The Security Council - Chapter 2 by: John The six monumentally muscled figures that remained knew that they were each the best that their respective countries had to offer. It had been ten years since the last confrontation and every succeeding contest offered volumes of muscle bigger and better than the time before. Only the best that the last sixty years of perfected combinations of raw genetics, unrelenting training, and carefully crafted supplements could create ever made it to this stage. These muscular marvels were almost beyond comprehension and only the very best one of them would be the ultimate victor. Those who disagreed with this internationally directed competition pointed out that this had become nothing more than a barbaric and gory betting spectacle to generations that could no longer remember what it had been like when constant international strife and warfare seemed to dominate the planet. Those still bitter with the memories of the constant global threats and mass killings from uncontrollable power despots saw this as a small human price to pay for the general peace the world now enjoyed. Individual government opinions aside, the sheer size of the global viewing audience and staggering amount of money exchanged in the forms of wagering and commercial sponsorships seemed to now propelled the continuation of this visceral spectacle. The contests, as dictated by the international agreement, pitted the strongest and best of each chosen nation against each other for the undisputed right to govern the direction of the world for the next decade. Under this program for over sixty years, ever since the global agreement to use this controlled form of battle to select the country of the Chairman of the United Nations Security Council along with the sole right to the all-important veto, there had been a significant reduction in global confrontation. Sweden, Canada, Senegal, Brazil, Germany and Jordan remained. The elimination of the US and the other four standing members of the Security Council early in the competition had come as quite a surprise. Yet many "secondary" countries, like Canada and Brazil had been making astounding advances in genetic selection, training and supplement development in recent years. Finally the stadium was ready for the fare of this warm afternoon. The six draped figures sauntered onto the platform at one end of the small arena area. Even covered as they were, their massive proportions were not lost on the global viewers. Arena tickets, as always were at a premium and only a lucky, very wealthy few were privileged enough to witness the spectacle first-hand. The huge screen above the six magnificent muscle figures began to flash with names of the countries. Germany silently prayed not to be selected to fight twice in a row. A roar rose from the crowd as the names of Sweden and Canada settled into view. Sweden had been the early favorite of the odds makers and Canada had been an extremely popular choice. This was another of those matches which many had hoped they would see. While it would have made their key corporate sponsors happier to have them meet in the final round, as long as they met, it was bound to be a popular contest. The two colorfully garbed, selected men stepped down proudly from the platform and strode to the center of the field. As the music of the national anthem for Sweden began to fill the air, the blond giant stepped forward and untied his blue and yellow cloak. He stood proud and naked with one strong hand cupped over his enormous, meaty, left breast in tribute to the tune of his homeland. It didn't matter how many times before the audience had experienced this moment - it was always one that drove the crowds wild. The crisp, sharp military facial features of the Swede appeared as if they had been chiseled out of fluid rock by a great sculptor of heroic figures. His high cheekbones shown like polished marble and his deep set blue eyes glimmered from under the deep shadows of his strong, proud brow. His sun-bleached blond crewcut reinforced his dark tanned skin. Every inch of the man was solid muscle. At six feet, four inches, he was half a head taller than his selected opponent. His three-hundred and ninety pound frame was a monument to manly perfection. As befitted all the competitors, his densely packed muscles were wrapped and enhanced by the webbing of aesthetic veining that demonstrated his complete lack of fat. To most he was "the Swede"; to friends he was Oleg. Even though he had been raised and trained for this specific event, he was a man of compassion and humor but one whose military background never let him loose sight of his task. Oleg was proud to have been selected to represent his country and his people and did not intend to let them down. The music ended and the Canadian anthem began. Maurice was from Montreal and carried himself with an air of French pride as much as that of a Canadian. His soft dark brown curls blew playfully across his forehead and eyes as he moved into position near Oleg. The soft cloth covering his great body billowed against his heaving upper body mass as he stepped into place. The beautiful white and red garment slid gracefully to the ground as it unveiled the most beautiful male forms imaginable. He was no less muscular than his fellow competitor, but every phenomenal muscle flowed gracefully into the next. Where Oleg was a chiseled machine, Maurice was polished fluid perfection. His three- hundred and sixty pounds appeared as if it had been formed in a mold created by hands of a god. When the Canadian anthem was completed, both men turned toward one another and began the posing demonstration that was intended to both taunt and impress. The crowd flew into almost uncontrollable chanting as individuals cried the name of their favored contestant. Soon the voices formed rhythmic assaults of name verses name with each group trying to out-shout the other. With each pulse of their name, the two muscled gladiators crunched and flexed and contorted on cue toward their fellow combatant. The chisel cut muscle of Oleg churned itself into hewn stone-like consistency. Already impossible size expanded under the applied pressure. The unimaginable power within each unbelievable mass of muscle became covered with crisscrossing striations and crystallized into seemingly invincible density. Oleg's upper torso fractured into 67" of crystal-cut muscle. His upper arms assumed their full 28" readiness as his upper thighs blossomed to crosscut displays with 35" of muscle that outmatched the total circumference of his waist by 3". The calf muscles achieved their 24" massiveness of support. His ass was a creation of gluteal joy. When he walked the cheeks carved into stratified layers of compacted stone with each piled layer cantilevering ever further over the dimpled crevasse at each side. Undaunted, Maurice met every challenge with equally focused response as his body of astounding musculature literally flowed from mind- boggling display to mind-boggling display of both immense beauty and honed perfection. The smoothness transformed itself into voluminous heated mounds of delicious meat. The flawless proportions and tissue- thin skin revealed every fiber and cut of the phenomenal, yet vibrant volumes of sculpted flesh. At 5'-11", his three-hundred and sixty pound frame was wonderfully exaggerated by the beauty of his proportions. The same 67" of pecs and upper back that Oleg possessed was carried by Maurice. Only his upper body flowed like water polished stone down to his own 29" waist. The 26" upper arms and 23" calf muscles tapered gently to equally small wrists and ankles. While his pecs, when completely pumped, projected out an inch thicker than those of Oleg, they seemed even more inviting because of the flat crispness of his tremendously tight midsection. The sight of this dual demonstration was almost too much to bear. It was time to demonstrate the power behind the flawless images. The impression of strength oozed from every pore of each magnificent creature. Oleg, as the representative country selected on the first screen moved into position for his display of strength. He had selected a rowing demonstration and quickly moved up a ladder to a narrow horizontal platform that had been suspended about ten feet above the ground. The audience moaned with lustful repose as they watched the crystalline movement of the various striations within his voluptuous ass ascend the ladder. Once on top, Oleg proceeded to splay himself faced down on the narrow padded platform. The liquid volume of his relaxed pectoral meat spread outward and spilled of to each side of the planking as Oleg let his immense arms hang down loosely toward the ground below. He stretched down until he was able to secure a grasp of two handles mounted atop poled extensions down to a second platform resting on the ground. As he did this, Oleg's voluminous back muscles fanned ever outward and swept down to virtually blanket the rest of his upper body from view. The sweeping masses belied belief as the measured differential between the enormously spread upper proportions and the impossibly tiny exposed smallness of his lower back became visually overwhelming. One by one, his five fellow competitors stepped onto the surface of the grounded platform until all five, and over 2,000 pounds of bafflingly muscle, stood positioned and ready. Oleg began to draw enormous volumes of enriching oxygen into his lungs as his upper body mass expanded and filled into ever-thickening proportions. The massive pecs swelled into solid rounds of meat and forced the amazingly small waist to form a wide arched opening between its smallness and the padding of the plank below. With visible facial commitment Oleg's back muscles lost their fluid look and divided into intensely thick separate volumes of sculpted muscles. The lats flared into carved chiseled sweeps of paralleled fanning mounds as they took on the initial forces of the weighted contraption below. Fingers of steeled muscle appeared between the inner line of the thickening lats and the deepening valley of the central spinal column. Sweat lighted up the Christmas tree of the spinal erectors and the beads of the sweat twinkled off of the surface of the lower back meat as if reflecting the points of light from a decorated tree. Slowly the bottom platform moved from the ground. The now fully realized latissimus masses assumed the vision of intertwined cabled steel cords as they fought to pull the unbelievable load ever higher. The central core of Oleg's back disappeared into a hand-deep canyon of ballooned rock-like muscle as the mounding meat contracted further and further. Finally, the mountained masses of Oleg's traps would not let the two sides of the stoned meat to move any closer together. With one last deep, further thickening breath, Oleg locked the suspended platform below into a stable position a full three feet off of the ground. All 2,000 pounds was held in unbelievably secured suspension by the sheer strength of his glistening back muscles for a full minute before he slowly returned the load carefully to the ground. The cheers from the crowd only grew louder once Oleg had returned to his standing position on the ground and hit them with one of the most tantalizing lat spreads ever offered to the world. The action induced pump created a sweep of muscle from ungraspably thick upper broadness to impossibly small girdled narrowness that was nothing short of god- like. Maurice moved forward unaffected by the gauntlet that had been thrown down before him. The sheer beauty of the movement of his body into position was enough to draw the riveted minds from the accomplishment of Oleg to the image of his challenger. The words grace and Maurice were veritably interchangeable. Maurice was never one afraid to push the proverbial envelope. Not even the media was prepared for his demonstration. Had they been aware of his intent, certainly there would have been a flurry of censorship debates of sufficient magnitude to disrupt the entire proceedings. Precisely because of this, Maurice had not shared his actual intentions with any but chosen trusted few. His beauty had already become legendary and his sexual erotic dispositions were no secret. Maurice's body of liquid-gold muscle moved directly over to a 30" long, three inch diameter steel threaded pipe. A 12" diameter round plate had been welded to form a sort of base at the bottom of the vertical tube. A confused crowd watched as Maurice slipped one 45 pound plate over the pipe and let it fall loudly to the base. He followed this with three more plates. Pausing as if debating with himself, Maurice finally added a fifth plate to the assemblage. Then he drew a rounded cone-shaped metal item from a nearby box. The base of the cone was about four inches across and the cone was about 5" long. Moving back to the steel pipe, he placed the cone on top and screwed it onto the upper end to form a cap. The resulting shape was not merely suggestive. The noise of a loud collective gasp grew through the arena as the audience began to realize what was about to happen. Securing a pair of latex gloves, Maurice covered the top third of the created instrument with what could only a be lubricating liquid and then, without hesitation, he straddled the waiting man-made weighted dildo and positioned the base of his equally beautiful ass over the very tip. As if to warm up for the pending challenge, Maurice began to flex and relax the sculptural marvels of his gluteal masses. The total lack of any excess water or fat caused the deliberate sensual, self-massaging muscle display to move well pass suggestive and leap to brutally erotic. Unbelieving cameras moved as if hypnotically driven into close-up views of this unimaginable display. Maurice's body was of such a level of perfection that no matter how he flexed, shifted, undulated or moved, he virtually secreted eroticism. Slowly, his hands moved up to the core of the offering as his fingers began an obviously well-practiced massage of the deliriously inviting sphincter. Satisfied with his preparation, Maurice lowered himself to where his ass hole came in contact with the inviting, cold metal cap. His butt muscles spread and flowed into ever more beautiful arcs of waving mounds of meat. Another gasp fill the air when the anticipated slow impalement was presented with an instant, mind-numbing instantaneous complete cap insertion. A loud groan of obvious painful glee emanated from within Maurice as he permitted about 10" of the 300 pound dildo to penetrate his interior. Suddenly, the entire body of artistically sculpted muscle carved itself into a steel-like display of sensual radiance. Every fiber leaped into clearly discernible view on each and every individual muscle, yet not a single one of them lost any of their innate sexual beauty. Somehow the vastness of the size and the density of each magnificent muscle that composed the unbelievable Canadian seemed to define the term "perfection". The last grouping of muscle to shift to stone-like, striated beauty were those of the invaded ass. With obvious confidence, Maurice began to move up from his semi- squatting position. As he moved, the astounding ass fissured and chiseled itself from stone to match the strength of the steel embedded within it. As it accomplished the visual and reality of the shift, the muscles locked onto the flared broadness of the internalized cap and the full body of the weighted creation began to move off of the ground. An unbelieving audience grew dead silent as the writhing legs corded their amazing musculature into locked mounds of ballooned meatiness. Sweat flowed freely across the quivering massiveness of all the various struggling muscles inviting cum-inducing sexual responses from a large percentage of the viewing audience as Maurice smiled erotically through the tension of his erotic accomplishment of strength and held the position of the same sixty-second count that Oleg had used in his demonstration. Finally, he lowered the weight back to the ground, relaxed, and, with an audible plop, dislodged the invader from within. As he moved back into position next to his amazed opponent, Maurice permitted the cameras and audience to enjoy one last demonstration of the beauty of the controlling ass muscles by concentrating on the flexing and stretching movement of the two marvelous globes during his parade. If there had been any doubt it was now clear that these two magnificent creatures had been selected to represent the best of their respective country but only one of them would survive the pending ordeal. This process, like before, would continue until only one man remained and one country was victorious. The only tools available to them were their own bodies. Only strength, agility and guile mattered now. There were no other rules. It was that simple. Man against man, muscle against muscle - only one victor. While each man had been selected, trained and, in essence, created for this very moment, they were all the products of a very specialized science that had evolved over the years. The best minds and scientists of each country had come to a number of common conclusions and discoveries. The result was the ongoing creation of more and more physically gifted men. When the contests had first begun, most counties had sought to go for the maximum in muscular size and density. After a while, it became evident that dexterity, agility, intelligence and speed were equally valuable. The result was the visually stunning creatures of today's combat. The extraordinary muscular size had been maintained while a return to aesthetic proportioning had been added for desired maneuverability. Massive arms, backs, chests, butts and legs erupted from tight, flexible waists and flowed down to supple but strongly tendoned wrists and ankles. These were fine sleek race-horses with the strength and power of the greatest quarter-horses. It was not many years before scientists discerned that the greatest drive for combined physical accomplishment and sculpted strength seemed to be stronger in gay men. Over the decades, more and more emphasis had been directed into selecting and training gay men. Of the fifteen original combatants this year, 11 were strictly homosexual and 3 were bisexual. Of the remaining six, five were strictly gay, only the Jordanian acknowledged a predisposition to both men and women. The horn sounded. The combat began. Maurice dove straight for the exposed blond-ringed groin of the towering Swede. His hands moved in blurred swiftness as he lunged to grab at Oleg's overly-large swinging male member. A pronounced side- effect of the more recent supplements was the increased scale and density of all the exposed body attributes. The sexual organs paraded by these highly specialized fighting machines carried the same stamina and presence of the rest of the visible musculature. Some argued that this was what actually brought more and more gay men into the program. With unexpected speed and precision of movement, Oleg sidestepped this anticipated initial move as the front of Maurice' body slammed onto the grassy field. The giantly muscled arms of Oleg swooped down around either side of the prone waist as Maurice slide under the splayed legs of columnar Swedish muscle. The scooping hands interlocked around the taunt Canadian midsection and, in one swift maneuver, hoisted the full weight of the gorgeous body up in an inverted bearhug. Maurice groaned in sharp pain as he felt his slim waist hauled into the void below the precipitous overhang of Oleg's stiffening pecs. Maurice locked his perfectly sculpted ass muscles into steely dimpled globes against the assaulting pectoral rocks as Oleg's hands and forearms tightened their grip and tried ever harder to snap the bridged column of Maurice's vertebrates against his clenched abs. Acting quickly, Maurice bent his knees back and threw his feet into a locked position behind the Swede's neck. His calf muscles flared into rounded metal pistons pushing hard against either side of the contained, straining upper head. Oleg suddenly found his ears ripped with the pressure of the bundled lower leg meat and his nostrils filled with the rich musky scent coming from the pair of fist-sized balls within tasting distance from his mouth. Maurice could feel his opponents biceps and triceps harden into ballooned rock formations against his pain ridden obliques. He knew he had to work harder or loose before the battle had even begun. The years of practice with the fluid motion paid off as he was able to bring his ankles and feet together in an interlocked formation and, thus, increase the pressure being applied against the sides of Oleg's head by his hardened lower leg muscle mass. The very pressure threatened to crush the entrapped skull. In an act of undaunted brilliance, Oleg finally seemed to relent and simply let go of the bearhug. Once released, the handsome, inverted body fell toward the ground as quickly as three-hundred and sixty pounds of gravity applied forces could pull it. Fortunately for Maurice, and unfortunately for Oleg, the Canadian's interlocked lower legs remained secured and acted like a fulcrum on the Swede's upper body. Soon both men found themselves horizontal on the ground with the heavier Oleg on top of the beautiful Canadian. Using all the immediate strength he could muster, Maurice threw himself into a push-up with catlike speed and carried the full weight of the giant blond up with him. His massive triceps locked themselves into an astounding display of corded monstrosity under the burden. As quickly as his arms were locked and secured, Maurice flexed one mighty shoulder and the corresponding side of his densely packed back; flipping the Swede over onto the ground next to him. The sight of the heaving Swedish chest billowing up in an impossibly thick arc above the vacuumed smallness of the power-raked waist swooned the viewing Canadian momentarily as lust replaced drive. Then Maurice noticed that the palpating, striated male breasts were not the only engorged vestiges of muscle immediately visible. Oleg's cock was beating ever higher with each pounding beat of his overactive heart muscle. The lustful vision at Oleg's loin pulsed with measurably increased volume in rhythm with the rapid rise and fall of the mounded pecs. His nipples pushed sharply outward and pointed down to the growing organ on the underside of the monstrous pectoral curves. Each bundle of densely fibered muscle within the huge massive male breasts undulated with excited fury as the huge Scandinavian regained mental control over his situation. As the apple-sized head of the pounding male member climbed higher than the peak of his expanded chest muscles, Oleg twisted his refocused head toward the admiring Canadian. With shocking speed, he thrust his body upward while spinning onto his knees and, reaching out, took a large clump of flowing brown hair with him in one clenching hand. Maurice screamed loud and hard in painful awareness of the predicament into which his lustful drifting had suddenly placed him. In an act of inspired desperation, as his face rubbed past the still- inflating cock of his captor, Maurice was able to get his mouth over a small piece of the passing sensitive cock head. He bit down, knowing that he did not have enough to do any significant damage but more than enough to create painful discomfort. The trick succeeded and, soon the two brutally pumped muscle men stood pain-filled face to pain-filled face once again. Almost instinctively, both sets of angered hands lunged out and each secured as much of the preponderance of protruding breast meat as they could. Two pairs of enormous male pectorals froze instantly into marbled monsters as the sheer volumes pushed back against the invasions of destructively desirous fingers. Striation after defining striation formed across the expanses of thickly protruding mounded meat as the density of the flesh hardened into forces stronger than that which the penetrating digits could muster. The central cleavage on each man formed into rock-like cavernous cliffs and pairs of straining triceps cut themselves into equally thick coiled springs as the forces being applied moved into the upper arms for reinforcement. Redness grew around the points of contact between man-tit and spiked fingers but neither man would show any sign of failure or indication of weakness. By now, both men were in a state of complete arousal. The force of the struggle and the balance of the challenge was as brutally exciting as it was fatefully deadly. Each set of fingers could sense the impossible strength and fantastic accomplishment of muscle the other had achieved. Surely only muscle such as their own was capable of succeeding against such a collection of matching muscle. They were both creatures bred for just this one purpose of proving whose muscle had been better created and composed. It was obvious that it would take every ounce of embedded strength and every inch of steely volume of muscle to overcome that which they each now faced. While each was aware of the ultimate outcome, there was a sense of admiration for the accomplishment of physical perfection that was their opponent. In another world they would be companions in physical sharing, but here and now, their only way to survive was at the expense of the magnificence of the other. The biceps on both pairs of arms erupted into gloriously mounted fibrous divided balls of heated meat as veins burst out onto the surface like a network of webbing designed to keep the expanding volumes from exploding through the translucent sheen of skin. The arms grew to the size of a normal upper leg and then expanded far beyond that scale. Each bundled division of the meaty core of the upper arm masses cast sharply cut individualized shadows that extended down through the equally involved ballooned forearms. Still, the astounding chests muscles refused to yield. The applied pressure could not even be figured or calculated. Only the heaving of the mooned, throbbing pectoral meat indicated that it was composed of flesh and not the rock that it simulated. The arms muscles grew reddened with the visible strain of their massive effort and breathing became quicker and shorter as the signs of exhaustion began to set in. Unseen by the two struggling creatures; hidden by the crescented cantilevers of the pectoral splendors; two magnificent cocks stood boldly solid with their broad, proud helmet crowns dripping with the glistening of polishing precum. As the two gargantuan muscle-machines leaned in heavier and harder in the pec to pec struggle, the caps of the enraged male organs rubbed sweetly against one another in stimulating excitement. While Maurice was the shorter of the men in stature, his cock was a good two inches longer than the 12" wonder that extended from the groin of Oleg. The organ Maurice possessed was no less beautiful than the man to which it belonged. The gentle upward arc of the shaft seemed further strengthened by the network of veining encompassing the unaltered wrist-sized thickness from crown to base. His balls hung full, free and round about an inch from the intersection with his lower crotch. While the monster connected to Oleg was not as long, it made up its mass in girth. Placed on a scale, it appeared that the equipment carried by the Swede would outweigh that of the aesthetic challenger. Where the cock sported by Maurice might present mortal challenge to any taker in the penetration, Oleg's was equally dangerous because of its significantly more threatening circumference. Just when it seemed to many that the pectoral challenge might move into an endless stalemate, Maurice surprised Oleg in a blindingly fast shift to a full nelson. One second Maurice hands were tangled in the massive pec death-hold and then next he was locked behind the blond giant with a magnificently pumped bicep locked under his chin. Oleg was surprised indeed and had not even had the time to lock down his immense neck muscles in readiness for the onslaught. Oleg reached up with his own enormously muscled upper arms to try to grab and tear the embedded forearm and bicep from the air-inhibiting position it had secured. His now-infamous lats flew out in a dazzling display of fanned extension like two giant clam shells digging into the lined obliques far below and billowed with strength as they reached into the struggle to gain life-sustaining air. Maurice reached up and grasped one ridged forearm with his other hand, thus securing his strangle hold on the now flailing blond mountain of muscle. Clenching his perfectly carved ass cheeks, Maurice drove his steeled cock into the lower tissues at the base of Oleg's own constricted ass. The applied pressures from high and low pushed Oleg's vast musculature into a splendid show of reactive quivering as every fiber jumped and pulsed in spasmatic reaction to the crushing assault. As the muscle quaking expanded down to and through Oleg's enormous sculpted upper leg mass, Maurice's amazing member found its way between the normally impenetrable inner thighs and burst forward under the Swedes cum-filled balls. The crowning open slit at the end Canadian's curved member appeared as if it were licking the underside of the thicker Scandinavian cock as it slid along under the rhythmic thrusts of its owner. The undulating quivering of the body of meat covering the Swede sent shocks of increased arousal through the pec, arms and groin of the controlling Canadian. His massive, beautiful muscles tightened with each quaking stimulation like the body of a python surrounding its prey. In a desperate attempt to regain some control, Oleg constricted his own colossal ass muscles and upper thighs against the invading male organ. The sculpted gluteal cheeks of the assaulted muscleman carved themselves into piled boulders of granite-like meat. The resulting pain experienced by Maurice within his iron hard organ sent waves as much of pleasure as well as distress deeper into the core of his massive muscle-body. Maurice had never felt so aroused, so strong, nor so fulfilled as at this moment. As less and less air found its way into the flailing stupendous blond body, the muscle quaking and quivering revolted into a gorgeously splendid show of uncontrolled muscle failure. The impenetrable pecs writhed in pounding undulations of mind-blowing proportions. The diamond-cut abs danced up and down over the crisp tight waist girdle. His wonderful biceps balled into steel hardened cannonball shells readied to burst upon impact. The triceps coiled and tightened like over-tensed springs and the lats fleshed into full-quarter rounds of richly fed beef. As the last gasps of air left his lungs and the impossibly hard constricting biceps of his attacker compacted his neck muscles and bones impossibly closer toward each other, the phenomenal cock pumped itself into a stiffened readiness that Oleg had never before experienced. He found himself dizzy with a feeling of painful fulfillment. All that mattered now was that last sensation of the ultimate orgasm. Maurice could sense the sound of the tearing neck muscle from the bones and the crunching of the bones protecting the upper spinal cord of this astoundingly splendid compilation of muscle entwined within his grasp before he could actually hear or feel it. The spastic massage to which the body of this dying muscle creature was exposing him pushed Maurice to climax at the same time that the defeated man erupted with his last living action. Both men exploded with cum. Maurice shot the cum of victory in thick, rich volleys that splashed heavily onto the underside of the equally erupting steeled column of Oleg. The force of the climax that the dying body pushed white-hot cum several feet out onto the ground in such volume that the white line could be seen from the upper bleachers in the arena. When the crack of the neck finally sounded in Maurice's ear signaling his victory, the spent conqueror slowly and caringly helped the broken, but beautiful body of lost muscle onto the ground. He bent over and placed a gracious kiss on the head of splendid conquest and, as with others before him, headed off solemnly toward the adjacent gym and the next round when he would have to face a new challenger.