Ryan arrived to the venue a couple hours earlier than normal. He had never competed for this promotion, Fight Yard, before, and he wanted a feel for his surroundings: the cage, the locker room, the seating—everything.

“Can I get in there and bounce around a little bit?” Ryan asked one of the promotion’s security guards next to the cage.

The guard’s denial of access was troubling to Ryan and his team, and the promoter, a smooth talker who seemed set on getting his way, said something about the commission wanting to keep the cage clear until the fights began, which was the first time Ryan had ever heard of such a thing. 

When Ryan finally stepped foot inside the cage, he realized the canvas was more like a plastic than a fabric, and it became a slip-and-slide the moment some sweat trickled down toward his feet; however, his opponent, a local fighter whose entire career had occurred in Fight Yard, was prepared for a loss of footing, causing Ryan to have a long night in the office.

Prompted from Six Sentence Stories at: https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com/2020/07/05/sundays-six-sentence-story-word-prompt-115/.