At the end of the first round, Mary Kom stormed to her corner, fuming. Things were not going the way she had planned during her semifinal bout at the Women's Boxing World Championships in New Delhi.
She would eventually turn things around and have her arm raised in triumph, but for a while, it seemed to Mary Kom that her opponent, North Korea's Kim Hyang Mi, was not going to be easy work.
"She is fighting counter," Mary Kom growls at her coaches.
"Calm down Mary," is the reply.
"Why is she fighting counter?"
"Calm down. It's okay."
Mary Kom and Mi had fought once before, during the final of the Asian Championships in September last year. The Indian had won then to clinch her fifth Asian title. Now, Mi was doing a pretty good job of denying the Indian a chance to vie for a historic sixth world crown.
Mi is several inches taller than the Indian, giving her an immediate advantage. Over the course of the World Championships, taller boxers have almost unanimously used their superior reach to their advantage, keeping their distance with their lead hand and punishing any attempt by their shorter opponent to come in.
During the quarterfinal on Wednesday, Mi's compatriot in the 51kg category, Chol Mi Pang, had employed precisely the same technique to dismantle another Indian, Pinki Jangra.
In addition to having already fought Mary Kom, Mi also had the benefit of nearly two decades of study material on the 36-year-old Indian.
"Mary has been boxing for so long that there's probably more video of her available than any other woman boxer," Chotey Lal Yadav, India's coach, would say later. And it was clear the Korean had done her homework.
Mary Kom herself admits as much: "I have beaten her in the Asian Championships last year, but win or lose, every boxer always learns and I think she has learned from that bout."
Mary Kom's entire game is the counter. She sacrifices the crowd-pleasing, punch-fest style favoured by so many others, instead preferring to score rarely and making sure she isn't hit.
But now, it was Mi who was happy to do the waiting. For the entire first round, Mi resisted the temptation to fight close in, instead waiting for Mary Kom to make the first move. Mi's lack of accuracy meant she didn't benefit as much as she could have, but it was clear this was a strategy that could work.
In contrast for the Indian, there isn't nearly as much information out there on her opponents simply because they haven't boxed nearly as long as her. For instance, Mary Kom's first opponent, from Kazakhstan, was 22, while her quarterfinal was against a 23-year-old Chinese opponent she had never faced before.
Even if video footage exists of her opponents, Mary Kom isn't a huge fan of analysing tape. "At the Asian Championships, before her first round she saw maybe 30 seconds of video before she said she had seen enough," Yadav says.
But while this indifference might be a stumbling block for other fighters, Mary Kom's brain is seemingly built for boxing. "She doesn't take very long to understand how her opponent is fighting. She picks it up very quickly," says Yadav.
This nous was needed in the ring when the bell sounded for round two against Mi, and Mary Kom instinctively knew how to respond. She would let the North Korean counter all day long, and simply beat her to the punch.
It is a strategy that not many can pull off. It is easy to block and parry jabs, but a lot trickier to punch simultaneously. That's where Mary Kom's innate skill comes in.
Even at 36, she still remarkably remains the quickest puncher in the women's game. Where other boxers make up for their slowed reflexes with a greater emphasis on power, Mary Kom has simply got slicker and faster.
Almost simultaneously, she would swat away the North Korean's outstretched left glove and reach over to land flush on her jaw. It was a painful lesson for Mi.
When Mi doubled up her jab, it was more in hope than anything else. She eventually lost her shape, allowing Mary Kom to land a combination of upward punches. Now, the North Korean was unwilling to even commit to a punch with her right hand, for fear of leaving herself open for a left hook.
Mary Kom had done better than she thought. She had lost the first round on just one judge's card, but the second and third rounds were unanimously scored 10-9 in her favour. Eventually, she bowed to the crowd, danced to the pop music blaring through the stadium, and skipped out of the ring.
There's one more hurdle now for Mary Kom to vault in Delhi. Her next opponent is another bright eyed youngster. Ukraine's Hannah Okhota is at 22, perhaps two generations younger than the Indian. She is young enough to believe she has got what it takes to beat Mary Kom, having fought her in the semifinals of the Silesian Championships in Poland two months ago.
Standing before an oversized poster of Mary Kom outside the stadium -- almost a metaphor for the Indian's oversized impact on the game -- Okhota speaks with confidence. "That bout was 50-50. She had more experience than me. This time I have prepared," she says.
Okhota isn't just talking a big game, its quite likely she sat down with her coaches to analyse exactly how to box the Indian. It's also quite likely that Mary Kom isn't going to be too worried. She is boxing as well as she has ever done.
There will be nothing in the ring on Saturday that she hasn't seen before. On current form, it will take an immense and inspired performance to beat Mary Kom.