What was Herman Calloway doing when Bud entered the club?

In Chapter 12, Lefty Lewis drops Bud off at the Log Cabin to see his "father." When Bud walks in the doors, he sees six men sitting in a circle talking. Herman E. Calloway has his back facing Bud, and he is telling his band members old stories from when he used to be a boxer. Herman claims that he won the Golden Gloves in the middleweight division. He tells a story about the time he fought Jordan "Snaggletooth" MacNevin, who happened to be a very old fighter. Herman said that he went into the fight trying to knock the old guy out, but got hit so hard that his mouthpiece flew into the crowd. Herman said that he had never been hit so hard in his life. Bud thinks that Herman is his father after he hears Herman say,

"There comes a time when you're doing something and you realize it just doesn't make any sense to keep on doing it, you ain't being a quitter, it's just that the good Lord has seen fit to give you the sense to know, you understand, enough is enough" (Curtis 146).

Bud remembers that he felt the same way when Todd Amos was beating on him earlier in the novel and assumes Herman is his father.