MMA System: I Will Be Pound For Pound Goat-Chapter 849: A Question With No Answer

"Why do you want to do it?"

The question didn't come with anger or frustration. It came from the one person whose words always carried weight with him.

Svetlana had never once tried to stop him from chasing anything.

She supported him through every camp, every risk, every title fight, and every decision that pushed him further into the spotlight.

She never doubted him, and she never questioned him like this.

That was why the question stayed in his mind long after she asked it.

It caught him off guard. Not because she challenged him, but because he didn't have an answer.

He couldn't give her something neat or rehearsed. He couldn't create a reason that felt real.

He respected her too much to lie, and he respected himself too much to pretend.

Her concerns were valid. She didn't hide them or soften them.

She told him exactly what worried her, the weight cuts, the travel, the two fights only days apart, the injuries he could take, the long-term damage that had ended careers and changed lives.

She wasn't scared of him losing. She was scared of him breaking.

And after hearing her, Damon ended up having to ask himself the same question she asked him.

"Why am I doing it?"

He ran through the obvious answers, but none of them held up.

For fame? No. He already lived in the spotlight. He couldn't walk into a grocery store without someone asking for a picture. His face was everywhere.

For recognition? That wasn't it either. Most fans already called him one of the greatest fighters alive. Analysts said he was building a legacy that would last for decades. Some said he was the best fighter of his era, regardless of weight class.

For respect? He earned that years ago.

For legacy? Maybe a part of him still felt like he needed one more thing, the heavyweight champion title outside, the one that showed he could conquer every stage, not just one, not just two, but three weughtclasses.

But that didn't justify taking two fights in two weeks. Not realistically.

He kept looking for a reason that made the decision make sense, but everything sounded weak when he said it to himself. None of it balanced out what he was risking.

He wasn't doing it for money. The boxing match alone made him more than he expected. He wasn't doing it out of desperation. He wasn't chasing the approval of promoters or fans.

But he also wasn't satisfied.

Not fully.

Not in the way people thought.

There was still something in him pushing forward. Something that wouldn't let him settle. Something that made him say yes before he even thought things through.

But in time, he reached a conclusion.

He was doing it simply because he wanted to.

The moment he admitted that to himself, he felt selfish. It wasn't a comfortable thought.

It felt wrong to chase something so dangerous just because the urge was there. He cared about the people around him too much to ignore what they saw.

But once he sat with the feeling, he realized it wasn't selfishness in the way he feared. His family wasn't worried because they doubted him.

But....

He had no way to tell them the part he was hiding, the system.

The thing that repaired him, that healed what should have taken months, that fixed damage before it even settled.

He couldn't reveal something that unbelievable. He couldn't sit down with his mother or his wife and explain that injuries weren't the threat they thought they were.

That was a major reason he wasn't afraid of the schedule. But they didn't know that. They couldn't.

And that's where the guilt came in.

He was putting the people he loved into a constant state of worry.

Svetlana, his mother, Victor, the entire team, they saw the risk only through a normal lens, and Damon couldn't blame them for it.

He knew he was the cause of their stress, and that part weighed on him.

It also forced him to think about the path ahead.

Should he really keep taking on these extreme challenges? How long would he keep doing things that pushed the limits?

His personal goal recently had always been heavyweight. Once he captured that belt, he felt like his mission would be complete.

If he pushed harder, he could try for welterweight too. He knew he had the skill and dedication to cut the weight if he truly forced it.

But even he had to admit that carrying four belts wasn't realistic. The UFA would never allow that many divisions to sit without regular defenses.

Managing dates, camps, deadlines, the entire organization would fight him on it.

He understood that. And for the first time, he wondered if this was the point where he needed to slow down, not because he was scared, but because he finally understood the weight it placed on the people around him.

And yet… even after all that, the push inside him didn't disappear. The part of him that kept reaching for more didn't quiet down.

It was still there.

And that was the real problem, he didn't know if it ever would.

Damon finally sat with Svetlana and told her everything he had been turning over in his head.

"I know this sounds selfish, because it is," he said quietly. "The reason I want to do it… is just because I want to. I don't have a better answer. I can't give you something solid or smart. But I promise this is the last time."

Svetlana held his gaze. She didn't interrupt him. She listened, but the concern in her eyes didn't fade.

Honesty mattered to her, and she appreciated that he wasn't hiding behind excuses. Still, it didn't erase the fear she felt.

She took a slow breath and exhaled. "You've proven everything already. You don't need to risk this. But if you feel this is important… then I hope you keep your promise."

Her voice wasn't angry, but it carried worry she couldn't disguise.

Damon moved closer and wrapped his arms around her. The tension in his chest eased the moment she leaned into him.

Out of everyone in his life, her opinion mattered the most. She was the one whose approval or disappointment reached him deeper than anything a fan or critic could ever say.

He held her for a long moment, feeling the weight lift from his shoulders simply because she listened and didn't push him away.

She didn't completely agree with his decision, but she didn't turn from him either.

For Damon, that was enough.

He felt completely lucky.