Boxing historian starter kit - 5 books you recommend?

Primo : The Story of 'Man Mountain' Carnera World Heavyweight Champion is manditory, since he is the forum favorite. Not sure what the best book on Deontay Wilder is, but that's also needed. Harry Greb always get talked about, so you'll need Klompton's book. You'll need a book on one really random obscure topic no one else knows about, (I'm going for mid 1700's boxing ATM), and bring it up as a diversion any time you're losing an argument. Finally you'll need a textbook on track and feild record progression, since that also get brought up in evey other thread.

In seriousness, I don't think there's anything you need to know. There's so much boxing history, no one can know it all. I have no doubt the regulars here all know tons of stuff I don't. You just have to have a bit of humility and realise you can make mistakes, or opinions formed on incomplete information might be wrong, unfortunately it's in short supply online. I can be overly argumentative myself, and have to put in a bit of effort to keep things civil, be as objective as possible (obviously an impossible target), and admit if it seems I'm wrong. And if people are discussing something you don't know about, instead of spouting a strong opinion, you can always stay quiet, and you might learn some stuff. Honestly there's a few old threads I've read through here that have contained some cool info.

 

Van Gogh: The LIFE by Naifeh & Smith- absolutely loved it.
A Pictorial History of Boxing by Fleisher and Andre
Heavyweight Champions by Weston
Jack Dempsey The Manassa MAULER by Roberts
Raging Bull by Jake LaMotta
In The Ring With James J. Jeffries
Muscle and Mayhem The Saginaw Kid and the Fistic World of the 1890s by Choinard -especially great!
Joe Louis My Life
Rocky Marciano Biography of a First Son by Skehan
Papa Jack by Roberts
Ghosts of Manilla by Kram -PERFECT! Should be read to all children at bedtime.

 

Prizefighter ..Fitz bio smooth enjoyable read

Ghosts of Manila..Frazier Ali with alot of back story info. Paints a real picture of both fighters

Larry Holmes Against the odds...because I like Holmes

Tyson Undisputed truth..speaks for itself

I am Duran..I like Duran

The ageless warrior Archie Moore

4 Kings

In this Corner 40 world champs tell there story

Buchanan Chuvalo McGuigan Mancini Frazier Schmeling Benn Tszyu Fenech Foreman Graziano Leonard Carter all wrote good autobiographys

Quarry Lyle Langford Sullivan Louis Dempsey Marciano Patterson Kid Lewis McLarnin Ross Burley Liston Basilio Mace Zale Walcott all have good bios written about them. There are a couple books about Bare Knuckle history.

Dark Trade is good it predominantly features James Toney

 

One I really need to read is Jem Mace's 50 Years a Fighter

 

"The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing" by Thomas Hauser

 

I have Jem Mace master of the ring.
Haven't read it yet though. 500 pages!

 

I bought a great long book on Choynski and the great ULTIMATE TOUGH GUY about Jefffries and A Man Among Men about Jeff.

 

Corner Men by Fried

 

Its absolutely necessary that you read Championship Fighting by Jack Dempsey

Some others I'd recommend:

"Undefeated: Rocky Marciano's Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World" by Mike Stanton

"Joe Louis, My Life" by Joe Louis

"An Ageless Warrior" by Archie Moore

"Ali" by Jonathan Eig

Also watch alot of documentaries/history vids, here's a few:

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Also, as cheesy as it sounds, you can learn alot of boxing history from Hanzagod's and Reznick's videos

 

If the goal is 5 books to expose you to a sizable span of boxing history, you probably want books that cover a lot of fighters. A few off the top of my head 1) The Gods of War by Springs Toledo, 2) Charley Burley and The Black Murderer's Row by Otty, 3) Corner Men by Fried, 4) Four Kings by Kimball, and 5) The Sundowners by Smith or Live Fast Die Young by Compton.

 

The Devil and Sonny Liston

 

The Great Fights by Burt Sugar.

Hands of Stone. ..Duran story. Christian Giudice

 

Very wise words.

 

Reckon 5 books would be far too small of a number but some of the ones mentioned above would allow you to be head and shoulders in knowledge above the vast majority of fans. My advice would be to read as much as you can, books, magazines, articles etc. Find a niche part of the sport you enjoy and master that portion then branch out from there.

I think it would be really informative for the most knowledgeable historians on this forum to give us a run through on their history with the sport and what they have done and do to gain knowledge. Any takers?