Hugh McIlvanney, thoughts please.

Any fan of sport writing has to be a fan, i've often laughed out loud at his work too. It's not that the Ali articles aren't top quality, I just think the real gems in the book are the stuff on Whitaker, like you said, Johnny Owen (as Rudkin jnr mentioned), Jack Bodell, Pastrano-Downes, Ortz-Laguna. All gold.

 

Here mate, from The Observer.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,583597,00.html

 

I quite agree his shows are just that shows ,conducted at a high volume where he seems to think the louder he speaks ,the more astute his observations are,not my cup of tea.Too big an ego getting in the way of asking what should be perceptive and searching questions.

 

What a contrast! The eloquence of Hugh and all I can see out the corner of my eye is "Liverpool are ****" ha ha. By the way, I'm a Red.

 

More Hugh McIlvanney:

"In his prime Joe Bugner had physique of a Greek Statue, but he had fewer moves".

 

A football one but still gold and reminding the younger generation of the genius of Diego:

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:yep

 

my favourite boxing/sports writer...his brother is also a novelist of some repute, writing, amongst others, the big man, a boxing related crime book made into a film starring liam neeson.....

 

Not much else to add, the bodell chapter is a must read

 

Hugh Mcilvanney is undoubtedly one of the greatest boxing writers ever, he has such a wealth of experience in the subject and he has a writing style that mixes humour, facts and his own personal opinions .. He definately belongs at the top table in the pantheon of boxing writers with the undisputed king Budd Sculberg, i cant recommend Schulberg's 'Ringside - A Treasury of Boxing Reportage', easily the best boxing book ive ever read and ive read many, Mcilvanney's 'Mcilvanney on Boxing' is also brilliant .. I'll never agree with him on Hagler v Leonard, ive watched that fight 100s of times searching for the 'controversy' and the 'conspiracy theory' that people keep talking about and i cant see it, Leonard clearly wins that fight whether its by 2, 3 or 4 rounds, im a massive fan of Hagler but even if you give him all the close rounds he still only gets a draw in my opinion, but hey its all about opinions

 

I have the paperback version, and it is a true joy to read the experiences of a guy who has watched boxing since the 1920s, hes an absolute one- man library on the fight game, the book starts with a glowing introduction from Hugh Mcilvanney and then proceeds to describe fights from Tom Cribb vs Tom Molineaux in 1810 to Corrales v Castillo 2 .. Schulberg is a man who must have more experience than anybody alive when it comes to boxing, hes seen all the greats which is why he is most qualified to compare fighters from different eras, he was a fight manager who managed Archie Mcbride in fights against Nino Valdes and Floyd Patterson and theres also a brilliant article on Mike Jacobs .. Basically what you have is the most knowledgable guy in the sport giving you his take on all things to do with boxing spanning 70 years, the book is a real treasure and i'd recommend it to anybody .. I'd also recommend 'Dark Trade' by Donald Mcrae which tracks personal journeys that Donald has with various fighters like James Toney, Naz, Eubank, Jones Jr, its quite a personal take on who the fighters actually are in the build-up to fights, on fight nights and were the fighters actually came from, its a very nice book .. George Kimball's 'Four Kings' is also a good book but it kind of polishes up what you already know about the 4 fighters, its worth a read though