Rambling

I'm going to have to cancel my plans for brunch at Lundun's on Sunday as I've realised that I'll be staying up - or maybe getting up - for the Joe Calzaghe v Jeff Lacy fight at 2 o'clock that morning so the rest of the a.m. will need to be slow.

Pondering this super middleweight clash definitively to settle who is the best 12 stone fighter in the world has reminded me just how light all non heavyweight boxers are. Even with my recent weight loss I only moved down from heavyweight to cruiserweight on 25 October last year, and I won't step down from cruiserweight to light heavyweight unless I get a little below my target of 80kg.

Looking at the light heavyweight range of 168 to 175 lb (79.4 kg) in the boxing weight classes entry in wikipedia, I was transported to one of he most famous scenes in film history from one of my favourite movies.

CHARLEY
(gently)
What do you weigh these days, slugger?

TERRY
(shrugs)
...eight-seven, eighty-eight.
What's it to you?

CHARLEY
(nostalgically)
Gee, when you tipped one seventy-five
you were beautiful. You should've
been another Billy Conn. That skunk I
got to manage you brought you along too fast.

TERRY
It wasn't him!
(years of abuse crying out in him)
It was you, Charley. You and Johnny. Like the
night the two of youse come in the dressing
room and says, "Kid, this ain't your night— we're
going for the price on Wilson." It ain't my night.
I'd of taken Wilson apart that night! I was ready—
remember the early rounds throwing them combinations.
So what happens— This bum Wilson
he gets the title shot— outdoors in the ballpark!
– and what do I get— a couple of bucks and
a one-way ticket to Palookaville.
(more and more aroused as he relives it)
It was you, Charley. You was
my brother. You should of looked out for me.
Instead of making me take them dives for the
short-end money.

CHARLEY
(defensively)
I always had a bet down for
you. You saw some money.

TERRY
(agonized)
See! You don't understand!

CHARLEY
I tried to keep you in good with Johnny.

TERRY
You don't understand! I could've been a
contender. I could've had class and been somebody.
Real class.
Instead of a bum, let's face it,
which is what I am. It was you, Charley.

(That is slightly different from the actual words that Brando and Steiger actually say in 'On the Waterfront'. I think it is from Budd Schulberg's shooting script, but it is interesting how little improvisation there actually is in the scene as filmed.)

I'm very tempted to lower my target 0.6kg to 175lb now in tribute.