The Friend Who Saw Everything: Billy’s Place in “The First Punch”
Some of the most memorable people in “The First Punch” never set foot in a boxing ring. Billy is one of them, and by the time you finish the book, you understand why Matthew Fields dedicated it to him.
Matthew and Billy met on the first day of first grade, when Billy waved a scared new kid over to the empty desk beside his and simply said, “Sit here.” From that moment on, they were inseparable. Billy lived with cerebral palsy, which made his movements unsteady and his speech a little slower, but it never once slowed him down. He worked harder than anyone to keep up, to be included, to prove that he belonged, and he brought a joy to everything he did that was impossible to miss.
The two boys competed together in Special Olympics every year, in basketball, track, and swimming. Matthew still remembers the look on Billy’s face the first time he crossed the finish line in the fifty meter dash, nowhere near first place, arms thrown up in the air like he’d just won Olympic gold. That was Billy. Winning was never really the point for him. Trying, showing up, and finding joy in the attempt were the point, and it is a lesson that echoes through the rest of the book.
Their friendship was built on small, ordinary things too. Monday nights spent screaming at WWE matches on the living room floor. Elaborate theories about which wrestler would take the next championship. A friend who could sit at ringside during sparring sessions and spot a fighter’s tell before anyone else in the gym noticed it. Billy had a mind for the sport that surprised even the coaches, and Matthew leaned on that insight for years.
Perhaps most importantly, Billy is the one who pushed Matthew to become a writer as well as a fighter. When Matthew hesitated, worried that a person could only be one thing, Billy asked him a simple question that changes the course of the story: “Who made that rule?” It is a question worth sitting with, whether you are training for a title fight or simply trying to figure out who you want to become.
“The First Punch” is, at its heart, a book about the people who shape us. Billy is proof that the people who believe in us most fiercely are not always the ones standing in the ring.