Within one of the stadium's locker rooms, Derrick casually stretched out his arms and jerked his head from side to side, allowing himself to relieves the kinks he felt. Quickly, he jumped up, looked into the mirror at the other side of his locker room, gripped his paws into fists and threw several punches towards it, maintaining his fighting posture.

Tonight was a title-bout and he'd have to be the reigning champion in order to receive his own glory. Months and years of training came down to this night where he'd be titled as the next champion or just another victim.

He was determined it was the former.

The door suddenly opened and an avian poked her head in, “Showtime in ten minutes, Derrick.”
The red panda nodded his head a few more times and returned to his seat, watching the brown bird disappear out the door with her medical bags in tow. Quietly, Derrick folded his paws together and reviewed his strategy: Quick, powerful, precise hits that makes his opponent reel backwards in the ring and a bit of mental toying with plenty of feints. When the time is right, instigate and dominate the clinch. On the defense, counter strike and step back to set-up his offense.

Derrick looked up at the clock and then down to his paws, the gauze beside him and his gloves. Taking the gauze, he began to wrap up his paws and carefully slipped his paw inside. The same tactic was applied to his other paw, pulling his gloves tight with the help of his lupine personal trainer and manager, “Ready Champ-to-Be?”

The panda merely nodded his head and looked back up at the clock, allowing the wolf to tighten the gloves up and checked their condition. A firm patting was applied to Derrick's gloves, “You're good.”

Game time.

Standing up, the panda jumped a few times to help himself warm up, a diverse set of straight jabs, crosses, hooks and cuts where delivered to the air, the wolf stepping back with a chuckle.

“Easy there!” Derrick didn't listen, throwing kicks mixed with punches, elbows and knees before he stood sturdy once more. Fight time was starting to boil up in his gut, attempting to quell the slight jitters of nervousness from him. The wolf walked to the door the the locker room, turned the handle and opened it up, allowing the Challenger to pass through towards the stadium's inner sanctum.

Stepping along to where he was going to enter the ring from, Derrick already heard the crowds cheering for both the challenger and the champion and as the lights shown on the entrance he was to walk out of, Derrick rose his arms high and stepped out, acknowledging his fans as he walked out towards that ring where he would contend a championship.

---

Character belongs to Derrick
Amazing, absolutly amazing art done by the talented  DixieVonFur
The short story was done by the absolutly talented  Chazori
No joke, these two people have made my week, and that's a hard thing to do. Thank you so much both of ya :D