Chapter 4 - The Aftermath on Social Media
While father and daughter drove through the quiet night, the digital world was tearing itself apart.
Within fifteen minutes of the altercation at the Riverbend Festival, three different cell phone videos had been uploaded to TikTok, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
The captions were sensational:
LOCAL MMA PRO RYDER KANE KNOCKED OUT COLD BY RANDOM OLD GUY IN GROCERY STORE SHIRT
WATCH UNKNOWN MECHANIC DESTROY UNDEFEATED WELTERWEIGHT IN TWO SECONDS
THE ANVIL IS BACK: IS DANIEL CROSS RETURNING TO THE CAGE?
By midnight, the primary video had garnered two million views. By 3:00 a.m., sports journalists and MMA historians had pulled up old fight archives from the Pacific Northwest underground circuits circa 2002–2004. Forums like Sherdog and Reddit’s r/MMA erupted into hysterical speculation.
“Holy shit, that’s Daniel Cross. Look at the right hand transfer. That’s textbook Anvil.” “I saw him fight in an abandoned warehouse in Seattle in ’03. He broke a guy’s ribs with a single body punch and didn’t even blink.” “Why is he working at a repair shop in Meridian? The man could have fought in PRIDE or early UFC!”
At the Kane household, Ryder woke up around 2:00 a.m. with a throbbing jaw, a massive ice pack taped to his chest, and his phone vibrating continuously against the nightstand. When he opened Instagram, his DMs were flooded with laughing emojis, taunts, and clips of his humiliating defeat playing on a continuous loop.
His father, a prominent local real estate developer and financial backer of Ryder's gym, stood in the doorway of his bedroom with a face like thunder.
"You picked a fight with Daniel Cross?" his father demanded, his voice shaking with furious disbelief.
Ryder blinked, his head pounding. "Who the hell is Daniel Cross? Some old mechanic—"
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"Some old mechanic?!" his father shouted, throwing a printed Wikipedia-style printout onto the bed. "Read it, you idiot! That 'old mechanic' put thirty-two men in the hospital before you were even shaving! He’s the reason Victor Hale retired from coaching professional fighters in the regional leagues!"
Ryder stared at the paper, the color draining from his face as he read the chilling nickname highlighted in bold ink: The Anvil.
