The book "In This Corner," written by Peter Heller,chronicles the lives and fights of champions and a contender ,[Gunboat Smith ,] from 1912 to 1965. The book is laid out in a series of taped interviews with the participants and, is endlessly fascinating, imo. It begins with Willie Ritchie ,the lightweight Champ from 1912 - 1914 and ,ends with Jose Torres,the Lightheavy champ from 1965- 1966. I dip into this book about once a week. My question is ,why doesn't someone up date it? Champions and ,contenders are regrettably but inevitably leaving us [Arguello,Gatti etc]. It's about 40 years since Heller did his book ,isnt it about time for someone to turn the spotlight on the champions that have come after it?
Well, good question. Why aren´t you doing it? I think Dark Trade while not quite the same was similar and also a good book.
My writing has so far been confined to monthly articles, plus I am in the UK, I feel that with the majority of ex champs being in the US and ,taking into account the travelling this book would involve, through the States, it beckons a US writer . I enjoyed Dark Trade but don't find it very similar.
Yeah, it´s not the same format but it is similar in that thee are many different champs are the study cases of the book. Hm, well, that´s a good argument. On the other hand with today´s technological possibilities I guess it would be easier than a few decades back. It would be great if a new, updated version of the book would also feature more international fighters - Mexicans, British, Germans, Easten European. Perhaps a group of writers collecting the inteviews or something.
I agree with you, speacially some of the sixties fighters while they are still with us and with a bit more of an international flavour. Jofre, napoles, Olivares, Harada, Laguna, Benvenuti, Ortiz, Accavalo, Downes, Chionoi etc plus Americans such as Cokes, Perkins and Foster. Love to hear the stories of some of the great Asian and South American fighters of the 70's and eighties. Americans like Saad Muhammad and Danny Lopez, the list goes on. Conteh, Stracey.............
Bodhi maybe onto something here, a combined effort from writers who live in the countries of the old champs and challengers. We are losing these first hand stories every year that passes . Your late Father is a case in point, how many fighters had the experience of facing Olivares,Rose,Harada,and McGowan? There was an opportunity missed to record those experiences on tape for posterity.
Don't know if you saw my first post or not but yes. The beauty of In This Corner is that it is in their own words. As for my dad Wrimc who posts on the British Forum did a great interview with dad just a couple of months before he died. He talked about all of them, maybe we'll get to read it at some time in that sort of book. I have got another interview recorded in the 70's where he talks about his career and life in detail. I sometimes just put it on and listen to his voice again while I'm just getting on with things around the house. LEBA have been interviewing their older members recently to get all their great stories on record.
I doubt there are many modern fighters who have lived as interesting lives as the stories the old-timers told to Peter Heller. There might be a small few.
Heller's book is one of my all time favorites..I sure wish someone would update it. I would love for someone to find Jose Napoles and interview him.
I don't know about that...it would be fascinating to get their spin on the events and fights that shaped their careers.
I think this is a fantastic idea and there is a certain great generation rapidly slipping through our fingers, Rose and Ol 'Enery have sadly been two who have recently moved on to the great halls. To read the words of some of the men mentioned, esp. the non-english ones, would be a treat.
He did update it a few yrs back but only with Duran & Arguello. In the original preface he said he left alot of fighters out due to space. Therefor I would like to see all those also put in a new book.
Thankfully, Heller actually did an updated one in the '80s with Arguello and Duran, and it also adds a footnote saying Don Jordan's story was total bullsh!t lol. But by now, even that version should be updated. BTW, is Heller still alive?
