The news cycle was a relentless beast. One day, Blackwood was the place to be, the next, it was a cesspool, the very definition of everything wrong with the fight game. The leaked evidence, the online forum whispers amplified a thousand times by the media frenzy, had painted a picture of Viktor Volkov so dark, so thoroughly devoid of humanity, that he was practically a cartoon villain. And yet, Liam knew, the real Volkov was far more dangerous than any caricature. He was a cornered animal, and cornered animals bite the hardest.