My First Fight

by Reuben Hurd, age 14

On Friday I had my first amateur boxing match. I was nervous but I still won. I went against a person that I was cool with. He was like a friend to me. It was Freddie. I sparred with him once.

The fight was in Manhattan in a really expensive looking place called the Union Club. Everybody had suits and ties. In the locker rooms they had Listerine and shaving equipment and stuff like that. They had a lot of old artifacts like many play soldiers and paintings of famous people. There was a big one of Abraham Lincoln in the room where we boxed.

Getting ready to fight was kind of exciting. I was the main event so I had to rush to get in the ring, but I had time to get ready and warm up during the other fights. It felt almost the same as sparring, but the ring was much bigger. 

The fight was kind of hard because it’s hard to control the fight’s tempo. Freddie was a real good fighter. We actually smiled almost the whole fight, even when we were sitting down. After every round we would tap gloves and say, “Good round.”

After it was over, I was nervous. I thought he was going to win because I thought he had a few more punches, but obviously I was wrong. When they raised my hand I was excited. I was over excited a little bit. But I also felt bad for him because he lost. Because it was his first fight, too.

After all that, my arm is a little sore but I feel overwhelmed that I won. There is more to come.