Boxing News

The task of the historian, most would agree, is to transmit the information collected about the past to the present; in the process utilising the maximum range of tools and resources in gathering the sources that will form the basis of his finished work. Most would also tend to agree that the selection of material be done in an objective and unbiased fashion. However, what is less easy to agree upon are the sources on which the historian relies. For instance, what level of weight and probative value is one to give to those sources which are in conflict and in contradiction to each other? To what extent must the historian rely on the recollections of the primary participants in the ultimate quest for that elusive and indefinable quality referred to as ‘truth’? What is fact and what is merely the interpretation of fact or opinion? There is an arguable tendency for historians, even those who are tackling a subject matter afresh, to base their research on well-trodden paths of source material leaving out other avenues through which fresh undiscovered evidence can be unearthed.

Boxing historiography, in this sense, is no different from other realms of history. Indeed, a frequent criticism levelled at boxing historians, perhaps encumbered by staid and unimaginative methods of finding information, is the tendency to rehash old stories and to uncritically utilise old sources to the detriment of the task of unravelling the truth and ascertaining creditable reappraisals of past fighters.

It is with these issues in mind that Adam Pollack embarked on an ambitious series of projects on the quartet of early heavyweight champions: John L. Sullivan, James J. Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons and Jim Jeffries. The book ‘In the Ring with Bob Fitzsimmons, the third instalment carries on his objective, as he puts it, of wanting history “based not on speculation , hearsay and legend, but on what local reports said at the time.” More...

RACE AND MURDER IN THE 1920s

The written word is a most powerful tool. It has the capacity to mould, shape, build and destroy the reputations of both the living and the dead. But if there is any grain of truth to the cynical adage that historians are granted a power denied even to the gods; that is, to alter what has happened, then it is perhaps also true to aver the inverse proposition that historians

are invested with the power to re-mould the distortions and alterations of the past. Such was the task faced by Peter Benson, an American academic, in his work on the first African to win a world title, Battling Siki. More...

Thursday, 29th June 2006, York Hall, Bethnal Green London.

Top of the bill for this Maloney Fight Factory promotion was the contest for the vacant Commonwealth bantamweight title between Britain’s Martin Power and Tshifhiwa Muyawi of South Africa.

Power, from the St. Pancreas district of London, fought gamely and aggressively; aided in this matter by the raucous cheers of his fans. In the fourth round a succession of punches managed to dislodge the South African's gumshield. The lankily built Muyawi endeavoured to keep the fight from a distance so as to utilise his range to disrupt and disorganise Power's rushes. Such was the pressure that Martin was applying that in the following round, a left hook from which Muyawi was retreating caused Muyawi to stumble to the canvas. The referee was quick to rule it as not a knockdown.

The contest continued with a series of intense exchanges between both fighters but Muyawi did not appear to be overawed. Indeed, while the crowd cheered every connecting punch delivered from Power, his opponent did Power's condition no good with a tremendous right to the jaw in the sixth and a succession of hooks, uppercuts and body punches in the seventh. Muyawi began to outwork Power and it was apparent that he was becoming the more resilient while Power's features bore more ominous signs of distress. More...

Boxing as a sport, has through the ages, provided the fulcrum for much heated debate and contested analysis. Standard among this tendency to polemisize, is that which matches fighters from different eras against each other. The question always is, 'How would this great fighter shape up against this other great fighter?' Where some would be

content at estimating which boxer was the 'best' during a particular era, others cannot resist the impulse of bridging the time barrier. The modalities informing such debate would typically involve estimating the fighter's 'quality of opposition,' solidity of chin; that is, his ability to withstand punches, stamina and endurance, punching power, defensive capability and so on. While such arguments were restricted to drinking dens, boxing magazines and the sportspages of newspapers, the rapid development of technological facility, specifically in regard to the enhancement of the capabilities of computers, would add a new dimension. More...

Frankie DePaula, New Jersey boxer, died thirty-five years ago from complications arising from the wounds inflicted on him four months after an assassination attempt in a Jersey City alley way. His death, in many ways, was arguably the inevitable culmination of his frequently wayward lifestyle; a lifestyle that accommodated an active association with known criminals. It is often said that the raison detre of boxing is to serve as a route out of the 'ghetto' and

Click for larger image © John DiMatteo Not to be reproduced without permission

in a sense aid in removing oneself from the vices of the deprived environment from which they hail. In Frankie's case, boxing seemed only to further boost his leaning to criminality. When Frankie fought Dick Tiger in October 1968, he floored the former world's middle and light heavyweight champion with his vaunted right hand on two occasions. But Tiger dragged himself up and returned the favour; forcing Frankie to lift himself off the resin covered canvas at Madison Square Garden twice. Frankie lost that bout and seemingly his chance of elevating himself to a title shot. Fate would intervene -for the better it seemed- because Harry Markson, the Garden's director of boxing and his matchmaker, Teddy Brenner appreciated his all out action style and not least the money which another visit from DePaula's supporters promised to bring. Yet the world light heavyweight championship bout delivered to Frankie would bring about not redemption but instead may have in fact sealed Frankie's fate. More...