Inside Facts of Pugilism - Siler

Boxing books that old are almost always tough to read. The style is downright distracting, but still, I find myself taking notes when they describe little tricks and traps in the ring that are otherwise lost to history. If that's your aim, I'd say get it.

For a "good read," I prefer historians' boxing biographies -loved Cavanaugh's Tunney and Ward's Unforgivable Blackness. There's a cost there too, though. They often have little or no understanding of style or technique.

 

I thought Cavanaugh's book was a little too hero worshippy myself. Nothing about Tunney and the sauce. Or fighting black dudes.

 

Yeah, he didn't say much at all about Tunney's glaring fault. However, the book was very well-written and that is more than can be said for most.

 

True, plus I like how it's presented as a Dempsey and Tunney pair of storylines. I reckon that I'd enjoy the book a lot more if it had been presented as a tale of two fighters rather than just a tunney retrospective, actually.

 

Do you have Nat Fleischer's "50 Years at Ringside" or Frank Klaus's "The Art of In-fighting"? These have a few gems in them. I have John L.'s "Reminiscences" but haven't opened it yet.

 

If he didn't have a ghost-writer, then I'm Elvis's ******* son.

Find Klaus's book here. It says the download is free:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-art-of-in-fighting/15109603

It has alot of photos that include him and a partner demonstrating technique and he explains these pretty well. Some of it is nothing new but I've taught quite a few of these to a Featherweight swarmer and with good results.

 

In This Corner is necessary, if you haven't read it already. first hand accounts of champions discussing their careers and opponents up until the late 70s. Gunboat Smith to Duran. Great read.

 

read it twice, would never lend it to a friend or anyone else unless I held their first-born son as collateral.