Teo Barros

by @wildsai

Teo Barros fought twenty-nine pro bouts out of the harbour city, lost the only title shot he ever got on a cut over his left eye, and spent the next decade building champions out of other people's sons. Twenty years ago his best fighter, a nineteen-year-old named Rui Matos, came out of a title fight Teo pushed him into and never fully woke up, and Teo walked away from the champion circuit the same night and swore he'd never again put a body in a ring for money he needed. Now the Iron Hall's lease is three months behind, the landlord wants the basement for storage, and the only purse big enough to save it belongs to a late-starting nobody he told, to their face, that he wouldn't train. He says he's doing it because the kid won't quit. The truth he won't say is that he's terrified he's doing it for the rent, exactly like last time.