Critical boxing history and hero-worship

I try to find as many local primary sources as I can, so the sources I use are the ones that are available to me. If a guy was there at the fight, I like to use him; regardless of what he said. I do try to do more leg work and find more sources if it is a controversial fight. Yes, I have used the NPG, but not to the exclusion of other sources. Certainly the NPG gave a nice weekly overview of the sport, and usually relied on at least one local source. But you are correct, they weren't perfect, and like all sources, didn't always get it right.

 

It's not a real criticism of the work you have done, it's just my take on that particular source, they have nice images, and it's indeed an easy overview of past week's events, but I think it bordered yellow journalism even in their boxing write-ups, so, personally, I'd abstain from using it as anything other than a hint of what to look for in other newspapers (dailies).

But if people do like it, well, it's their choice. It's available online up until 1906, in very good quality.
https://archive.org/details/pub_national-police-gazette

 

Depends on your agenda - that is, if you have any!

There are posters here, who completely dismiss the old-timers - arguing they were too "primitive" to even be pro boxers today!

On the other hand, we have those who claim that boxing is dying, and that truly great fighters are a thing of the past.

It's up to the individual posters here to educate themselves - thus forming their own opinions, rather than believing all the biased nonsense being presented in a place like this!

 

more is hero worship of modern fighters
there are so many ' world titles " around & even persons of who have understanding of the history of boxing
seem to still give some too much credibility of ' world titles ""
& not critical enough of " the boxing politics ' '

 

A lot of history is understanding the uncertainty.

It's a lot easier to take a handful of sources at face value, than to think critically about a lot of sources.

 

My book begins in the Primordial Ooze and ends in 1822. For most of that time a written account of boxing was a rare and precious thing. I intended initally to do a brief biography of every man with a reasonable claim to "Heavyweight" champion of their place and time. By the time I was grappling with the explosion of sources as the printing press became more prevalent I got buried in it.

By the time I got to like bareknuckle Boxing's recovery from the 2nd "dark age" after the Jack Slack bribed a guy to throw a heavyweight championship fight. By the time of like Mendoza vs Humphries I realized if I kept to my original goal the book would be a thousand pages.

I cut it off at 1822 because
A The first "Championship belt" was created for Tom Cribb from Lionskin.
B. Bill Richmond becomes the first black man to serve an official function during the coronation of an English Monarch.
C. Bill dies shortly after. He visited Tom Cribb who was the last person to speak to Richmond alive.
D. Tom Cribb wrote the most ****in' ruthless yet heart felt eulogy.

It just felt like the place to leave it in terms of narrative and history.

 

that sounds an incredible journey, I should like to read your work...

for my own research I started with a base of 600 Reports copied from said subjects Scrapbook and by the time I finished, I had nearly tripled the amount of Contemporary Reports to around 1500 or so. Now, many years later, I have over 4000 Reports. But I only had to travel back to the 1930s & 1940s...

not the "Dawn of Time" like you Sir.

WELL DONE!