Who is the greatest living boxing historian?

+1 for Turner.

 

Personally I look at the quality of the work that the historians and the wanna-be historians produce. I own a fair sized library and find the number of quality boxing books that show demonstrable research and analysis are fairly few and far between.

I am not against the standard boxing bio that one can read in an evening or two where one learns very little but my favourite works are the bigger and more researched books.

Adam Pollack's series is excellent, the book on Joe Choynski by Christopher LaForce and Steve Compton's book on Harry Greb stand out to me. Clay Moyle is another top notcher.

For other historians, I would not know where to look. They are out there though.

 

Bert Sugar was total caricature, total show, no depth to his schtick. God Bless him, he was entertaining and promoted a love of the sport's history but he was essentially a clown.

 

Mr Bull Sugar.

 

Pollock and Moyle have done excellent bios the research in their work is highly impressive,I haven't read Klompton's bio of Greb but it received top reviews.

 

Kaplan was a great archivist maybe the greatest.

 

EXCELLENT!!!!!!

 

Not on a thread about greatest LIVING he doesn't.

 

He had a huge collection of films but relied heavily on others for inside knowledge, people like Mickey Duff.

 

John Ochs is my #1. Context is everything when trying to gain a proper historical perspective and beyond an unbelievable knowledge of the history of the sport John understands context better than anyone Ive ever met.

 

So we have Pollock, Moyle, Ochs, Kaplan, Klompton...what about Springs Toledo? And has anyone read Doug Cavanaugh's work on Pittsburgh's boxing history? Doug's writing is mostly found on facebook but he's got a book in the works.

 

Thinking of getting Toledo's books,Murderers Row & also The Cheap Seats.

Jerry Izenberg?

 

I nominate Perry

He has seen every fight live, visited Deer Lake, was involved in boxing and once had a gym in his garage, with a treadmill.
He also wears a nice watch.

 

Bert Sugar is the kind of guy you don't appreciate until you try doing his job.
For all the gaps of knowledge he had, he got people interested in boxing history.

 

I had opportunity to have two conversations with Sugar - he had a great sense of humor and was good for the sport. His schtick got him noticed but yes he willingly parroted myths of the sport that he knew weren't true. A Self promoter or a romantic, accuracy wasn't his forte.
I had the chance to also talk with Bill Gallo on several occasions - he possessed a wealth of knowledge on the sport. And if you want no punches pulled inside stories tommy Gallagher is a great person to get a hold of