What did u think of KO Magazine?

I liked "World Boxing". Jeff Ryan was one of the funniest writers I've ever read. He was wickedly hilarious when it came to the fat heavyweights of the 80s:

"This fight must look as good to Leonard as the dinner table looks to James Broad on Thanksgiving day"

"Since there's no promising young heavyweight on the horizon we're just going to have to be content with being hypnotized by Tony Tubbs' jiggling breasts once again"

Those were just from memory. There were tons more. Tyson of course, ended Ryan's reign of terror. But what a gloriously funny reign it was.

 

I thought that KO was the best of the bunch in the 80's. The best writing overall, though I had no patience for that ******** Jeff Ryan.

The interviews every month were solid, the stories were professionally done, the most in-depth content by far, except on occasion for The Ring.

As an aside, I still have a few old magazines from the 70's, and noticed once I starting collecting those back issues how much more professional the writing was by the 80's. Some of the articles in those 70's mags were horribly written, with almost no editing. Really bad stuff.

 

I reckon people must be thinking of a different Boxing Illustrated than the one I used to read.

Almost every major article had 3-4 paragraphs just copied and pasted over and over -- if the story was too short, they would run the same paragraphs over and over to fill up the empty space. Not just lazy, but bad. If you add up all the re-pasted repeats of paragraphs, it would take up 2-3 pages of each issue.

I concur with the Flash Gordon post. The most original and honest insider information on how boxing really works. And loved the fill-in names he would use on the schedule for upcoming fights where the opponent had yet to be determined: Dusty Trunks, the always-popular Korean Pee Suh ****, etc.

 

Anyone else remember "Hank Kaplan's Boxing Digest"???

 

Back then, KO was probably the best, though Ring probably had the best layout of fight coverage, interviews, and everything else. Also, thought that International Boxing and Boxing Illustrated were good, and World Boxing was okay.

 

Flash Gordon for informational and entertaining reading, KO Magazine for production value.

Like lots of other boxing fans, I figured KO's first issue might be a collector's item, and still have it safely tucked away. (Complete with full color poster, profile and record of Little Red Lopez, then at his zenith immediately before the Sanchez upset took the Gomez super fight away from him. Wilfredo would have NEVER underestimated Danny like he did Sal.)

Enjoyed the Victory Sports Series trio of Big Book of Boxing, International Boxing and Inside Boxing.

The Ring and Boxing Illustrated were then too dull and stale to capture and hold the attention of an easily distracted youngster. (Even the quality of their paper was inferior, as though it was recycled stock, along with too many of their articles.)