The Starlight Club 6: Double Seven

by Joe Corso

  There was no way on earth that Cynthia would turn down those tickets.

  “I’ll take my girlfriend. I know she’d love to come.”

  “Okay, then. Tomorrow night, go to the box office and ask for the two tickets Swifty Card left in Cynthia’s name.”

  “Thanks, Mr. Card. I’ll look forward to seeing you there.”

  “Call me Swifty not Mr. Card. The tickets should be near ringside, so I’ll be looking for you.” Swifty’s remark made her heart flutter even more. “Now show me where the phone is?”

  She pointed to the manager’s desk. “It’s over there.”

  Swifty was about to call Red but then thought otherwise. Rather than bothering Red he thought of Paulie, the cab driver who picked him up from Stillman’s Gym the last time he was there. Swifty figured he’d call Paulie and see if he was available. He looked through his slim address book, the one he carried with all his important numbers in it. He found Paulie’s pager number and he called it. A few minutes later, he received a call back on the security phone.

  “This is Paulie; someone just call me?”

  “Yeah, Paulie. This is Swifty Card. Do you remember when you left your pager number with me and you told me to call if I needed you? Well, I’m at LaGuardia. Can you pick me up or should I call someone else?”

  “Stay right where you are. I’m not far from there. Where will I find you?”

  Swifty told him to hold on a minute. He motioned Cynthia over. “Could you wait outside in front of the American Airline entrance and hold a sign with PAULIE written on it?”

  “Sure. I’ll be happy to do that for you.”

  “Paulie, look for a beautiful blond American Airlines stewardess holding a sign with PAULIE on it. Pull to the curb and wait for me there.”

  “Stay put and I’ll see you in twenty minutes.”

  Swifty looked at Cynthia. “He’ll be here in about twenty minutes and he’ll be looking for a beautiful blond holding a sign with his name on it. When he pulls up, come and get me and, if you like, I could drop you off at your home.”

  “Thanks, I’d appreciate that.” Cynthia found a black magic marker and some cardboard and she hurriedly printed PAULIE on it and rushed outside to wait for his cab to pull up. Cynthia didn’t mind in the least in helping Swifty arrange for his cabbie friend to pick him up. Everything she did brought her closer to realizing that date with the handsome movie star. Now he was taking her home and then, on Saturday night, she would attend the fight and he said he’d be looking for her there. This was working out better than she could have hoped for.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  When Gonzo and Henri walked into the Starlight Club and the three fighters met again and embraced, the jitters finally left Swifty. He felt comfortable and more relaxed now that his fighter friends had arrived. “You know, Henri, this is one time I wish we were in the gym and we weren’t making movies.”

  Henri’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, Swifty?”

  “It’s Slick Parker. He has a style like yours and, when we fought, I had a hell of a time just trying to find you, let alone hit you. Well, Parker is the same way. If I can’t get to him, he’s gonna take the title from me. I never worried about a fight I was going to have. I always figured that sooner or later, I would catch the guy and then the fight would be over.”

  Henri agreed. “I know for a fact that you are right. You tagged me with one of your right hands and my knees buckled.”

  Swifty smiled. “Really?”

  “Yes. I never told you, but that right hand you hit me with in our second fight almost took me out of the fight. Good thing it was near the end of the round or I might not have made it to the next round.”

  Swifty rubbed his chin, thinking of what Henri just said. “If I could just tag the guy with a right hand just one time, I know I could put him away. The trouble is he’s as slick as his name. I was lucky that first fight. He made a mistake and I took advantage of it. What if he doesn’t make that same mistake in this fight? I worked too hard to get where I am now and I’d hate to lose it to a guy I couldn’t catch up to. I mean, the guy dances like a ballerina…uh, no disrespect, Henri.”

  “None taken, Swifty. You know, Willie Pep once said that the object of this sport was to hit your opponent and not get hit back and he was a master of that type of fighting. That’s why he was called the ‘Will of the Wisp.’ You couldn’t hit the guy. Well, Slick Parker is that type of a fighter. I think you’re gonna have to rough him up. When you hit him, turn him, and don’t let him slip away from you. If you don’t do that, he’ll just use his jab and dance away from you and if he does that, then your right hand is useless.”

  “Show me what you mean, Henri. Come on; let’s go into the ballroom where we have some room.”

  The two men squared off in the middle of the ballroom and Henri pretended to be Slick Parker. “Watch now. I’m throwing my jab at you once, twice, three times, and before you can react, I’m already dancing away from your right hand.” Henri demonstrated the move a few times to show Swifty what Parker would most likely do.

  “Okay, so what do I do to counter that move?”

  Henri put up his two hands, mimicking Swifty. “Now go ahead and do what I just did, the way I did it. Do it the same way now.” Swifty went through the same choreographed move that Henri did and just as Swifty threw his jab, Henri surprised him by grabbing his arm. Before Swifty could dance away, Henri threw his right hand the way Swifty would have thrown it, but he pulled his punch so as not to really hurt his friend. “Did you see what I just did to you?”

  Swifty smiled. “Yeah, I did. So you’re saying that when Parker jabs me and starts to back away from me, I should grab his left hand just as he throws his jab and pull him to me to keep him off balance.”

  “Yes, but I would go a step further. When he jabs you, feint with your right hand and then grab his left with your left forearm and hold it close to your body. Then hit him hard with your right hand. Now, come on, and we’ll do it again.”

  The two fighters spent the next half hour practicing the move until Swifty felt that if he could find a way to catch Parker with this move, he might have a chance against him. At least now he had something to work with that he could use to his advantage, where before he had nothing but the hope that he would catch Parker with a lucky right hand. “You know, Henri, I was losing that first fight with Parker real bad. I got real lucky when he made a mistake and I caught him with that right hand and put him away. I was frustrated at the way the guy fought me. He made me look foolish, the way Pep used to do with the guys he fought.”

  “And yet you won,” said Henri.

  Swifty looked away as he nodded in agreement. “And yet I won.” Swifty looked at his friend. “Would you come with me to Stillman’s Gym and spar with me for a few rounds? I’d like to get used to the move you showed me while I’m in the ring.”

  “Sure. We can go over it as many times as you want. We have the whole day to practice it.”

  “Thanks, Henri. I have a feeling I’m gonna need that move.”

  Vinnie offered to drive them, but Swifty said he’d page Paulie and see if he could pick them up and drive them to Stillman’s and if Paulie couldn’t take them, then Vinnie would. Paulie showed up an hour later and drove the two fighters to the gym on the west side of Manhattan, not too far from Madison Square Garden where tomorrow, Swifty would be fighting Slick Parker. There was a buzz when the three fighters walked into the ring that morning. Two world champions and the top heavyweight contender heading for the locker room caused murmurs among the fighters, inspiring them to train even harder in the hopes of attaining the fame these three men had achieved.

  The men used the small secluded ring near the locker room where there would be more privacy to spar and no one could see them. Once in the ring, they began the same routine they practiced in the Starlight Club as Swifty followed Henri around the ring as he mimicked Slick Parker’s fighting style. Even with his headgear on, Henri’s jab
was annoying the hell out of Swifty. “Am I annoying you, Swifty?”

  “Yeah, you sure the hell are.”

  “Good, because what I’m doing to you right now is nothing compared to what Parker will do to you tomorrow night. Now I’m going to throw three jabs in a row. Wait for my third jab and then feint with your right hand but don’t throw it. Instead, grab my arm with your left elbow or forearm and hold it close to your side near your armpit. If you can manage to do that, then he can’t back away from you and it will leave an opening for you to throw a hard right hand. Because as long as you can hit him on his face or head, you’re gonna hurt him.” Henri made sure to keep his voice low because it wouldn’t do to let others know what they were planning in this practice session or word could get back to Parker. After two hours of sparring, Swifty was as ready as he’d ever be to face Parker. Paulie was sitting in the audience near the ring, watching Swifty and Henri spar. He didn’t quite understand what they were doing because they weren’t banging away at one another. Instead, Henri was petty-patting Swifty with his left hand and all Swifty was doing was trying to grab hold of him when he threw a punch. It was all so very confusing to the cab driver and he was glad when they finally decided to call it a day and head back to the Starlight Club.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Swifty was working up a sweat in his dressing room in the rear of the Garden when Benny Spinoza, the matchmaker, opened the door and popped his head in. “You’re on in five minutes, Swifty.”

  Swifty didn’t say anything. He just nodded and raised his gloved hand in acknowledgement. The referee had stopped in to watch Swifty’s manager, Gill Clancy, tape his hands and put the gloves on. Satisfied, he went next to Slick Parker’s dressing room and watched the same procedure take place.

  Swifty left his dressing room with his robe’s hood covering his head and both his hands were on Clancy’s shoulders as they took the long walk from the dressing room to the ring. Swifty bounded up the stairs and he stepped into the ring while Clancy held the ropes apart. Swifty danced around the ring, more to keep warm than anything else. It wouldn’t do to begin a fight without a sweat. Knockouts occurred when a fighter went into the ring cold. As he danced around the ring, he felt a pair of eyes on him and he looked around at the spectators and that was when he noticed Cynthia waving to him. He extended his arm and pointed at her and she felt a flush of excitement because he pointed to her and her alone. She hoped that she would have a spare moment alone with him after the fight, but she was a realist and understood that, in all probability, he’d be busy and wouldn’t have time for her. But she could hope and there was always the possibility that he would have time for her.

  Her girlfriend nudged her. “He recognized you.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “Do you think he’ll talk to us after the fight tonight?”

  Cynthia shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m hoping he does. To tell you the truth…I’d be disappointed if he didn’t.”

  The referee introduced ranked fighters and retired ex-champs. The national anthem finished playing and now it was time for the two combatants to fight for the middleweight championship of the world. The classy Jimmy Lennon Sr. called the fighters to the center of the ring for referee Ruby Goldstein to give them their instructions.

  “I gave you your instructions in your dressing rooms; now touch gloves and give me a clean fight.”

  The ringside announcers stated to the listening radio and television audiences what everyone already knew; that this fight was for fifteen rounds and the fighters could be saved by the bell.

  The fighters went to their respective corners and, when the bell sounded, they walked to the center of the ring towards one another. Swifty’s musculature didn’t go unnoticed by Cynthia and she thought that his body looked like a Michelangelo sculpture, it was so perfectly formed. Her eyes went from his body to Swifty’s movements as the round began. He followed Parker around the ring as his classy opponent jabbed and moved away from Swifty’s powerful punches that never seemed to reach him. The first round was a feeling out round with very little action from either man. Swifty was determined to make something happen as the second round opened.

  He pressured Parker with his relentless pursuit, not giving the challenger a chance to get set. But Parker’s professionalism and his ability to adapt to style changes became apparent as the rounds ticked by. Swifty could tell that this was becoming a carbon copy of the first fight. Parker’s relentless barrages of jabs followed by powerful right hand punches were peppering Swifty and it was frustrating him. Parker wasn’t known as a one-punch knockout artist, because most of his knockouts came when he hurt his opponent after throwing a flurry of vicious punches. Swifty kept looking for the opportunity to use the little trick he and Henri worked on at Stillman’s, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t catch Parker’s jab, which was necessary if that trick was to work. After the eighth round, Clancy told Swifty that the fight was getting away from him.

  “Am I losing the fight, Gill?”

  “I’m not gonna bullshit you, kid, I got him ahead six rounds to two. I know it ain’t easy, but you have to land that right hand of yours or we might as well go home now because the way things are going, he’s taking the belt home with him tonight.”

  Swifty nodded as Clancy put the mouthpiece in his mouth. “I’ll do my best, Gill. I’d hate to lose my championship belt after all the hard work I did in getting it.”

  “Well, then go out there and knock this guy out and let’s go home.”

  After taking a beating for two minutes of the round with Parker jabbing Swifty and peppering his face with his pesky jabs followed by left and right hands, Parker began his litany of jabs again, only this time, Swifty timed the third jab and managed to hold onto his left hand, causing Parker to remain in front of him rather than jabbing and then dancing away from him. In that one instant, Swifty held onto Parker’s left hand with his left forearm and then he threw a powerhouse right, which caught Slick flush on the chin, resulting in him falling to the canvas. The crowd went wild as the referee counted to nine before Parker got to his feet. The ref asked Parker if he was all right and he nodded yes. Swifty came at a shaky Parker and connected with a left hook that staggered him again, causing him to stumble back with only the ropes saving him from crashing to the canvas a second time. Swifty followed the left hook with a hard right hand to the side of Parker’s head, knocking him down again, but the bell rang, saving Parker. His corner men rushed to pick Parker up and they managed to revive him by throwing water on him and slapping his face.

  Clancy rubbed Swifty down. “You did great out there, kid. Two knockdowns mean you just about evened the score. If you can go out there and finish him off before he can clear his head, then do it. Don’t let him off the hook. Get him while he’s still out on his feet.”

  The bell rang and Swifty rushed out, looking for a knockout, but Parker was on his bicycle. He ran away from Swifty for the whole round. He did the same thing the next round, but by the end of that round his head, had cleared and he was feeling almost like his old self. He still needed another round to completely clear his head and to get his feet back under him again. Those three rounds that Parker gave away to Swifty put him ahead on the three judges’ scorecards. They were now entering the championship rounds, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth rounds. Parker had a clear head now and was back in top form, jabbing and dancing away while throwing left and right combinations. His jabs gave him the openings he needed and, for the next two rounds, he staged a comeback, winning both of those rounds. He was now ahead on points by a slight margin, but the fight was still too close to call. As the fifteenth round opened, Parker’s corner thought he was ahead in the scoring, so they told him to stay away from Swifty this round. “Box, jab, and then get out. This round, don’t mix it with Swifty.” Parker heeded his corner’s instruction, so for the whole round, he frustrated Swifty by sticking him with his jab and dancing away before he got tagged with one of Swi
fty’s powerful punches. With just a few seconds to go, Parker made his second big mistake of the fight. He forgot himself and he jabbed rhythmically, which allowed Swifty to time his third jab…and when he threw it, Swifty was ready for it. He hooked his left arm over Parker’s jab and Parker found that because his left hand was hooked under Swifty’s forearm, he couldn’t back away from him. Swifty took full advantage of the situation by throwing the hardest right hand of the fight and it landed flush on the sweet part of Parker’s chin. Parker fell to the canvas with just six seconds to go in the fight. Goldstein counted to six and then the bell rang, saving Parker. The fight now had to go to the scorecards to see who the winner was.

  Swifty watched as Parker was carried, unconscious, to his corner by his handlers. The ringside doctor quickly stepped into the ring to check on Parker, who was still dead to the world. Swifty worried that Parker might be badly hurt walked to his corner to check on him, but just as he got there, Parker was turning his face away from the smelling salts the doctor placed under his nose. Parker was conscious now and his gaze took in Swifty looking at him with concern. Parker gave Swifty a slight nod to show that he was all right. A relieved Swifty patted him on his arm, then he turned and headed back to his corner. “How do you think I did, Gill?”

  Clancy didn’t mince words; he told him straight out what he thought. “I think you were losing a close fight until the knockdown, which gave you a two-point round, but I’m aggravated that the guy was saved by the bell. That shouldn’t be allowed because you really won this fight by a knockout.”

  Red agreed and he looked at the referee, who walked past them gathering up the slip totals from the officials. “Now it’s up to the judges. This is gonna be close Swifty,” Red advised his concerned fighter.

  “Red, do I have a return bout clause in my contract if I lost this fight?”

  “Yes. If you lost this fight, I made sure that you, as the champ, had a chance to reclaim your title by having a return bout. But you haven’t lost this fight yet. The judges are still going over the score cards.”