Boxing books

[Quickhands21]

I have a shitload of boxing books but havent had the chance to read them yet..Anybody read ray robinson p4p.or The Gene tunney book?

[abraq]

Lucky guy! To have all those books.

Unlucky guy! Not having read them yet.

[john garfield]

I have a shitload of boxing books but havent had the chance to read them yet..Anybody read ray robinson p4p.or The Gene tunney book?

Even with the involvement of his son, Q21, the SRR book doesn't do him justice -- pedestrian prose that reveals nothing that hasn't been in countless books before it.

Big disappointment; I'd been lookin' forward to its publication.

[McGrain]

Pound for pound?

Piece of shit, to be vastly less kind and slightly more accurate than JG.

The Gene Tunney book is a wonderful read, but perhaps has an overly sympathetic narrator.

[Stonehands89]

"Tunney" was excellent. I rank it up there with "Unforgivable Blackness" in terms of research, context, and readability.

[Bill1234]

Tunney was a great read, very informative.

[mightyd40]

tunney was good but p4p wasnt that great i read another one that was better about him but cant remeber the title right now. i am reading sweet william at the moment anyone have any opinions on that one?

[Robbi]

I have 'Sweet William, the life and times of Billy Conn'


Not got round to reading it yet.

[pugilist_boyd]

TUNNEY BOOK was very good,i am now reading a book on dempsey ,does jeffries have any books about mainly him and not johnson,i heard a guy named adam pollack is coming out with one,or how about any other great body punchers or swarmers

[Quickhands21]

TUNNEY BOOK was very good,i am now reading a book on dempsey ,does jeffries have any books about mainly him and not johnson,i heard a guy named adam pollack is coming out with one,or how about any other great body punchers or swarmers
i have dempsey its real good..I just started the Battling siki book

[Ted Spoon]

Just plain good, modern reads: Dark Trade by Donald McRae and Ringside by Budd Schulberg.

Imformative, grounded and funny; real page turners.

[amhlilhaus]

all of adam pollacks' books.

[Robbi]

I have came across this book and it's not long hit the shelves in the US and soon be be released in the UK.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]


Reviews
A terrific story. With simple but profound insight Steve Marantz creates a smooth fable of two epic fighters who were defined by each other- Hagler and his bald bluecollar sincerity against the get-rich-quick celebrity of Sugar Ray, a scheming con man in pinstripes. Were we all in love with the wrong guy? --Ian Thomsen, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

In deft, terrific prose, Steve Marantz has laid out the itineraries for Marvin and Sugar Ray, leading up to one memorable night in the desert. The whole story is here, as exciting as it was the first time. --Leigh Montville, SPORTSWRITER, COLUMNIST AND AUTHOR


Boxing, perhaps more than any other sport, is fundamentally dramaturgical, an intersection of conflicting epics. And every fighter becomes, thus, a kind of document of his movement through a mosaic of collected stories. Strangely, however, these stories are often inscrutable to the fighters themselves. In his extraordinary new book, Steve Marantz explores the puzzling, secret narrative of Sugar Ray Leonard’s historic 1987 bout with Marvin Hagler and decodes, for us, the bout’s complexities which have, in the years since, alchemized into lore and fractured mythology. Sorcery at Caesars is a singular achievement, splendidly written and subversively inventive.
Marantz’s provocative thesis is that Leonard’s improbable victory was, in fact, the final turn in a carefully conceived, elaborately-staged performance of the Dark Arts. Indeed, we find in Marantz’s clever analysis a very real commitment to the idea of metaphysics in boxing: he fully understands the intricacies of psychological warfare, the centrality of ritualized display, and the magic of a counterintuitive sensibility.

That Leonard has now become one of boxing’s elder statesmen is, of course, a received view; but Marantz’s vision, far more radical and fascinating, reveals Leonard in his full range of coordinated contradiction. Tracing each fighter’s arc, as they curve inexorably toward a collision, Hagler emerges as the rogue parvenu and Leonard, the cool cosmopolitan. He is, at once, a creature of public consciousness, a confidence man, a worldly sophisticate but also a privately reflective student of the Self and its shifting identities. It is precisely this close attention to detail and the monastic ambience of his conjuration that distinguishes Leonard in his luminous moment. Marantz writes:

“Now materialized the specter of an outcome decided by three judges. Hagler’s inability to stop Leonard in the 9th diminished the likelihood of a knockout. Thoughts turned toward the three men with pencils [ ... ] Leonard’s willingness to hold and Hagler’s refusal to complain underscored the finesse gap between the two. Leonard’s finesse also was seen in the ebb and flow of his attack. [ ... ] Indeed, the 10th, essentially an even round, was ’stolen’ by Leonard.”

From the remote, Greek concept of the pharmakeus, mystery and magic have imputed their influence to boxing through the tradition of cut men. But with this remarkable, eminently readable, and prodigiously learnèd book, Steve Marantz has conceived a language for speaking about the deep modalities of the Sweet Science as a space for narratological representation and mystical experience. Sorcery at Caesars is a major contribution to the literture of boxing, intellectually rigorous, engaging, funny, and brilliantly imagined. The show and the trick, to be sure, were Leonard’s, but the sorcerer is Marantz himself. -BOXING INSIDER

The fight that crowned Sugar Ray Leonard the middleweight champion over Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1987 is still being contested today, twenty one years later. Many believe that Hagler was the rightful winner of that match, that Sugar Ray stole the title from him. Steve Marantz’s new book Sorcery At Caesars: Sugar Ray’s Marvelous Fight brings readers back to the night of that fight, and examines just what went down during that match.

A prize fight that happened more than twenty years ago might not seem an especially promising subject for a book. But Steve Marantz makes a fine case for Sugar Ray Leonard v Marvelous Marvin Hagler as worthy of reconsideration.

Marantz writes as if he’s still disturbed by the outcome of the contest, after which two of the three judges scored the fight for Leonard, making him the middleweight champion. This encourages the reader to consider the event unfinished, even now. Marantz quotes Richard Steele, who refereed the fight, acknowledging that he sometimes reviews the video of Leonard v Hagler. “Every time I watch it,” Steele says, “it gets closer.”

Happily, doubts about the decision aren’t all that’s driving Marantz. He sees in the fight and the long road that led both boxers to the parking lot behind Caesars in Las Vegas twenty one years ago an opportunity to say a good deal about the strengths and vulnerabilities of each man. Both achieved wealth and celebrity, though it came earlier and more easily to Leonard. Having tasted success, both fouled up their lives and their families with drugs or alcohol. Each recovered, at least sufficiently to climb into the ring against the other. One, Hagler, recognized much earlier than most boxers do that there could be more to life than hitting people and getting hit. He retired with money in the bank, walking away from the opportunity to make a lot more.

The author also has plenty to say about boxing itself. Having mentioned the fate of Cleveland Denny, a lightweight who died seventeen days after being knocked unconscious in 1980, Marantz points out that between the end of World War II and Denny’s death due to ruptured blood vessels in his brain, “the sport had averaged 12.4 deaths per year.”

As Marantz writes, in 1982, “the British Medical Association called for boxing to be outlawed in England, where the sport was spawned in the 18th century.” About the only good thing to be said about the fact that boxing has not been ended there, here, and everywhere is that over many years a lot of people, Steve Marantz among them, have written very well about the alleged “sweet science.” - ONLY A GAME

[Robbi]

I have a shitload of boxing books but havent had the chance to read them yet..Anybody read ray robinson p4p.or The Gene tunney book?

A new Robinson book is out. It's written by Brian Hughes.

[SorceryatCaesar]

I'm a new member.
Amazed at the knowledgeable people on this site.
Thank-you Robbi for posting about my book. I hope everybody reads it and I'm happy to take questions about Leonard and Hagler. Won't surprise me if a lot of people on this board know as much or more about both fighters.

Steve Marantz

[McGrain]

I'm a new member.
Amazed at the knowledgeable people on this site.
Thank-you Robbi for posting about my book. I hope everybody reads it and I'm happy to take questions about Leonard and Hagler. Won't surprise me if a lot of people on this board know as much or more about both fighters.

Steve Marantz


Welcome!

You should really open your own thread with such a fine pedegree. People would love to hear about the genisis of your book which I look forward to reading.

[SorceryatCaesar]

Thanks McGrain.
I don't want to violate the site's policy against advertising.
I'd be happy to start a thread on "Sorcery" - do you think the administrators would object?

[McGrain]

Thanks McGrain.
I don't want to violate the site's policy against advertising.
I'd be happy to start a thread on "Sorcery" - do you think the administrators would object?

Friend, Classic is mostly left alone by the rest of the site. I couldn't swear to it but I would be surprised if anyone objected. It really is a treat for us regulars to have an author posting here.

Other posters start threads on books all the time, and Adam J Pollack, the excellent author of the In The Ring series opens threads on his own work from time to time. We love it.

Please, you should open a thread. You would be welcomed.

Gonna order your book now so i'm not behind Robbi.

See? Paying off already :good

[Robbi]

Friend, Classic is mostly left alone by the rest of the site. I couldn't swear to it but I would be surprised if anyone objected. It really is a treat for us regulars to have an author posting here.

Other posters start threads on books all the time, and Adam J Pollack, the excellent author of the In The Ring series opens threads on his own work from time to time. We love it.

Please, you should open a thread. You would be welcomed.

Gonna order your book now so i'm not behind Robbi.

See? Paying off already :good

McGrain. On Amazon and doing a UK Google search it seems the book isn't available yet to buy for £££. Only overseas shipping at the moment and it's obviously $$$$.

[McGrain]

McGrain. On Amazon and doing a UK Google search it seems the book isn't available yet to buy for £££. Only overseas shipping at the moment and it's obviously $$$$.


Thank you sir.

[Robbi]

Thank you sir.

It's listed on many UK sites but most say "not yet available"

The book certainly gets great reviews. I actually posted about the book about 4-5 days ago and was amazed Steve posted today. I checked out his profile and realised he was the author.

[Jack Dempsey]

Just ordered my copy from the US, welcome aboard Steve!

[quintonjacksonfan]

I just received my copy from Amazon.com I almost finished the whole thing in a day. It's a great book

[Robbi]

[Only registered and activated users can see links]


Anyone read this book? The author has posted on here recently and it's available through him and Amazon. Not widely available. It seems to recieve great reviews.

[teeto]

[Only registered and activated users can see links]


Anyone read this book? The author has posted on here recently and it's available through him and Amazon. Not widely available. It seems to recieve great reviews.
Im gunna get that,

[Robbi]

Im gunna get that,

The author has posted on here and has his own site selling it. Only problem is that I've not see it available in British Pounds, only Dollars, $30 plus $12 shipping. Thats rather costly for a book, although I appreciate it's rare and not widely available.


[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[teeto]

The author has posted on here and has his own site selling it. Only problem is that I've not see it available in British Pounds, only Dollars, $30 plus $12 shipping. Thats rather costly for a book, although I appreciate it's rare and not widely available.


[Only registered and activated users can see links]
Really? Not the greatest of deals! Yeah, i remember him posting the other day, would like to get it though. We'll see!

[Cmoyle]

Hi Guys, the author of the Langfore book here.

I actually think the $29.95 price is a bargain in terms of the book itself. It's a high-quality 429 page hardcover with dust jacket, and contains 98 photographs, many never published before, and the majority of which are on glossy paper. The shipping within the U.S. runs $3.50. Unfortunately, it does cost me $11.95 (I rounded up to $12) to ship the book internationally, that's my cost. I wish it wasn't so expensive.

I have been working with the publisher to get a deal in place to make the book available to order in the U.K. and Australia on a print-on-demand basis and I'll check on that and post an update. I believe the price of the book itself has to be a little higher in that case though, but the shipping cost would obviously be less. The biggest problem I have with the print-on-demand setup in those two countries though is that we won't be able to have any of the photos on glossy paper.

The book has received very positive reviews of late in both The Ring, and most recently Boxing Monthly. Here's a review from the Fall 2008 issue of The Ring:

THE RING – FALL 2008 THE BIBLE OF BOXING

"Boxing Bookshelf

What sort of fighter could train on gin and pork chops, but was still good enough to beat the best lightweight of the day, draw with the best welterweight and middleweight of the day, beat one of the best light heavyweights of the day, and strike such fear among the heavyweights of the era that the champion would avoid him?

If you answered Sam Langford, give yourself a long, stinky cigar, the sort favored by Langford, and congratulate yourself. Langford beat Joe Gans, held Barbados Joe Walcott and Stanley Ketchel even, whipped Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, and got the best of most heavyweights during the Jack Johnson era. He fought Johnson too, Johnson won, but saw enough to know he didn't want a rematch.

Much of Clay Moyle's fine, new book, Sam Langford, Boxing's Greatest Uncrowned Champion (Bennett & Hastings, 429 pages, hardcover, $29.95), pulls together many of the myths and facts about Langford, and makes his worldwide pursuit of Johnson into a chase equal to Captain Ahab's stalking of Moby Dick.

Langford's career seems to be the basis for many archetypes. Here we have the supremely talented black fighter who was stifled during the years of Jim Crow (denied even by Johnson, the black champion of the time); he fought beyond his prime, until his eyes were so bad that he had to feel his way along the ropes to find his corner between rounds; he ended up penniless and alone, occasionally struck down by passing automobiles because he couldn't see.

But Moyle, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, also reminds us that Langford had a large following in America, as well as in Europe and Mexico. As the book's many wonderful photographs show, Langford was every bit as colorful as Johnson. And for a cactus-stump of a man who disdained training, Langford was a marvelous fighting machine with a profound knowledge of the ring.

There will always be those who over-praise Langford, those who insist he wouldn't been 200-0 with 200 knockouts, if only he weren't handcuffed by the indignities of the era. While it's undoubtedly true that Langford carried some opponents and took a few dives, he also lost a lot of bouts due to his poor conditioning. Moyle follows the usual argument that when it appeared his shot at Johnson's title would never happen, Langford grew fat and lazy. Still, Moyle approaches the subject in an even-handed manner, and is never maudlin.

One wonders how boxing history might've changed if Langford, rather than Johnson, had been the first black fighter to win the heavyweight championship. Langford was certainly a more crowd-pleasing fighter, and if half the quotes attributed to him are true, he was better with the press. Moyle's book makes us think 1908 America might've enjoyed seeing Langford wear the crown. At the very least, Langford wouldn't have denied Johnson a title shot."

- Don Stradley


If you're in the U.K. shoot me an email at [Only registered and activated users can see links] and I'll work with you on an overall price for the book including shipping if I can to help make it a little more economical for you.

[teeto]

Dont worry, i will get the book, just might be a little while, not LONG though. Keep in touch on with this forum, if you want an opinion i'll gladly give one. Someone here give an opinion on it that made me wanna get it. Lookin forward to it.

[marciano1952]

Tunney was a VERY VERY VERY GOOD read IMO and should be read by anyone intrested in boxing

[Cmoyle]

Hey guys, just FYI, I went in to my [Only registered and activated users can see links] website today and revised the shipping calculations section so that international orders only cost $5.05 for shipping, reducing the overall cost of the book including shipping from $41.95 to $35 to make international purchases more economical. This only applies to orders placed via [Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Robbi]

Hey guys, just FYI, I went in to my [Only registered and activated users can see links] ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) website today and revised the shipping calculations section so that international orders only cost $5.05 for shipping, reducing the overall cost of the book including shipping from $41.95 to $35 to make international purchases more economical. This only applies to orders placed via [Only registered and activated users can see links] ([Only registered and activated users can see links])

Just to let British posters know thats £19 including postage and packing as I just done a currency conversion.