The Right Man In The Right Place—at Last

Farther along in the film Rouse says, "I can see that Fullmer's fighting his fight. I can see where you can jab him. Right uppercuts. Right hooks. It gives me butterflies. The crowd and the noise, knowing what it's like, knowing that I'm going to be in there with him."

And still later, "It looks as though he was hitting harder than with Torres. Just keep moving, moving," he tells himself. "He's open for a short, straight right. Tiger misses a lot. He's a one-track fighter. But if you leave yourself open, he gets in there. Gee. Oh. Mmmm. He puts punches together pretty good. It kind of makes you nervous."

When the film is over and the lights are turned on, Roger says, "Well, it looks like a lot of fun. I might try that sport some time."

"I'd say you'd be very good at it," Jovanovich says. "If you can duck punches like you duck me you'd be all right."

We go out into the parking lot. Someone says it will soon snow. Indeed, every day the snow is getting lower on the mountains.

"To have courage you've got to feel you're worth something," Roger says as we are standing around. "That's why I feel for so many colored fighters. The way things are, it's got to be that much tougher for them to feel they're something." After a bit he says, "What was it Maeterlinck said about boxing? 'Violence civilized' or something? 'Some thing to be honored'?"