Page 95 - The Circle of Life

fight but certainly had a wake-up call. I can tell you that the cadet was a marked

man from then on but earned their respect none the less. Finally they made
peace with each other and him part of the boxing team where he attacked the
Army conscripts to our great entertainment. Obviously we felt less than nothing

for the conscripts and would give all of them the evil eyes wherever possible.

The PT instructors never bothered to match shape and size as they figured out
correctly that a cadet may have to arrest a man of any size in the mean streets.

Thus a six feet plus cadet could be pitted against a much smaller cadet. It made
the fight fascinating as the shorter cadet normally had a speed advantage and

should be able to take care of himself. That is until the bigger cadet landed a
sucker punch. As the two platoons were across from each other you could work

out your opponent by counting the cadets in relation to your own number. This
helped a lot in the psychological side of things for you would give him the evil

eyes as the line moved closer to the ring. I stared so hard I had blurred vision
even before I got into the ring trying to dominate him as a wanker against a

known killer (me). Only worked sometimes to be honest for he had the same
idea.

I did not win all my bouts and in fact was almost knocked out once by a skinny

cadet who got an excellent uppercut through. No hard feelings. He was a tough
bloke from Natal and we are still friends. None of my platoon mates were

sympathetic though. We really wanted to win. The rest I won but was unfairly
disqualified every time for my opponents would not stand still for me to hit them

properly unless corned. And when corned they very unsporting if you ask me
grabbed the ropes which made the PT Sergeant restart the fight and the

cornering process started afresh. Thus I decided to keep on hitting them even if
against the ropes until the PT Sergeant physically stopped me. Which he did

after a while and then I would be disqualified for doing it again since it was the
best formula I could think of! Being disqualified did not stop the fight though. I

was once disqualified four times in one round. The Sergeant just shook his head
at my strategy but never stopped me. Survival is a serious matter and I felt

quite proud of my tactic which was soon copied by the Rooinekke.

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