[INT. DARK ROOM – CAMERA ON ROSS – NIGHT]

A single light hangs overhead, swaying slightly, casting hard shadows across Ross’ face. His eyes are sunken, bloodshot, his jaw tight. He sits forward in a chair, cigarette burning down between his fingers, staring directly into the lens like it owes him an apology.

ROSS
You know where Eric Dane Jr. is right now?
Layin’ in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines, fightin’ to breathe.
And you know why?
Because of me.

(He smirks bitterly, smoke curling out of his nostrils.)

Putting him through hell… that was therapy.
Every punch, every knee, every slam—
for once in my miserable life, I felt something other than the emptiness chewing me up inside.
Destroying him didn’t just break his body…
it kept mine alive.

(His voice hardens, growing more jagged with every word.)

You wanna know why I’m so unhinged?
Why I don’t care what happens to me out there?
Because I already lost the only thing that ever mattered.

July 9th, 2022.
That’s the day Lauren died.
My girl. My world.
The only reason I didn’t eat a bullet years ago.
Methadone overdose. One mistake. One night.
And just like that… gone.

(His eyes glaze with rage and grief, his voice trembling but fierce.)

She was my rock.
She was my anchor.
She kept me from drowning when the streets were pullin’ me under.
Now? Every time I walk out there… every time the lights hit me…
I scan the crowd, hopin’—just hopin’—I’ll see her smile.
But she’s not there.
She’ll never be there.

And her voice?
It doesn’t stop.
It haunts me.
In the silence, in my sleep—if I ever get any—it’s all I hear.
Her laugh. Her scream. Her last breath.

(Ross suddenly leans closer to the camera, his face twisting with exhaustion and rage.)

I don’t sleep anymore. I can’t.
I fight.
Because fighting’s all I got left.
It’s the only thing keeping me from joining her in the dirt.

So understand this—
Eric Dane Jr. was just the beginning.
Every time I step into that ring, I’m not looking for wins.
I’m not looking for belts.
I’m looking for blood.
For pain.
For something that’ll make me feel alive, if only for a second.

(His voice drops, cold, razor-sharp now.)

I’m not like you.
I don’t have family. I don’t have friends. I don’t have a support system.
I have nothing.
And a man with nothing left but the fight?

That’s the most dangerous man you’ll ever meet.

717... HBG.... Represent....

(He crushes the cigarette out on the table in front of him, never breaking eye contact with the camera. Silence lingers before the shot cuts to black.)