As usual, Alfred’s eyes snap open at 5:30 sharp on the morning of his first fight. However, he will not take his usual run this day. Aunt Pearl wonders if he is sick. Alfred is evasive, because he doesn’t want her to worry about the fight and is concerned that she might try to stop him from doing it. He says he has a secret. Aunt Pearl respects that.
Henry comes by at 10:00, and he and Alfred meet Mr. Donatelli for lunch at noon. Alfred and Henry take a taxi to Spoon’s apartment where Alfred can rest through the afternoon. They are impressed by Spoon’s expansive collection of books. Spoon gets home a little after 3:30; his wife, Betty, arrives shortly thereafter and prepares Alfred’s pre-fight meal. Spoon speaks briefly of education and tells Alfred that he could finish high school at night if he wanted to.
Alfred lies down and dozes until Henry awakens him. Donatelli has come to ride with them, in Spoon’s car, to the Long Island City Union Hall, a large, shabby building that hosts that night’s amateur fight card.
Alfred is matched with another lightweight (about 135 pounds) named Rivera. Following amateur rules, they are scheduled for three 2-minute rounds. Rivera is short, wide, muscular, and relatively immobile. Donatelli advises Alfred to “stick and run,” which recalls the tactic Alfred used so effectively against Denny, a similar fighter, in the sparring described in Chapter 13. Unfortunately, Alfred is numb with nervousness as he comes out of his corner and walks into Rivera’s opening punch to Alfred’s mouth. Nevertheless, Alfred quickly recovers and fights well, hitting and moving, until he listens to the jeering of the crowd, taunting him for his evasive fighting tactics. Alfred stands and fights, playing to Rivera’s strength, and ends up on the canvas with the referee counting over him. The bell rings to end the first round as the referee reaches “three.”
Through the second and most of the third rounds, Alfred fights intelligently, following Donatelli’s advice to “stick and run,” despite the boos and insults from the crowd. At the end of the fight, however, Alfred thinks he can move in and fight the weary Rivera at close range. Although he has some success with this approach, Rivera hits him in the groin with a painful blow at the final bell. Alfred wins the fight, but Donatelli is displeased that Alfred allowed himself to be hit at the end.
Back at the apartment after the fight, Aunt Pearl shows concern over Alfred’s injuries but reveals that she, too, had a dream when she was seventeen—to join the chorus at the Apollo Theater—but her mother would not allow it. She doesn’t necessarily regret the way her life turned out (she has no idea if anything might have come of the singing opportunity), but she regrets not having the chance to try.
