, and the longer she held me there, the more of my body it covered.  While I struggled to get free, I wondered why nobody had bothered to stop the fight yet.  I was clearly outclassed, and there was no possible way I could come back from this.  With her holding my arms down I could not even tap out.  Until the end of the round, at least, I was trapped.

My opponent kept her foot on me, pressing down with her weight even after I was entirely under it.  I felt my bones creaking, sure that at any moment I would become a smear on her bare sole.  She never pressed down any harder, but the smaller I got the heavier she became.  Her foot encompassed everything around me, and even if I could move there was no way I would be able to escape.

When I was almost at my breaking point she suddenly relented, lifting her foot off me.  I groaned as I stood back up, just wanting this to be over.  She no longer put her hands up for defense, and at this point I could hardly blame her.  Compared to me she was a titan, a dominating presence that could do whatever she wanted.  At best I came up to her ankles, and she could stop any aggressive moves toward her with a mere sweep of her foot.

All I could do was evade, and hope the next round never happened.  She raised a foot and shot it toward me, and I just managed to get out of the way before it slammed into the ground.  I kept running, and a shadow passed over me as her foot crossed to the other side of me.  It came down in my path, and I came to a sudden stop to keep from running into it.  Her foot flicked toward me, catching me in the chest hard enough that I was thrown from my feet.  The impact sent me sailing away from her, and I barely made a sound when I landed on the mat.

While I laid there groaning in pain, my opponent stepped up to stand astride me.  I gazed up at her, knowing there was nowhere for me to go.  Her towering legs could catch me if I ran, and she would snatch me no matter how fast I ran.  I was abjectly powerless against this giantess, and all I could do was wait for either her to end it, or for someone to show some sense and intervene.

My opponent leaned forward so she could get a good look at me and chuckled.  She reached a hand down, fingers spread wide, ready to grab me in the ultimate, unbreakable hold.  Her palm pressed onto my chest, then her fingers snapped inward, wrapping around my body.  My arms were pinned to my sides by her constricting grip, and only my head poked out from her hand.  No matter how much I wiggled, I was not able to get free of her hand as it squeezed me.

My stomach dropped to my feet when she snatched me off the floor and raised me to her face.  The glare from her blue eyes burned into me, and my futile struggles just made the corners of her lips tug sideways in a smile.  I felt myself getting smaller in her grip, and after a few seconds I slipped entirely into her hand.  She closed her fist around my body, sealing me into complete darkness, and I heard her laughing through the fist around me.

Escape was impossible.  The smaller I got the tighter she squeezed, and every one of her fingers was stronger than me.  I continued dwindling in her grasp, the only thing that kept me from being squeezed to death.  It was pointless to struggle against her might since I had no hope of overcoming it.  All I could do was endure her increasingly tight grip and try not to pass out from the heat of her skin’s convection oven.

Eventually, I was simply not.  She opened her fingers to reveal an empty palm, and not even a tiny speck fell out of it.  After a pause, the referee grabbed her other hand and raised it over their heads to declare her the winner while she smiled widely, beaming with pride.  It was her fortieth win by the same method, but she felt the same rush as though it had been the first.