CRH (Richard) vs JRL (Russell)

  NOTE: ALL CHARACTERS ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. ANY RELATION TO REAL-LIFE INDIVIDUALS IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL.

This fight was randomly selected.

CRH (Richard) vs JRL (Russell)

Both characters are in their prime.

Round 1: Boxing

Round 2: Street Fight

Bonus Round: 1621, First Thanksgiving.

1. Strength. Richard >= Russell. This one is a difficulty category to judge, as both of these characters are some of the heaviest hitters in the verse. If I was scaling these two last year, I would have definitively given the category to Russell. However, over the past few arcs, Richard has committed himself to training and has grown in strength exponentially to the point where I might actually scale him above Russell.

2. Speed. Richard =< Russell. Yet again another difficult category to judge. Both of these characters display similar levels of speed, with the edge potentially going to Richard due to his feats in the soccer arc. However, after the events of the Russell Backstory Arc, we see Russell join the XC team. Due to the training he has received during his time there, he almost certainly has higher endurance and long distance speed, which gives him the point in this category.

3. Combat Speed. Richard = Russell. While I am inclined to give this point to Richard, there have been no recent feats that would scale him above Russell, which gives precedent to the feats of the Year 0 Saga. During their initial fight in the Year 0 Saga, Russell displayed a higher striking speed and showed signs of potentially overwhelming Richard. HOWEVER, I choose to keep them as equals due to recent events in the story. The main character, Seyed, has recently been undergoing training by Richard to improve his skills. During this training, he has noted several times the speed of Richard's strikes. Due to this, I am inclined to put Richard and Russell on the same level.

4. Durability. Russell >= Richard. Both of these characters have the durability to be tanks if not for their glaring weak points due to past head injuries. But since this is an equalizing factor, the main point of consideration is their body durability. Russell has shown extremely good durability in this regard, occasionally opting to drop his guard entirely and simply use his durability to tank blows, something which Richard has not shown before.

5. Battle IQ. Richard >= Russell. There is a reason the protagonist asked Richard to train him.

6. Experience. Richard >= Russell. Same as above

7. Combat Skill. Richard >= Russell. Same as above

8. Mentality. Richard = Russell. Both of these characters have the will to go for a victory, no matter what.

9. Reach. Richard = Russell. They are the same size, give or take a few centimeters.

11. Coordination. Richard = Russell. While I would ordinarily give this to Richard due to the Soccer Arc, we saw in the Russell Backstory Arc that Russell used to be a proficient player as well. This essentially equalizes their skills in this regard. But in the event of a tie, I would give the edge to Richard.

Point Breakdown:

Richard: 8

Russell: 5

FIGHT BREAKDOWN:

Round 1: Boxing. Richard has a 60-70% chance of taking this. The combination of the superior skill along with the potentially stronger blows gives him a definitive advantage in this round. While Russell could tank more hits than Richard can, the key point to notice is the critical weakpoint both of them have. Whoever lands the first critical wins this, and I think that with Richard's superior skill he can manage to land it first.

Round 2: Street Fight. Richard has a 60% chance of taking this. Once again, the superior skills and striking strength give him the advantage. However, due to the unique setting, Russell has a better chance since he is more versatile as a whole. He has higher leg strength than Richard, which means his kicks will hit much harder. In combination with Richard's lower durability, this gives Russell a powerful weapon to use.

Bonus Round: The setting is the first Thanksgiving. 

Win conditions: whoever can hunt the most turkeys.

Russell takes this round, 60-70%. He's both faster and has more endurance than Richard, which gives him the edge in this hunting game. Both of them can one shot the turkeys, so strength and skill do not matter as much in this case, which negates much of Richard's advantage.

This one was shorter than usual, but it's Thanksgiving so I kept it brief. Comment down the next match up you want to see, and I'll see you guys next week.