Boxing Book Reviews

First topic message reminder :

Mentioned this on a thread the other day that it would be nice if posters who enjoyed reading about the sport could post reviews of books they have read be they positive or negative and hopefully we will be able to build up a decent library of reviews we can use to inform future purchases. As someone who buys a lot of books I will offer a couple to get the ball rolling and hopefully a few others can follow suit, here’s hoping it catches on.

Sam Langford – Boxing’s greatest uncrowned champion – Clay Moyle

Before reading Moyle’s book I’ll be honest my knowledge of Langford was limited. Often saw his name and achievements spoken of with hushed reverence on various websites but probably always harboured the suspicion he was one of those names people throw out to look cool and knowledgeable, like Harry Greb who we now all know did not actually exist. However on the back of reading this outstanding book about Sam I am absolutely convinced he deserves every bit of the esteem he is often afforded. For those unfamiliar with Sam’s story although he stood little more than 5ft 7 he fought anyone and everyone between the lightweight and heavy and his record reads as a who’s who of the era containing as it does names like Gans, Walcott, Ketchel and Johnson as long as multiple battles at heavy with guys like Jeannette, Wills and McVea, despite the fact all of these last few guys held significant size and weight advantages over him.

Moyle has done a truly outstanding job in telling Sam’s story. In my experience of reading a lot about the old timers one of the common pitfalls authors fall into is, through the sheer volume of fights these guys had is writing books that read as little more than lists. The great strength of this book is Moyle avoids the text becoming too dry by offering a flavour of Sam’s personality outside the ring and serving up some genuinely amusing anecdotes which serve to portray Sam as a genuinely likeable guy, which only serves to make his failure to secure the title shots his talent surely deserved all the more heartbreaking.

Moyle covers all the major fights and rivalries in Sam’s life such as Gans, Walcott and Ketchel in admirable detail and provides valuable background to these fights which gives the fights a context otherwise lacking from the raw results. Moyle also gives detailed coverage and analysis of Sam’s long running but ultimately futile attempts to secure a title shot with heavyweight champion Jack Johnson which, for me certainly provided me with a fresh perspective on why this fight failed to come off.

I really cannot recommend Clay’s book highly enough; it is superbly written, well illustrated and exhaustively researched. For anyone with an interest in old time fighters or just wanting to know more about one of the most remarkable fighters to ever step through the ropes Moyle’s book is nigh on essential.

The Life and Crimes of Don King – Jack Newfield

As one of the most colourful and larger than life characters to ever (dis)grace the sport of boxing it is almost impossible to not have an opinion on Don King. He has led a life that truly deserves the tagline that you could not make it up. Don started out as a numbers czar in his native Cleveland before killing a man who owed him money, a crime he was jailed for. On his release Don, through his friendship with musician Lloyd Price, gained an introduction to Muhammad Ali and within a matter of years he had risen from freshly released convict to the premier boxing promoter in the world.

Whilst Don’s rise to prominence was truly remarkable, some of the measures he took to achieve this rise were equally as remarkable and in telling the story of that rise Newfield does not shy away from showing Don’s not inconsiderable dark side it all its questionable glory. It is all here, his ripping off of Holmes, his rigged ABC tournament, his under the table deals with Apartheid era South Africa, his exploitation of Mike Tyson and his part in putting together some of the biggest matches in boxing history.

Despite all the gory details of Don’s less than ethical business practices Newfield balances this with being willing to give credit where it is due. He acknowledges that few, if any can out negotiate or out work Don and when one considers Don listened to the first Ali Frazier fight in prison and co-promoted the third you cannot help but agree that whatever his myriad faults Don is obviously a truly remarkable promoter, and it would be naive and not more than a little inaccurate to suggest that prior to King’s emergence boxing was free from corruption as quite clearly it wasn’t.

Overall for anyone with a history in the heavyweight division of the last 40 years or who has asked themselves the question “why do so many great fighters end up skint?” Newfield’s book should serve to offer up some answers. Don, perhaps inevitably does not come out of it smelling of roses but is still a fascinating portrait of a fascinating character.

Thanks. Two more books that I enjoyed recently included the one about Jimmy McLarnin by J.J. Johnston and one about Gene Tunney by his sone Jay. The latter provided a lot of insight into the personal life of Tunney.

On a related subject, I'm rereading parts of a long-time favorite of mine, Corner Men by Ronald Fried (1991). I read this book well before I did all my research on Sam Langford so I was suprised to find an error concerninig Langford when I reread the Jack Blackburn section. On page 115, it say's that "According to some reports, Blackburn faced the legendary Sam Langford six times, earning two fifteen round draws, a ten-round draw, a twelve-round draw and two no-decision outcomes.

I actually have Langford losing a 12-round newspaper decision in their first fight (12/23/03). Then they fought a 6-round draw on 1/11/1904 followed by a 15-round draw on 12/9/1904. Then Langford won on points in 15 rounds on 8/18/1905. They drew over 10 rounds on 9/20/1905 and fought a four-round no-contest event on 19/7/1905 that the referee stopped for lack of action between the two men. So they definately fought six times, but the results are not the same as described in Fried's book.

A bigger problem in Fried's book on that same page though, is that when the two men fought Blackburn reportedly weighed 136 pounds to Langford's 180 pounds. That is definately wrong. Sam was still fighting as a middleweight in 1906 & 1907. Prior to those years he fought in the lightweight & welterweight categories.

cmoyle wrote:
A bigger problem in Fried's book on that same page though, is that when the two men fought Blackburn reportedly weighed 136 pounds to Langford's 180 pounds. That is definately wrong. Sam was still fighting as a middleweight in 1906 & 1907. Prior to those years he fought in the lightweight & welterweight categories.

Pleased you cleared this up.

Some weeks ago we enjoyed quite a lively debate concerning Langford's progress through the weight divisions, and this certainly serves to cement and endorse the consensus view.

Speaking of endorsement, yours concerning the McLarnin book is valuable. Too often overlooked is McLarnin, in my view, and especially so considering the amount of quality opponents on his ledger.

Another reason to be nice to my long suffering wife, methinks.

Windy there is another book about McLarnin out there well worth a read. I s called Babyface goes to Hollywood by Andrew Gallimore. I have read it and it is highly recommended. Have all of Gallimore's boxing books, has also done biographies of McTigue and Welsh and both are recommended. Is always nice to see authors taking on more unheralded but deserrving subjects rather than the usual Ali or Louis books of which there are already more than enough. Now if someone could just get round to biographies of Ezzard Charles and Benny Leonard it would be much appreciated.

rowley wrote:Windy there is another book about McLarnin out there well worth a read. I s called Babyface goes to Hollywood by Andrew Gallimore. I have read it and it is highly recommended. Have all of Gallimore's boxing books, has also done biographies of McTigue and Welsh and both are recommended. Is always nice to see authors taking on more unheralded but deserrving subjects rather than the usual Ali or Louis books of which there are already more than enough. Now if someone could just get round to biographies of Ezzard Charles and Benny Leonard it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the tips, jeff.

Completely agree with your point in bold, above, which is why I'm so excited about Clay's book concerning Miske. As you know, I've been banging the Miske drum for a few years, now, and I'm delighted that the career of this wonderful, unsung, fighter is to be committed to print.

Does wind me up Windy to see the same subjects gone over again and again. Bob Mee wrote a book recently called Ali and Liston, it is well researched, interesting and written by a guy with an encyclopedic knowledge of the sport, however it covers the exact same subject matter as David Remnick's King of the World, which was only published a few years ago and is still widely available, add to this the fact the Remnick book is outstanding you really do have to ask what was the point.

Is beyond me that anyone could think the world needs another Ali book but to the best of my knowledge there is not one book on Ezzard Charles that is readily available.

Particularly important in the case of Charles, jeff, since we have only tantalising glimpses of his very best years on film. Odd, ( though paradoxically typical, in his case, ) that a fighter who routinely makes the all time p4p top tens of so many folks hasn't yet been the subject of a bio.

Perhaps Mr Moyle will oblige ?

It seems to me that I heard someone is working on a book about Ezzard Charles. On another note, Jim Curl recently finished writing one on Jersey Joe Walcott that McFarland Publishing will put out sometime in 2012. I had an opportunity to read the book as he completed each chapter and he's done a nice job on it.

cmoyle wrote:It seems to me that I heard someone is working on a book about Ezzard Charles. On another note, Jim Curl recently finished writing one on Jersey Joe Walcott that McFarland Publishing will put out sometime in 2012. I had an opportunity to read the book as he completed each chapter and he's done a nice job on it.

Thanks for the tip, Clay.

The admin team are absolutely delighted that you have joined us, and I have already received PMs from hard core members who are equally delighted.

Mr Moyle has been most generous in sharing tips with us, and I believe it would be to the benefit of our members to be aware of his website, here :

http://www.prizefightingbooks.com/

Hmm, I don't think my last post went thru for some reason.

Anybody interested in reading about early 20th century boxing history in the Seattle/Tacoma would likely find the following book of interest: 'A Dream, A Buck, An Era' by Bob Jepperson.

The book is available for order on Amazon but an inscribed/signed copy can be purchased directly from the author. His email address is jeppers@frontier.com

Would like to add my appreciation for this entire thread and to the various authors who have added their input to it. It is another reason why I find this site to be so comfortably superior to its many competitors.

Can't believe it's taken me all this time to comment on this sticky, and while I'm sure they have probably already been mentioned, I'll stick out a few good'uns which I've read just in the last year or so.

'Babyface goes to Hollywood', an excellent Jimmy McLarnin biography by Andrew Gallimore. Superb stuff all the way through, good background information and also gives real context to McLarnin's outstanding, but also sometimes underappreciated ring achievements.

Away from the biography scene, I found 'Rocky Lives!' by David Finger a pretty good read if you don't fancy getting too heavily weighed down. The book chronicles a handful of the biggest Heavyweight upsets of the last twenty years, with some excellent insder information. It even exposed some new aspects of the Tyson-Douglas affair to me, which I thought was impossible given how much it's been dicussed, replayed and critiqued from every possible angle!

It's been around for a while, but I've just got myself a copy of Buchanan's autobiography and, so far, it's been pretty good, and pretty forthright as you'd expect. Will keep anyone who's interested or has read it before on how I'm getting on with it.

Tunney - Jack Cavanaugh

Will be honest have always found Tunney to be one of the more interesting heavyweight champions as he does not realy fit the mould of what we expect from our heavyweight champions, a well read man who turned down the chance of studying at Princeton to pursue a ring careerand was good friends with the likes of George Bernard Shaw outside the ring marks him out as something of an oddity. Couple that with him walking away from the sport after only two defences at a time he was arguably at the peak of his powers and for me he seems a guy more than worthy of a decent biography, and Cavanaugh has certainly delivered.

All of Tunney's early military career where he first began to develop his talent in the ring is covered in admirable detail as is his early career and his epic battles with Greb and a number of other notables at light heavy, which in all reality should perhaps have culminated in a title shot. However as tends to be the case it is almost impossible to tell the story of Tunney without telling the story of Dempsey and it here that the book really scores. Having read a few Dempsey biographies I have found them to be a fairly hit and miss affairs and Cavanaugh's book does almost as good a job of telling Dempsey's story as it does Tunney's, helped obviously by the natural contrast in their styles both inside and outside of the ring.

At 400+ pages the book is far from light reading but as an insight into one of the more fascinating heavyweight champions ever and his biggest rival Dempsey the book is highly recommended. If there was one criticism I could level at the book it is that for a book that does such a sterling job of covering his in ring career his life after the ring is glossed over in such cursory detail that it sits uneasily with what as gone before, reading almost as if the author had run out of energy.

However of the couple of Tunney books I have read this is far and away the best work and the brevity of post ring career should not detract from what is on the whole a very decent read.

Four Kings - George Kimball

Having just read on the IBRO website of the unfortunate passing of boxing writer George Kimball thought in the absence of the ability to write a better tribute thought it would be an opportune moment to review his book Four Kings.

Although I realise from previous threads a lot of people on here have already read this book for those unfamiliar with it the book covers the rivalries between Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Tommy Hearns, covering all their epic fights together. What is interesting about their rivalries is that between the four each fighter fought the other at least once and every fighter in the series can claim a win over at least one of the four fighters.

I have always thought with books that cover a subject as broad as this there are two problems common to the books, firstly that the fighters careers or areas not central to the text such as their early careers are glossed over or ignored. The second problem with covering such a broad topic is some of the significant people involved are not interviewed. Neither of these issues are apparent in Kimball's book as each fighters life and career is covered in as good a detail as can be expected and if there is any of the key players not involved Kimball does one hell of a job not making it obvious.

However the books real strength lays in the fights between the four, being ringside for each and every one Kimball is well placed to provide colour and detail on the fights and his words give a real feel for what it must of been to see these legends in what were very often their finest hours, with enough anecdotes and insider detail to keep even those of us intimitely familiar with the fights more than happy.

Overall, having seen these fights on more than one occasion I started Four Kings with some trepidation but those fears were unwarranted as Kimball has crafted a book of genuine interest. It is a fitting tribute to some truly great fighters and fights and now serves as a fitting tribute to a truly excellent boxing writer, RIP George Kimball.

Couple of excellent reviews there, jeff. Thanks for those.

I still haven't gotten around to reading ' The Four Kings ' but your comments, above, have sufficiently whetted my appetite to change that forthwith.

I know an individual that has a number of boxing books from the late 1800s & early 1900s that they are looking to sell. If anyone on here is interested and would like to see a list of what they have available please email me at cmoyle@aol.com.

Sad to learn of the loss of George Kimball, a great writer. I recently acquired a copy of his latest book, 'The Manly Art', and there are many great stories in it.

Just as an aside am thinking of buying the Colleen Aycock book on Joe Gans at the end of the month, but as it is not particularly cheap if anyone has read it and can confirm if it is worth the investment I would much appreciate it.

This might help, jeff :

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/JoeGans-Aycock-Scott-Book-Review.htm

Cheers Windy, would appear the book would be a decent addition to the collection. My one fear is I already struggle to split Duran, Leonard and Gans atop the lightweight rankings, can only see this adding to the confusion.

You're welcome, jeff.

You are in excellent company in having difficulty separating those three.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but Teddy Atlas's book 'From the streets to the ring a son's struggle to become a man is a great read. A great insight into his days as a trainer seems a shame he opted for the TV side of the sport.

Another less heavy read is The ultimate book of lists by Teddy Atlas and Bert Sugar. More than 100 lists and you probably won't agree with one but it will make you get the pen and paper out.

Roger Kahn – Jack Dempsey and the Roaring 20’s

Am sure I am not alone in finding Jack Dempsey to be one of the more fascinating characters in the sports history. Would not be exaggerating to say that in his time he had fame, notoriety and popularity on a scale perhaps only Ali and Sullivan could equal, a fact certainly supported at the gate where Dempsey regularly broke box office records and recorded the sports first million dollar gate. With all this in mind I was excited to pick up a copy of Kahn’s biography on the man.

There is much to admire about Kahn’s biography of Dempsey, it is exhaustive in the level of research it displays and the author is not without skill as a story teller and has an agreeable writing style and displays and erudite and scholarly approach to his writing. Kahn also shows an admirable ability to evoke a period of some change in American society and clearly has a passion for his subject. However it is this passion that is sometimes a double edged sword for the book. On the plus side it leads to Kahn covering his subject in admirable detail and really taking the time to research and cover all the major events in Dempsey’s life in depth.

However this is also the books greatest failing as for me Kahn is perhaps a little besotted with his subject to offer much in the way of criticism or balance. Hagiography is a strong word to use when reviewing a biography but on several occasions Kahn sails extremely close to the wind. Whilst undoubtedly a lot of the myths that have grown up around Dempsey do him a disservice he ill deserves such as his alleged ducking of Wills and draft dodging Kahn deals with these issues in a manner that almost refuses to entertain the idea Jack was any way at fault. For my tastes and opinions his treatment of Wills is most unfair on a good fighter who deserved his shot.

Another fault of the book is in trying to provide background around the social conditions and events that shaped America in the 1920’s the text can sometimes skip around a little and whilst the background is well written and fascinating in its own way this does little to help the flow of the narrative which is often disjointed and clunky.

Overall I enjoyed this book but having read this and Randy Roberts’ biography on Dempsey I still feel the great book that a subject like Dempsey deserves remains unwritten. Kahn has the edge on Roberts in terms of detail and his evocation of the period Dempsey fought in whereas Roberts’ presents perhaps the more balanced and critical portrait. For a Dempsey obsessive reading both books would probably provide the more rounded picture of the man. However for those wanting a well researched and in depth biography of the man and his era they could do far worse than seek out the Kahn book, as long as you accept you are not going to read the most balanced or critical portrait of the man.

Just thought that some ( particularly DAVE667,) might be interested in this :

http://cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/BookReview-PeterJackson-BobPetersen.htm

Will leave it here for a while, today, to allow it to catch the eye of any who might otherwise miss it, but will merge it into the ' book reviews ' thread a bit later.

Already PM'ed him with this Windy. Was very tempted myself but having read Pollack's books on the early heavyweights know a little about Jackson so will probably stick with my original plan and buy the Joe Gans book, for whom my knowledge of is limited to what I can pick up on websites like CBZ and Cox's Corner so will probably stick with that one.

I'm a bit ignorant of his career but what has he done besides LOTR and King Kong?

Scottrf wrote:I'm a bit ignorant of his career but what has he done besides LOTR and King Kong?

Believe he also did the Frightners with Michael J Fox and if I'm not mistaken a film called Brain Dead some years ago

Brain Dead was an awesome film! Have not seen that in ages!

Scottrf wrote:I'm a bit ignorant of his career but what has he done besides LOTR and King Kong?

What Leave Outside the Rules!! (little immigration based humour there for you, who says we don't know how to kick back in my game.)

rowley wrote:Already PM'ed him with this Windy. Was very tempted myself but having read Pollack's books on the early heavyweights know a little about Jackson so will probably stick with my original plan and buy the Joe Gans book, for whom my knowledge of is limited to what I can pick up on websites like CBZ and Cox's Corner so will probably stick with that one.

I PM'd him also, jeff.

Sour old sod can't say we didn't think of him.

Scottrf wrote:I'm a bit ignorant of his career but what has he done besides LOTR and King Kong?

and currently working on the Hobbit!

Really do need to get some books, Jeff and Windy if you were to recommend 5 what would they be?

Dear god Ghosty that is a tricky one. If I was to recommend only five would probably be

Clay Moyle - Sam Langford
Harry Otty - Charley Burley and the Black Murderers Row
Bill Paxton - The Fearless Harry Greb
Jack Cavanaugh - Tunney
Geoffrey C Ward - Unforgivable Blackness

Will say I am not as sold on the Ward book as plenty are but always prefer books about old timers as for me it is preferable to read about guys you can't easily watch in action and whilst the Johnson book is a bit up its own backside Johnson is a hugely significant figure in the sport and until Pollack gets round to Johnson this is as close to being definitive as you are likely to get on the man. The others are all excellent, interesting subjects and faultlessly written.

The BMR and Tunney ones interest me the most but do need to learn more about Langford and Greb so like your choices Jeff, heard good and bad things about Unforgivable Blackness so may leave that one for a bit.

Will merge this one with the ' book reviews ' in five minutes, fellas.

Understand about the Johnson one. I have been critical in the past of it. Is a bit dry and has footnotes to an almost ridiculous level which is really distracting. To be honest a better plan would be to start reading Adam Pollack's books on the first heavyweight champions, he has done the first five thus far with Burns to follow, by the time you get through them and save enough money to afford them (they are expensive) he should have just about finished his Johnson book which should be epic.

Need something to do now i'm off with work with a broken wrist so will get the BMR one first then we can appreciate Burley together, many thanks for the advice Jeff, look forward to reading them

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Need something to do now i'm off with work with a broken wrist so will get the BMR one first then we can appreciate Burley together, many thanks for the advice Jeff, look forward to reading them

Ghosty, I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff regarding the Ward book. Finished it recently and really is on the dry side. Facinating character, as you well know, but the book is a struggle. I ended up not reading the footnotes as they just become so prohibitive to the flow.

On a more general note, one book that I can really recommend is "Mcilvanney on boxing" by (strangely enough) Hugh Mcilvanney. Fabulous journalist, I believe he is (or at least was) the only sports writer to been voted Journalist of the Year. He is a boxing nut, and his book is basically a collection of essays and reports from his time covering the sport for various newspapers and magazines. Some of it has never been released apart from the book though.

It ranges from Owen, Winstone, Cooper and Downes to Moorer, Lewis and Tyson. It really does cover everyone in between as well. Great stuff on Foreman, Frazier and Ali, likewise on the fab four. Covers some great latino fighters as well such as Monzon, Chavez, Saldivar and Ortiz. Has an exceptionally good section on Ali v Berbick in 1981 as well. There are some excellant sections on RJJ and Don Curry as well (Truss will be pleased). He also produces a cutting section on Don King.

His passion is evident and the vast bulk of it is "real" time reporting as well so it doesn't suffer from too much revisionism. The more I think about it, the more I remember just how good a book it is. I haven't read it for many a year but it is the sort of book you can just pick up and read a section before putting it down again.

Great stuff.

Agree about the McIlvanney book Tino, have normally not a fan of these collected work books. People rave about Dark Trade but I have never seen why it is held in such esteem. They tend to leave me just wanting to read full biographies rather than little snippets or isolated reports on sections of a guys career. However McIlvanney is a prince amongst writers and there is not a bad story in his book. Can tell he is a guy with a real passion and knowledge of the sport and has real skill and verve as both a writer and a storyteller. Would always steer clear of recommending one of these types of books but if I was to only buy one this would be it. In my himble pees on both Dark Trade and Schulberg's ringside.

Yep, McIlvanney is my favourite boxing writer.

Thanks Jeff. After posting last night, I went and searched the bookcase for it again and started to pick some of the better stories. Before I know it, 2 hours have drifted by. Really is a fabulous read and your description of McIlvanney as a prince amongst writers is spot on. It doesn't feel dated at all, and without been too nostalgic, some of the current boxing hacks could really learn a little from reading his work.

I like Dark Trade, and did read it pretty much in two sittings, but having picked up McIlvanney's book again, there really is no contest between them.

Anybody read Nipper Pat Daly's book?, thanks.

Yes, I read Pat Daly's book and thought it interesting and well written.

cmoyle wrote:Yes, I read Pat Daly's book and thought it interesting and well written.

Thank you Clay, that's good enough for me coming from yourself. Would like to say i though your Langford book was excellent and holds a fine position in my bookcase, i also look forward to your books on Miske and Zale in particular as i'm sure many people are, your work is well appreciated on this site. Would you mind if i e-mail you about the list of older boxing books which are for sale, i fear i may not be able to purchase any but would love to have a look.

Thanks, I appreciate that. I am very anxious to get the Miske book published. Send me your email address and I'll forward that list of older books that the seller has available. My email is cmoyle@aol.com

Another book that I thought was a really interesting read was the following:

Stock Image Harry Haft: Auschwitz Survivor, Challenger of Rocky Marciano (ISBN: 0815608233 / 0-8156-0823-3)
Haft, Alan Scott.

Thanks Clay, i'll do that now. The Auschwitz Survivor one rings a bell, will definately check it out, i also thought the one you mentioned about Muhammed Ali's Sparring partner, who also lost an eye, sounded really good. It's not the kind of thing you usually get to know about. Really enjoying some of your reviews so far, thanks again.

I must be the only one who doesn't like Mcilvanney. I know a few hacks who worked with him, who viewed him as a legend. The guy can clearly write but to me, he spends too much time showing you how clever he is and how good his vocabulary is.

My old boy and i used to have a weekly 'Mcilvanney award' for most unnecessarily pretentious use of a word in a sentence. Much to our amusement, (if no-one elses), the great man won his own award most weeks with his sunday times column.

Can we please ban milkyboy?

sorry scott, didn't know he was your dad

milkyboy wrote:I must be the only one who doesn't like Mcilvanney. I know a few hacks who worked with him, who viewed him as a legend. The guy can clearly write but to me, he spends too much time showing you how clever he is and how good his vocabulary is.

My old boy and i used to have a weekly 'Mcilvanney award' for most unnecessarily pretentious use of a word in a sentence. Much to our amusement, (if no-one elses), the great man won his own award most weeks with his sunday times column.

You obviously don't read Simon Barnes in the Times I believe, he could win the award most weeks

I don't jeff, but will keep an eye out for the new master.... armed with Chambers and a thesaurus.