McGraw©Hill/Focus/Amigo Brothers p.8////R7N2/ ***** Antonio Cruz and Felix Varga were both seventeen years old.

They were so together in friendship that they felt themselves to

be brothers. They had known each other since childhood, growing

up on the lower east side of Manhattan in the same tenement

building on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. Antonio was fair, lean, and lanky, while Felix was dark,

short, and husky. Antonio's hair was always falling over his

eyes, while Felix wore his black hair in a natural Afro style. Each youngster had a dream of someday becoming lightweight

champion of the world. Every chance they had the boys worked

out, sometimes at the Boys Club on 10th Street and Avenue A and

sometimes at the pro's gym on 14th Street. Early morning

sunrises would find them running along the East River Drive,

wrapped in sweat shirts, short towels around their necks, and

handkerchiefs Apache style around their foreheads. While some youngsters were into street negatives, Antonio

and Felix slept, ate, rapped, and dreamt positive. Between them

they had a collection of "Fight" magazines second to none, plus a

scrapbook filled with torn tickets to every boxing match they had

ever attended, and some clippings of their own. If asked a

question about any given fighter, they would immediately zip out

from their memory banks divisions, weights, records of fights,

knock©outs, technical knock©outs, and draws or losses. Each had fought many bouts representing their community and

had won two gold©plated medals plus a silver and bronze

medallion.