Literature in boxing

[Cressa121]

Nice list, I'll have to look into some of those. I've read Dark Trade, which was brilliant. McRae got closer to Toney then probably anyone else managed. The part in the run-up to Watson-Eubank was quite sad and chilling to me, knowing how it eventually played out.

Sorcery at Caesar's is an excellent book, fairly short but it focuses on the rise of both Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, culminating in their 1985 fight. It also looks at the darker side of Leonard, the cocaine addiction and domestic violence. Good read.

I enjoyed Unforgivable Blackness also, about the rise and fall of Jack Johnson. It's quite amazing the prejudice he suffered, down to the introduction of the Mann Act just so he could be prosecuted for something.

I read both of those you cited. I thought Sorcery was only OK and the Johnson book marvelous. I really disagree with those who want to see Johnson pardoned. He did nothing that requires pardoning.

Here's another, Mark Kramm's hatchet job on Ali "The Ghosts Of Manila," Short, well written and absolutely brutal.

Yeah it really was a bogus conviction on Johnson, he did nothing wrong so I agree he shouldn't be pardoned. I'd done the American Civil Rights movement at college so I was aware of the prejudices in America during the time frame of Johnson but I was quite shocked at some of the things he had to endure. By the time he fought Willard in Cuba he seemed like a man just desperate to get home, and while I don't think he threw that fight I think he was probably half hoping he'd lose so he could come back home

I think I like Sorcery's so much because I haven't read many other books on the 1980's "Fab Four" and I didn't know any of the issues surrounding Leonard and Hagler personally before so I was pretty surprised at many of the things brought up in the book, like the drug use. I never particularly liked Four Kings either.

"The Fight" by Norman Mailer never did it for me either, it was good in parts but on the whole I disliked Mailer's style of writing. The Last Great Fight by Joe Layden is OK, it's about the only book I've seen based on Tyson-Douglas. Other than a few autobiographies I haven't read many other boxing books though