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Chapter 245 - 222 God’s Eyes Like Lightning

Chapter 245: Chapter 222 God’s Eyes Like Lightning

On September 17th, the TUF Ultimate Fighting finally brought about the official matches.

After yesterday’s group confrontation ended, three students were eliminated, leaving a total of eighteen students remaining.

Next, they would enter the last phase of the tryouts: the fighting competition.

Since it was named Ultimate Fighting, of course, there would be fighting matches, and in fact, each year the most eye-catching and exciting part of TUF was the final fighting competition.

The students remaining at this point would be paired up two by two and determine the winner through Mixed Martial Arts; as for the specific number of matches, that would depend on how many slots the UFC was offering this time.

The number of slots offered varied each year, sometimes two, sometimes three, but even at the most, it would never exceed five.

Originally, many people thought that Wu Li and Xiaoze Wutian would surely take two of those slots, which would have significantly reduced the chances for the others to sign a contract, but this year’s competition had been full of surprises. First, Xiaoze Wutian withdrew from the competition, and then Wu Li evolved from a student into a trainer, signing a contract in advance. With these two out of the running, it greatly increased the chances for everyone else.

"First, congratulations to everyone for earning the opportunity to participate in the TUF Ultimate Fighting Championship. Regardless of the outcome, I believe this will be a memorable competition."

Holding the microphone, Danny addressed the crowd, "Now to address what everyone is most concerned about, UFC is providing three sign-up quotas this time."

As the words fell, the crowd stirred, people looking at each other with rising fighting spirit in their eyes.

Three quotas, a one-in-six chance, not too good, but not too bad either.

"The first round is the elimination match, the winners retain the chance, the losers are eliminated directly."

Saying this, Danny turned to look at Floreson and Wu Li standing beside him, "For the first round, your opponents will be designated by the two trainers. Each trainer will appoint one team member from their group to fight, and the trainers will also act as coaches during the match, providing tactical and fighting technique guidance."

To the side, Charles’s face darkened. This stage should have been where he and Floreson directly clashed, comparing the strength of their respective students as well as their own keen eyes, match experience, and tactical sophistication.

But now, he was no longer the trainer. Wu Li was.

Danny finished announcing the rules and led everyone directly to the competition area.

Without much decoration, there was an Octagonal Cage in the middle of the area – that was the venue for the matches.

Both groups of students started to warm up, doing preparatory exercises by the sidelines.

Wu Li’s group had ten people, while Floreson’s group had eight. According to the rules, Floreson would send someone first, followed by Wu Li; in the next match, Wu Li would send someone first, followed by Floreson, and so on until the last two remaining in Wu Li’s group would automatically become opponents.

"Riddle, you go," Floreson told one of his group’s students.

A black man who was 1.82 meters tall and weighed 70 kg stood out. He hailed from Brazil.

The athletes who were selected for TUF this time would compete in the Lightweight and Welterweight divisions. Until today, all the students had been consciously controlling their body weight because the three quotas offered by UFC this time were all in the Lightweight division. Therefore, during the pre-match weigh-in, everyone had to maintain their weight between 65 kg and 70 kg to qualify for the following matches.

After Floreson had sent out his student, it was Wu Li’s turn to designate a student to fight.

This was where a trainer’s keen eye, experience, and previously acquired information were put to the test.

The trainer not only needed to be familiar with the students in their group but also had some understanding of the students in the other group to be effective in the pairing phase.

However, Wu Li had become a trainer halfway from being a student; surely, he hadn’t gone out of his way to understand the rest of the students previously, and after he became a trainer, he even took a day off...

And the most critical point was that Wu Li actually did not have much match experience.

How was he supposed to coach, to provide guidance to the students during the matches when he had so little experience himself?

Therefore, the ten students in Wu Li’s group didn’t really hold any expectations for Wu Li; instead, they turned their hopeful gazes toward Charles, who stood aside.

This UFC Lightweight top-seven fighter was not only rich in match experience but had also been clear from the start that a match was coming up and had surely been secretly observing all the students. His current role was an advisor to Wu Li’s group, and if he was willing to provide suggestions, to guide the students, then the upcoming matches could still be relatively fair.

Charles was fully aware of what these students’ gazes meant, and with a cold smirk, he looked mockingly toward Wu Li, "Why are you looking at me? He’s your trainer. I won’t say a word from now on, go ask him."

The students were silent, and although they knew about the previous grievances between Charles and Wu Li, they still did not expect Charles to be unwilling to give even a bit of advice.

Thinking about it, whether these people signed contracts or what achievements they might have in the future had nothing to do with Charles.

Everyone looked toward Wu Li, who remained silent, seemingly pondering something.

"This Charles is too petty. Isn’t he afraid of being dissed when the show airs?"

"With this sort of match, having a targeted strategy is advantageous, but Wu Li probably isn’t familiar with these people, right? Does the host provide data?"

"Well, Wu Li didn’t know he was going to be a trainer beforehand, so if his group performs poorly, it wouldn’t really be his fault, right?"

...

In the livestream chat, netizens also felt that Wu Li was unlikely to have much impact at this time.

Charles’s mouth curled into a smile. Wu Li’s performance during the previous confrontation training was dazzling to the extreme, leaving him no chance to regain the face he had lost. He had been holding in his spite until now, just waiting to see Wu Li make a fool of himself.

Without match experience and not familiar with the students’ technical characteristics, how could such a trainer strategize and provide effective advice during the break?

In this rule-based competition, while the students’ own abilities were essential, the trainer’s arrangements and guidance were equally important. If one could deploy students against their opponents’ technical weaknesses, turning the tables was not impossible; thus, TUF Ultimate Fighting wasn’t just about the competition between students but also between trainers. And Wu Li’s opponent this time was Floreson, the uncrowned king of the Lightweight division, so his experience and strength needn’t even be mentioned. How could Wu Li possibly stand a chance against him?

Charles could already imagine the disappointed and pained expressions of Wu Li’s group of students after one by one losing their matches. Before, hadn’t these people been so grateful to Wu Li? If, after a while, they lost and were eliminated, even if they didn’t say anything, wouldn’t they resent Wu Li’s incompetence in their hearts?

Thinking of this, a broad grin spread across Charles’s face.

Seeing Wu Li remaining silent, the students knew they couldn’t rely on him. So be it, they would rely on themselves then!

The ten trainees’ eyes gradually grew firm. They were not novices on the competition stage; on the contrary, before coming to TUF, they had fought many matches, seasoned professionals. If there was no coach to rely on, they would rely on themselves to win the matches.

"Coach, let me go."

Seeing Wu still silent, a white contestant volunteered and stood up.

His name was George, and he was the first one Wu taught to throw medicine balls using spinal power.

George was grateful to Wu because, through Wu’s guidance and instruction, he had made good progress in comprehensive training programs, much more so than before.

He found that the power generation method Wu taught him suited him very well, so he decided that after the tryouts were over, whether or not he was successfully signed, he would systematically study Hua Country’s Kung Fu.

It could be said that Wu had shown George a new path, one that was very suitable for him and significant for George’s career.

George stood up voluntarily because he didn’t want to see Wu embarrassed.

"No," however, Wu shook his head, "You don’t need to go up for this one."

Before George could speak again, Wu pointed to someone in the line, "You go up."

The one he pointed at was also a white contestant, who looked surprised, not knowing why Wu had chosen him.

"Trust me, you have a high chance of winning this fight," Wu spoke with conviction.

"Haha!" Charles scoffed.

The crowd looked at each other, not understanding where Wu’s confidence came from.

But in any case, Wu was the coach, and since he had chosen the contestant to fight, the first match could now begin.

The contestant Wu had chosen was named Tyron, a native athlete from the United States.

[Height: 178cm

Weight: 69kg

Muscle Strength: 148

Muscle Burst: 140

Muscle Endurance: 158

Resistance To Hits: 140

Neural Response: 132

Skill: Muay Thai (Master Level), Boxing (Master Level), Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Master Level)

Overall Score: B+ (56%)](Note 1)

This was information provided by the System Detection, where Wu’s confidence lay.

Indeed, he wasn’t familiar with these contestants’ technical characteristics, but with the ability of System Detection, which was like a cheat code, he could see at a glance what they were good at, and the approximate level of their abilities was clear:

[Height: 182cm

Weight: 70kg

Muscle Strength: 128

Muscle Burst: 130

Muscle Endurance: 160

Resistance To Hits: 145

Neural Response: 130

Skill: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Master Level), Boxing (Master Level)

Overall Score: B+ (14%)]

This was Riddle’s data. Wu could directly compare the data of the two contestants, an ability that no other coach could match. Even if one were deeply familiar with these contestants, they couldn’t present it in numbers like Wu could.

Wu’s silence earlier wasn’t due to impotence but because he was checking each contestant’s data.

Though the system provided an Overall Score for each person, a match wasn’t merely a simple number game. The Overall Score served only as a reference; how one performed on the spot and their fighting style were equally important.

The reason why Tyron was chosen was that Riddle was evidently a ground fighter, preferring ground combat, while Tyron was relatively well-rounded. Though he mainly fought standing, he wouldn’t be too weak on the ground and wouldn’t be easily submitted by an opponent if he were taken down. Besides, Tyron’s Muscle Strength and Explosive Power were clearly stronger than his opponent’s, so during the opponent’s attempt to close in, he could freely attack, delivering substantial blows to the opponent.

Actually, in Wu’s group of trainees, there were others whose data was all-around stronger than Riddle’s, like George, but Wu didn’t send George out to fight because it would be too wasteful. His goal wasn’t to ensure just one victory but to ensure an advantage for his trainees in every match as far as possible. So in picking opponents, it was enough to be just a little stronger than them.

To deploy the team’s strategy in the most precise way was something others couldn’t do, but for Wu, a single glance was all it took.

So-called divine vision was nothing more than this.

Note 1: The initial reason for doing a data analysis was to lay the groundwork for future plot twists and, to be honest, to pad the word count a bit. However, after being serialized for so long, the data analysis actually hasn’t played a big role. Considering how conscientious the author has been, please subscribe and support us~