He had a lot of good omens leading up to the Moorer Holyfield bout, whilst training Moorer he noticed a poster of Tyson on the wall that had his then record of 35-0, Moorer was 34-0 at this point, he took this as an omen, once in Vegas for the bout he put $100 down on number 35 on the roulette table and won $3500, he then put this on Moorer to win, when Moorer won he then collected his winnings ($10k) and got $100 coin and stuck that in a slot machine and won $2000!!! He just knew he couldn't lose that day the omens were with him.
Theres another great story in there of how he came this close to shooting Donny LaLonde in his apartment, but Donny was out, and as time wore on he realised it would be a huge mistake, but had Donny been in he would have killed him
Good Boxing literature.. The Black Lights.. Thomas Hauser.. Come out smoking .. Phil Pepe (biography to Joe Frazier 1972) On Boxing .. Joyce Carol Oates.. more of a study Essay of fighters.. Fire and Fear .. Jose Torres. a kiss and tell all about Team Tyson.. Serenity ... by Ralph Wiley. EXCELLENT READ... Blood Season ...... A full so called season of boxing showing comparrisons between aging Leon Spinks and rising contender come champion Mike Tyson.. Very clever book..... Fight Town. A pictoral history of Boxing in Las Vegas... A must have coffee table book...... Full Colour are photographic book......... Fabulous.. Mamas Boy.. The newest biography of Lennox Lewis.. Far better than the old one... The life and crimes of Don King... Jack Newfield. Very interesting indeed..
Good call. Fascinating book about a total ****. :good One of my faves which is seldom mentioned is "Sting Like A Bee" by Jose Torres. I prefer it to most, if not all, Ali books. I also preferred Papa Jack to Unforgivable Blackness. The latter's a greater reference point of course but I liked the flow of the Randy Roberts effort.
"Papa Jack" and "Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler"" were great reads. I also have Mickey Walker's autobio which is good. "Ultimate Tough Guy"" by Jim Carney about James J. Jeffries is GREAT. And I loved Skehan's "Rocky Marciano, BIOGRAPHY OF A FIRST SON". Maybe the best though is John Jarrett's "Gene Tunney: The Golden Guy Who Licked Jack Dempsey Twice". I thought it was worlds better than the bio "Tunney". It has some chapters on Greb that are just awesome and the book is unbelieveable.
The one fighter I wish a good bio would be done on is Stanley Ketchel. After that, Victor Galindez and Carlos Monzon. One came out on Monzon years ago in spanish, but I don't speaky spanish.
'No Man Stands Alone' by Barney Ross. Great read. 'Somebody Up There Likes Me' Rocky Graziano. One of my favorite reads 'Champions Off Guard' by william Inglis 1932. Interesting read and insights by a man who not only knew fighters like Fitzsimmons, Sullivan, Corbett, Dempsey, Tunney, etc. intimately, but sparred with a number of them. 'Wise Guy. James J. Johnston: A Rhapsody in Fistics' by Marcus Griffin. 1933. Interesting read about the long-time fight promoter/manager known as "The Boy Bandit". 'Flight of the Hawk' by Aaron Pryor. Another terrific read, I couldn't put this one down. 'The Roosevelt That I Know' by Mike Donovan. 1909. Great insights by the forrmer U.S. middleweight champ who knew John L. Sullivan, Kilrain, the original Jack Dempsey, and a host of others, as well as Theodore Roosevelt whom he sparred with frequently. 'Muldoon, The Solid Man of Sport' by Edward Van Every 1929 'The Fearless Harry Greb' by Bill Paxson 'Corner Men' by Fried. Good read. 'In the Days of Giants. Memories of a Champion of the Prize Ring' by William Doherty. 1931. Interesting read by the Australian heavyweight champion . Filled with anecdotes about men such as Bob Fitzsimmons, Kid McCoy,, Joe Goddard, Frank Slavin, and Peter Jackson among many others. Those are just a few that quickly come to mind.
