This is the story of
a fight and of a fighter
Walter Cartier
Today is the fight
Tonight at ten o'clock will
be one of the moments
Which justify his difficult blood
At six o'clock on the
morning of the fight
Begins the taughest
part of being a boxer
The waiting
Walter is on the right of
Vincent his identical twin
He soesn't mind the hard training
The four miles of road work everyday,
as much as the waiting
Walter knows that each bout is
more important than the one before
Because he is rapidly climbing the
middleweight championship of the world
And he must keep winning
It's a long way until night
Walter wearing the bow tie is 24
He's a native of New York
And a fighter as far back
as he can remember
His father is away
And when he was a little
boy he lost his mother
Walter began to do exibition
boxing with his brother Vincent
when they were 3 years old
During the war they fought
exibitions in the navy
Where they were in the
same outfit together
Now through the quite
morning streets of New York
The two boys walk to morning mass
It's important for Walter
to get Holy Communion
In case something
should go wrong tonight
At Walter's three room apartment
where he lives with his aunt
Vincent is serving him breakfast
He's a lawer and Walter's manager
Vinc lives in New Jersey
But in the slow hours before the
fight he's staying with his brother
Now they live as they
used to years ago
The two boys
And Walter's dog
At noon Walter gets a complete
examination from the commission doctor
If he's not in perfect condition
the doctor can call off the fight
but this doesn't trouble walter
What bothers him is
the whole days waiting
Of which this is a part
Sometimes he thinks of
the man who don't pass
And he knows that he must
And he does
Meat is vital to Walter
It gives him the raw energy
he needed for fighting
Dan Stampler owns the resturant
Where Walter comes
to eat every day
Often sitting proudly
like this with the boy
He thinks will be the champion
This is Walter's second and
final meal before the match
Walter has a knock out
punch in either hand
And he's one of the host hitting
middlewieghts in the ring
He moves around his apponent
Jabbing, shifting, looking for an oppening
Then finishing the fight
with one exploding punch
He's won almost half of his
Now at four o'clock,
It would be six hours
Until he enters the ring
to try for his thirty six
No one ever told
Walter to be a fighter
His family was against it
But he just had the feeling for it
On this day the people around him
Feel the pain and fear
But for Walter the bad part is
the waiting for the thing that happen
Soon it's coming
He'll be glad when it's finally here
His boxing gear has been carfully
laid off for the ride to the arena
And he's ready to be packed
The time draws near and
Walter prepares to go
Above everything else in the world
Walter Cartier wants to be champion
Unlike a lot of people he's got
something to move towards
All the time
And that thing is the championship
Nothing is going to
keep him back from it
He goes ahead and he never stops
The fight Walter's riding to now
In a friends car, may bring him
nearer to the middleweight crown
When it's over, there will be
another one coming along
And another one after that
Always it's fighting and
training and fighting again
But always there's the goal
At 8 o'clock in the
small hot dressing room
Behind the arena
Walter moves in to the last
two hours of preparation
In these hours he can
feel his body tightening
But it's tightness that does not
come from the lack of comfidence
Its the presure of the last waiting
Here in a place where
the walls are so close
A man can barely
moves his body around
If only the fight was on
Then everything else
will not be so bad
Not really bad at all
Bobby James is the man he's
going to be fighting in one hour
Walter has never seen him before
But when the fight is over
They will know a lot about each other
Bobby has been on the ring with
many of the top middlewieghts
And has never been counted out
That's something to think about
At a time like this
It's almost as if the brothers
were going into the ring together
Time is a strange thing
When you have a little of it
And you want it to last
It scatters away in all directions and
you never know where it's gone
But in a way that's gone pretty
quickly for a couple of boys
It's only when you want
the hours to go like now
That time has a way of staring you
in the face as it barely moves along
But there isn't much of it left now
Before the main event goes on
And everything is here at last
As he gets ready to
walk out to the arena
And the three thousand
people who are there
Walter is slowly
becoming another man
This is the man who can not lose,
Who Must not lose
The hard movements
of his arms and fists
Are different from what
they were an hour ago
They belong to the fierce new person
They are part of the arena man
The Walter Cartier that the
crowd outside is going to see
In 15 minutes
A few moments are left
He can almost hear the commissioner
coming down the hall to call him
He's done it,
he has K.Oed Bobby James
This is a fighter
Walter Cartier
He has just moved up
one more place in a line
That may end with the championship
It's a hard life
But to him it's worth all
the hardship and the risk
To him it's worth everything