Great stuff buddy, this from Peter Wilson ( Daily Mirror ) " Then like the car you don't see, came the right, the terrifying right, that left Walcot looking down his own spine . Rocky half threw a left, but pulled the power, it wasn't needed " " Of all the dirty fighters I have seen, and I have seen plenty, the roughest,toughest, meanest fighter I ever saw was a flame headed FW called Joe " Sandy " Saddler " " Basilio posed just one problem to Robinson, you can beat me, BUT you will have to take my heart out, then stomp on it " " The heat, the suffocating heat, no Sahara desert could be so hot, you could not breath, the breaths you did take were searing your throat, your shirt was sodden with sweat, the seat beneath you claimed your trousers, as a lovers embrace, the referee was one of its victims, little Ruby seemed to have shrunk under its unforgiving glare, Maxim didn't beat Robinson, he could nether have beaten him, the mercury in the little needle was the culprit " Stay safe guys.
The first Pollack Sullivan biography. Yes the second version improved on it considerably, but the first book revealed a hidden prehistoric monster, that was only just now being dug out of the earth!
The War which I bought off Amazon It's about a middleweight fight that nobody wanted to see at first but eventually turned into a matchup that captivated the country and became the fight of the 80s. great detail and insight. Must read
No other sport lends itself to writing in the way boxing does, does it? Very visceral stuff from Peter. Bert Sugar, for all his faults, had a nice turn of phrase. He had no problem repeating them - how often did he talk of 'putting the toothpaste back in the tube? - but one that sticks out is his description of Foreman's comeback. 'At an age where all he should be exercising is caution, he has thrown that to the wind, along with' ... cue description of punches which I don't recall. I have read lots of sport columnists. Only in boxing have I read sentences that I can repeat verbatim 30 years later.
I love some others mentioned in this thread — Mailer’s ‘The Fight,’ ‘Four Kings’ and others — but this is the one I keep going back to (was just rereading the ‘Ahab and Nemesis’ chapter on Marciano-Moore the other night) and your take on the writing is spot on. Liebling had the gift. He also understood the game and hung out with Whitey Bimstein and Freddie Brown and others and was able to make it relatable to the reader (often with great humor). Furthermore, he understood the experience of going to live fights, capturing the banter of people in the stands and how they have ‘conversations’ when rooting for opposite guys with what they yell out during fights. A few memorable passages (forgive me if I don’t get them word for word): On Marciano returning to his corner after Archie Moore stared him down during instructions: “More than ever, he resembled a Great Dane who has heard the word ‘bone.’” Asking a matchmaker at a card that’s being televised on the weekly network fights sponsored by Gillette if the main event is going to be a good fight, the man replies: “They must think it will sell razor blades.” Relating a call from a ticket buyer in the crowd at a club show where one of the main event participants arrived late due to getting on the wrong subway, delaying the fight, and getting (IIRC) knocked down in the first round, upon rising: “Why don’t you hang around? You made us wait long enough.” (The guy dug in and lasted the distance.) Liebling manages to capture not only the mentality of the fighters and their managers/trainers and the action, but also the experience of going to the fights. I’ll keep rereading it til the day I pass.
Haven’t read it yet but I should. Slight correction: It’s Roger Kahn, who wrote what I (and many others) think is the best baseball book ever written, ‘The Boys of Summer.’
I found that book really underwhelming. A bunch anecdotes I had heard before taped together with sloppy mythologizing.
