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.

HumanWindmill wrote:Delighted you found it, Galveston, and I very much look forward to your review. As you know, I'm an avid admirer of Jeffries, so any deeper insights into Sharkey will be extremely welcome.

No problem Windy, thanks again mate.

Just a quick one here but Hands Of Stone by Christian Giudice and The Fearless Harry Greb by Bill Paxton are both good reads; I'd post a longer review for each but I'm just about finished my lunch break.

Just bought myself a Kindle and was wondering if anyone knew of any sites that did boxing biographies in PDF form or similar. The Peter Jackson article Windy sent me from Cyber Boxing Zone is on my Kindle now...shame I forgot to charge the friggin' thing this morning.

Think Amazon do them Dave but suspect you mean ones without paying for them, not sure but if you find out a heads up would be much appreciated as a fellow Kindle owner

Have no idea what a kindle is, Dave, but there are some good ' mini ' bios here :

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/index.html

and I have a few complete books in PDF format lying around on my hard drive. If I can remember where I found them I'll post links here.

This thread might also be of interest to you :

http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingforum/27432-boxing-history-ring-science-ebooks.html

Hope that helps.

Windy a kindle is an electronic book mate which basically plays PDF files, as such any biographies or links to biographies in PDF form would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the info, jeff.

The link I provided, above, has a few PDFs. In some cases there are full length books.

Cheers Windy, suspect those will keep me occupied for a good while

You're welcome, mate.

Much appreciated Windy.

You're welcome, Dave.

Went onto those sites yesterday and downloaded a couple of books in PDF form. Sadly the Jack Johnson one I D/L seems to have copied the pictures and ignored the text but the SRR biography appears to be all in order(really looking forward to that)

Many of the books are scan of the originals and, as such, probably not best suited to the Kindle format. However, I'm certain they are perfectly legible on one's PC/laptop and my difficulties shouldn't put anyone off just cos I want to use my new toy!

Dave not sure how IT literate you are but a mate of mine is a geek and he is on one of those newsgroup things and he downloaded me a load off one of those sites. Got a load of Dennis Lehane and Don Winslow books, as I know you're a fan of both. There is also some software called calibre that is free to download that converts them into formats that work on the kindle, am obviously not condoning such shameful and illegal behaviour though.

Oh don't worry about that dear chap, I have plenty of conversion software (ask no questions tell no lies etc) at home. I just tried it quickly last night and the Johnson one wasn't having it for whatever reason. Sometimes certain PDF files don't convert into the mobi format properly. Will be a bit of trial and error but I'll get it sorted.

There's a couple of free programs (PDFtoEpub, EpubtoMobi and other such variations) and they sem to work very nicely.

Have you read Don Winslow's "Power of the Dog"? It's excellent. Also got a mobi copy of the new Dennis Lehane "Moonlight Mile" Been waiting for the latest Kenzie installment since "Prayers for Rain" Hope it's worth the wait.

Have read Power of the Dog, agree it is excellent. We will get to look very smart being into Winslow soon as The Winter of Frankie Machine is being made into a film with De Niro, if you haven't read that it is definitely worth it. Have read all the Kenzie books due to the power of Kindle and questionable websites, like you am a big fan but now realise you were right Affleck is terribly miscast in the film

Also, the female lead Holly, was so woefully underused. I imagined a character like Jennifer Lopez in "Out of Sight". Sexy!

They should also have at least tried to keep them in sequence but given they couldn't manage to do it with Along Came a Spider and Kiss the girls it doesn't surprise me.

I had to chuckle when they cast Morgan Freeman in the Alex Cross role given that, for years, James Patterson kept dropping no so subtle hints that he bore a resemblence to Denzel Washington. He must have sh*t a brick when Denzel did Jeffrey Deaver's "Bone Collector"

Dark Trade - Donald McRae

I'm sure most on here are familiar with this book, for those that aren't buy it!

One of the best boxing books I have read.

Focus is on the early 90's and explores the writers relationships with several boxers:

Benn, Eubank, Tony, Jones Jr, Naz, Watson, G Man (there may be others but these were the main ones that spring to mind).

The writer speaks very personally and with a passion for boxing. It at times takes you down a dark path and there are times throughout the book where you question this sport we all love.

If I ever have a son and he wants to take up boxing I will insist he reads this book first.

10/10

Hi All
Thanks for the chat about our Tom Sharkey biography, I Fought Them All.
The tomsharkey.blogspot.com address below is our website so please use it if you wish to buy the book.
Any problems please feel free to email us
magic.rat.books@googlemail.com
Thanks
Greg & Moira

The Galveston Giant wrote:

Scottrf wrote:Can't access them but try these links Galveston:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140478220098

http://tomsharkey.blogspot.com/p/buy-i-fought-them-all.html

If no luck, email magic.rat.books@googlemail.com

Hi all, just let you know that i have succesfully purchased the Tom Sharkey book 'I fought them all', from the blogspot on the above link. Both links to purchase, and the email address, are directly linked to the authors, and each copy comes hand signed. The book was sent out right away and took about 5 days to arrive, i'm sure there is only going to be one run of these books so i would advise anyone interested to purchase soon. They have asked me to send them a copy/link when i write a review about the book on here, which i will do after finishing the book. Thanks GG.

Thanks very much for getting in touch, Greg and Moira. Nice to know that we have a direct connection.

No problem. Only just discovered the discussion after shamefully Googling my own book!
Greg

rowley wrote: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.

John L Sullivan and his America.

Just finished a book on John L Sullivan by a guy called Micheal Isenburg. If any of you have an interest in John L then I can recommend this one. It is look at his early life, his tough Irish-American immigrant upbringing in Boston, and moves on to his bare knuckle career and centres around the marathon scrap with Jake Killrain in Mississippi. It paints a great picture of the America that he was growing up in and the transition of prizefighting from an "underground" scene to a more mainstream activity.

I would describe large sections of the book as a sociological look at America and the changes going on at the time, but uses John L as a vehicle to move through the scene. There are some great accounts of his prizefighting, and some fabulous anecdotes from a truly diverse cast. The book shows just how famous John L was in his day, rising from an immigrant underclass to friendship with Theodore Roosevelt, but does not gloss over the deep character flaws that plagued Sullivan, and the drunkenness, wife beating etc etc that come as baggage attached to John L is not dismissed.

It paints John L as the national hero that he was and really gives a good insight into the times that he grew up in. Although the narrative is a touch "academic" at times, the book really is entertaining and brings the era, the man and all his myths to life.

Good read.

Thanks for this, Tino.

Certainly whetted my appetite. Time to be extra nice to Mrs Windy, methinks.

Likewise Tino may have to have a look at that one. Have read Pollack's excellent biography of Sullivan and whilst I cannot bring myself to be even vaguely critical of Pollack's books they do not tend to cover their subjects exploits or lives outside the ring and with characters as colourful as Sullivan this is something of a shame so Isenburg's book may be worth the investment.

magicratbooks wrote:Hi All
Thanks for the chat about our Tom Sharkey biography, I Fought Them All.
The tomsharkey.blogspot.com address below is our website so please use it if you wish to buy the book.
Any problems please feel free to email us
magic.rat.books@googlemail.com
Thanks
Greg & Moira

The Galveston Giant wrote:

Scottrf wrote:Can't access them but try these links Galveston:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140478220098

http://tomsharkey.blogspot.com/p/buy-i-fought-them-all.html

If no luck, email magic.rat.books@googlemail.com

Hi all, just let you know that i have succesfully purchased the Tom Sharkey book 'I fought them all', from the blogspot on the above link. Both links to purchase, and the email address, are directly linked to the authors, and each copy comes hand signed. The book was sent out right away and took about 5 days to arrive, i'm sure there is only going to be one run of these books so i would advise anyone interested to purchase soon. They have asked me to send them a copy/link when i write a review about the book on here, which i will do after finishing the book. Thanks GG.

Hi Greg & Moira, great to see you found the forum. I have been ill the past couple of weeks so am only half way through the book at the moment, but will start it up again real soon. I've not managed to get on this forum much recently either and have only just seen your post. I'm very impressed with the book so far and really enjoyed the Sharkey/Fitzsimmons/Earp section. I look forward to starting it again and will be sure to let you know what i think once finished, thanks, Galveston Giant.

Windy/Rowley, it is well worth a read for sure, and one thing it can't be accused of is neglecting Sullivan's "extracurricular" activities.

If anything, and this is purely my own take on the author, it felt like he had started out writing a sociological book on America but got sidetracked by just how interesting a character John L was, and subsequently his personality just leaps out of the pages.

Rowley, I seriously need to invest in the Pollack series, and it is something I intend to rectify soon. Tempted to skip straight to Jeffries as I am borderline obsessed with him (I think man-crush is the correct terminology) but will have to resist and buy them in order.

I'm very impressed with the book so far and really enjoyed the Sharkey/Fitzsimmons/Earp section.
____________________________________________________

That was covered in massive detail in Pollack's book on Fitzsimmons, agree it was probably the most fascinating section and made for interesting reading. May have to get the Sharkey book to read about it from Sharkey's perspective.

Tino would advise doing them in order. Not only do they read better but Pollack's books are quite unlike any other boxing books I have read as they have nothing about the outside the ring activities and also cover every fight and exhibition in forensic detail and to be honest this does take some getting used to (but is worth the effort) To leap straight into the 600+ pages on Jeffries would take some effort. Apparently Burns should be on the way soon, which hopefully means Johnson is to follow. That should be absolutely epic.

I will read them in order, I'm sure it is the right thing to do and it will do justice to the timeline.

I know a couple of people who have read Pollack's books and they all describe them in much the same way you do. Interestingly though, they rave about them in equal measures once you get used to the style. Joining this forum has just made me more determined to get off my backside and buy them.

Johnson would be an epic if Jim takes up 600+ pages. I have only read Unforgivable Blackness and, as I know from your previous comments, it can be a tough read ploughing through the footnotes, but there is no doubting what a character he was, much the same as John L.

I'm very impressed with the book so far and really enjoyed the Sharkey/Fitzsimmons/Earp section.
____________________________________________________

That was covered in massive detail in Pollack's book on Fitzsimmons, agree it was probably the most fascinating section and made for interesting reading. May have to get the Sharkey book to read about it from Sharkey's perspective.

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The Pollock book was one i was considering Rowley and definately one i will be looking to pick up in the future, i only have the Jefferies one at the moment. The subject of Sharkey vs Fitzsimmons is great and it's good to see/hear different opinions on the fight. Sharkey is someone i've taken interest in recently so was really pleased to get a copy of the book and learn more.

Tino would advise doing them in order. Not only do they read better but Pollack's books are quite unlike any other boxing books I have read as they have nothing about the outside the ring activities and also cover every fight and exhibition in forensic detail and to be honest this does take some getting used to (but is worth the effort) To leap straight into the 600+ pages on Jeffries would take some effort. Apparently Burns should be on the way soon, which hopefully means Johnson is to follow. That should be absolutely epic.

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Sounds great, Burns one should be great also, he's a boxer i want to know more about. I made the mistake of ploughing straight into Pollocks Jefferies one and at 700 odd pages found it a little overwhelming, like you say the layout takes a little getting used to and am considering maybe leaving it until i get the Sullivan/Corbett/Fitzsimmons ones, but at the price of them that could be a while.

The Galveston Giant wrote:Tino would advise doing them in order. Not only do they read better but Pollack's books are quite unlike any other boxing books I have read as they have nothing about the outside the ring activities and also cover every fight and exhibition in forensic detail and to be honest this does take some getting used to (but is worth the effort) To leap straight into the 600+ pages on Jeffries would take some effort. Apparently Burns should be on the way soon, which hopefully means Johnson is to follow. That should be absolutely epic.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds great, Burns one should be great also, he's a boxer i want to know more about. I made the mistake of ploughing straight into Pollocks Jefferies one and at 700 odd pages found it a little overwhelming, like you say the layout takes a little getting used to and am considering maybe leaving it until i get the Sullivan/Corbett/Fitzsimmons ones, but at the price of them that could be a while.

How much are they then?

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:How much are they then?

About £35 I think.

Yeah around £35, i think the Corbett one is about £30 but don't think you can purchase from Amazon.

Scottrf wrote:

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:How much are they then?

About £35 I think.

Crikey. Thanks Scott/GG, think I will have to sell one of the kids to catch up in the series then.

Joys of having no kids Tino can save my money for the really important things in life.

The man behind the braaaappp

Coming to a store near you.

Begins with da cat on the streets, his struggle with fast paced beats and the rise n fame hitting the very high heights on 606 with lyrical beats.

It's £3.99

Ps Jeff I've pre ordered you a dozen big fella.

I have little doubt that it will be a best seller, Eric. Consider me to be on the waiting list.

Out of respect Windy yours will be signed sir.

To Windy

Love

Eric

Thanks mate, all da best

I am honured, Sir ! Thank you.

I'll buy one if he promises never to come back..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I'll buy one if he promises never to come back..

I'm just worried yours will out sell mine, Truss's story The man behind 4 forum retirements.

Never mind stop being nasty, I'm off now I won't interrupt the boxing talk

God bless

5 actually...keep up with the times!!

Adam Pollack – In the Ring with.......

As they have been mentioned in preceding comments thought now would be a fairly opportune moment to write a review of Adam Pollack’s ongoing series on the early heavyweight champions. For those unfamiliar with these works Pollack has taken on the daunting task of writing biographies of the earliest heavyweight champions starting with the man widely accepted as being the first heavyweight champion of the gloved era, John L Sullivan and with the most recent in the series being the oft maligned Marvin Hart, with Tommy Burns arriving shortly.

Will come a shock to nobody who has either followed this thread or who I have discussed these books with previously to know I am a massive fan of this series and I, again cannot praise highly enough the work Pollack as done. With the fighters under consideration there is little to no footage available so it is often easy for myths about their styles and abilities such as that Sullivan was nothing but a crude brawler or that Hart was a limited slugger who lucked his way into the heavyweight title. Pollack covers every fight in the fighters career in forensic detail drawing on at least two or three newspaper reports of the time to cover all their major fights and exhibition on a round by round basis. This allows you to develop a good understanding of the fights and also avoids drawing solely on local reports which can be written to favour the local favourite, giving you a far more rounded impression of what actually happened in the fights, something obviously invaluable when so little footage is available.

Pollack’s writing style takes some getting used to as there is little of the things you are used to seeing in the normal biography such as information about their lifestyles outside the ring with the books focussing solely on their in ring action and training camps leading up to the fights but as these are covered in such exhaustive detail this is something you are quickly ready to ignore and to be honest once you get used to his style you soon forget about this. However when there are out of ring controversies or points of interest that warrant covering such as how Hart came to earn his title shot or the controversy surrounding the Sharkey Fitzsimmons fight these are covered in his usual detail and certainly for me the section on the Sharkey Fitz controversy and subsequent court case ranks as one of the most enjoyable and insightful sections I have read in any boxing books.

It would seem churlish to criticise a series of books I have read and enjoyed quite as much but if I was to be critical the books are quite expensive weighing in at over £30 each. However for those with a passion for the history of the sport I would be confident in saying you will not regret spending this money and even this is mitigated by the fact the books are beautifully illustrated and presented with the high quality hard back covers giving the books a quality academic feel. Overall I cannot recommend these books highly enough but if anyone is interested in buying them I would heavily recommend you do so in order as the narratives frequently overlap so it makes sense to do so and will increase your enjoyment of the series.

The Pollack series is going to be required reading for me, Jeff. I shall be ordering the first three today, confident that they are precisely the kind of thing that I'm looking for.

Captain knowing your interest in the old timers I am certain you will enjoy them as much as I have.

"Boxings Hall of Shame" by Thomas Myler.

Haven't read this in a while but its a decent read. Going back as far as the dawn of Queensbury rules up until the modern day Myler brings us through some of the darker and more contraversial moments in the sport's history.

Broken into 14 independent chapters and covering many different subjects and episodes it has something for everyone. There's contraversial fights such as No mas, Tyson Holyfield 2 and Ali Liston 2 and various counts of fight fixing and hustles down through the ages. While humorous in parts it also covers perhaps the darkest side of boxing with the sad tale of Jerry Quarry showing the risk these men take every time they step in the ring and the physical and mental damage that can be left long after they hang up the gloves.

All in all its an interesting solid book which is worth a read. The fact that its broken into 14 contrasting and stand alone chapters, covering the old and new makes it accessible to everyone and enjoyable even for those that might note consider themselves big readers..

Cheers paperbag, am always a bit wary of these boxings best rounds or boxings biggest controversies books as I have always found them a little unsatisfying or that they skim over topics I have in more detail in other books. However have read Myler's books on Corbett and Louis v Schemling and as both of them are excellent that one may be worth adding to the collection.

You're spot on Rowley it is the kinda book that one might find unsatisfying especially if you're looking for detail. Its hard to fit a whole story into 20 pages or so. However, it is reasonably informative and gives a decent overview of each subject. It is prob best for a bit of light reading rather than something to really get your teeth stuck into though.

Just stumbled across this site and was pleased to read Rowley's review of my book about Sam Langford. I've finished a second biography, about Billy Miske, that I hope to have available by yearend. I'm also working on a biography about Tony Zale with one of his nephews that we hope to finish this year.

I am obsessed with the collection of boxing books and have over 3,900 different titles now. I just read one the other day that most people probably haven't heard about that I thought was pretty darn interesting. It's titled 'Giants On My Shoulders. The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Upset In Boxing History' by Ben Clement as told by Frank Steel. http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/GiantsOnMyShoulders.html

I'd never heard of this fighter before. He was undefeated in five professional fights from 1969 to the early 70s, but had to give up the sport after losing an eye as a result of a sparring session with Muhammad Ali.

What I found most interesting was Steel's accounts of his sparring sessions with Ali, whom he claimed to knock out during one session, Foreman, Frazier and Shavers. He was thrown out of Foreman's training camp in Zaire after a heated sparring exchange and was paid $3,000 by Ali for sharing a secrent that Steel claims helped Ali defeat Foreman. Pretty interesting read overall. My only complaint with the book is the length of the chapters. It's 289 pages long with a total of six chapters.

More later, gotta go watch a rerun of The Virginian

Thanks very much for logging in with us, Clay.

Many of us have read your works and have been very impressed with them. As a long time Miske advocate I anticipate with excitement your book about him.