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excess.
    Frank wanted this guy baptized and you broke the mark’s nose, ribs, and eye socket. Frank wanted a baseball bat to the knees.
Joey says he crunched his shoulders and looked at Luigi, “Then why did you give me a five pound blackjack?”
    Joey says he left for the gym after counting out 50 grand, marking the first time in his life with $25,000 in his pocket.
    Joey loved money and could never earn this much while living with his parents and working in a pizza shop. It’s almost no wonder he continued chasing the kind of money he could only get from crime.

4
    Six weeks before the epic fight in Sacramento, Joey stopped the partying, coke, and sex. It was making his legs weak. He stopped lifting weights.
    The phone rang, and it was Rueben Urquidez, Benny’s older brother, who abruptly told Joey, “We have to talk. You have mail here.” Joey was concerned because he was not close to Rueben, so it had to be something substantial. Joey says he took a shower, put on some Coltrane, and drove into the Valley.
    Rueben opened the office door and waved Joey to sit down. Reuben looked Joey up and down and said, “I am against you fighting in Sacramento because you have no concern for anyone but yourself, and this is a big thing for our family and for martial arts. I have been informed that you’re fighting Shig Fugayama, and this man is tough, to say the least.” He went on to tell Joey that the judges came to a middle ground on what would be allowed in this event. The Martial Arts Federation agreed that there would be no sweeps, no groin shots; but knees were legal. Each fighter has to throw six kicks and six punches each round or be disqualified.
    Joey had no problem with the rules except for no sweeps— he loved to sweep the front foot and leap in with the left hook or spinning back kick.
    Joey trained with Benny, learning by watching, for five weeks. The difference in rules would make a different fight, and Joey had the option to pull out at any time. Benny instructed Joey to make sure to get the six kicks and punches out of the way and concentrate on winning. Benny slowlylifted a knee, pulling his head down and touching Joey’s nose, letting Joey know that this was Fugayama’s bread and butter!
    Joey says he didn’t talk to the media because he was running the fight through his mind and trying to visualize the outcome. As he walked into the arena from the dressing room, Joey says he had never seen so many Japanese men. Every seat was filled. Joey watched a tiny man step up on the canvas, wrapped in the rising sun flag. Joey says he approached him, smiling, trying to shake his hand with the gloves on.
    The lights went out in the arena, and through the smoke-filled ring, the referee called them to the center. It was the first time Joey was taller than an opponent.
    Joey says the man’s face looked like it’d been hit flush with a shovel. His eyebrows were replaced by scar tissue. He had no nose, only two holes. His ears were inside-out from cauliflower syndrome. The left ear was swollen and red.
    Shig approached Joey, guns blazing; left, right, and he was backed into a corner as his knee struck Joey’s thigh and hips before connecting a head-butt. Frozen and locked up, Joey attempted left hooks to the jaw, but caught his elbows back in the face. The referee broke them apart. Joey was able to throw six punches and six kicks so when the bell rang, he was relieved.
    Reuben was calm, and Benny said, “Get on your toes and box.”
    Joey came out and they touched gloves. He got on his toes; jab, jab, right, roundhouse flush on his face, but with no effect. Joey’s right thudded against his opponent’s face. He says he saw blood coming from Shig’s ear.
    Joey stayed on his toes the rest of the match to keep some distance between them. In the sixth round the referee stopped the fight to have the doctor look at Shig’s closed eye and ear; which was