You pounded him. You pinned him in a corner and pummelled him. Big, big punches brought in by express from another postal code. That was the finest Joe, as good as anything the ring has seen. Better than Marciano, those rounds six through 10.
Nobody takes that away.
I know you'll ask that when you tell it to me. Why he didn't fall, why he didn't die, why his head didn't stop spinning, why his heart didn't stop giving. It was elemental Joe. You brought it out in him, he brought it out in you. There was no plot.