Terry D wrote:I once recall BM doing an alternate end of year awards with the recurring theme being Riddick Bowe breaking various rules in order to get rid of his WBO heavyweight title, when he could not shake the damn thing, and it culminated in Riddick machine gunning the leaders of the organisation, then being presented with the title and a formal apology. It was very funny, sticking out in my mind ever since.
Oh stone me - that was class!
It has just made me think of Joe Bugner receiving the "give up you old git!" award, and Chris Eubank's comeback being announced with a purse of something like £23.50p - "I'm back he claimed"....... and Glyn shoved a pic of Eubank in a typical open-mouthed pose next to it - and EVERY time I looked at it and read the words it just seemed SO bloody possible I was creasing up for weeks afterwards.
Yes Mr Leach, bring back some of the old comedy-side, a bit more light-hearted - they were effin great!
best wishes,
"T.M.K" (who thinks this is one of the best threads in boxrec memory - very, very productive - great for all parties involved).
Matt W wrote:I would like to see classic fight pictures, or perhaps great British champions. Obviously excluding the WB-WHO? variety.
I'd go along with that. It would be good to see great British champions on a calendar one year. Not only British fighters that have won world titles but ones that were on the peripheries: Pat Cowdell, Herol Graham, Michael Brodie, etc.
Glyn Leach wrote:We try to use the best shots available to us as we go along from issue to issue Tyke, wouldn't seem right to use them again in a calendar at the end of the year
Why not? Its not like you publish them in anything like the size they'd be on a calender, and the resultant spread of fighters would be a good reflectionof the year just passed. Besides, it isn't like you can source genuinely new photos for any of the other calender ideas!
Tend to use our best pics quite big anyway Tyke and while we obviously can't find entirely exclusive or unused photographic material for the calendar (though we didn't do badly with a couple of shots this year), I prefer not to use stuff we've featured in the relatively recent past - just a personal thing.
I think I'll have to throw it open to the readers nearer the time, try and give em what they want for Xmas next year!
Just a reply to a couple of comments on this thread about my own website vis a vis BM. When I post a report on the website it is the immediate-reaction, same day/next day account. The major reports that I contribute to BM are, I like to think, somewhat deeper and more considered and usually if not always I will take a different approach. Regarding previews, the ones in BM go deeper and are lengthier than the ones posted on Fightwriter. The website previews are written the week of the show or even the day before, which allows me essentially to update the BM preview. In fact, I changed a prediction when picking Joe Calzaghe over Mikkel Kessler in the day-before website preview after leaning towards the Dane in BM — the stars and planets just seemed to be lining up for Joe as the fight drew nearer. Years ago, Reg Gutteridge used to write perhaps the all-time greatest British boxing column for the Evening News. He also wrote a column for the monthly Boxing Illustrated. To me, Reg's column was the best thing in the old BI. Yes, I had read the thrust of the BI column in Reggie's Evening News articles, but he always seemed to take a new approach or added information in such a way that it was as if I was reading the pieces for the first time. (Or maybe I had simply forgotten much of the Evening News pieces, so that it seemed like I was reading them for the first time in Boxing Illustrated.) The point is that I do believe the Fightwriter website and BM are complementary to each other, with the big-fight previews and reports treated, to the best of my ability, quite differently.
Syntax Error wrote:I still have a very early of this mag, from 1989.
It's got a picture of Sugar Ray Leonard as a clown & it's asking if Ray is making fools out of us all!!!!
I wonder how much that would be worth now???
Could you do me a favour, mate and scan the cover for me? I painted that. It's pretty crappy, I know, but I wouldn't mind a copy. I could send you my email address if you're up for it.
Terry & TMK: I too have fond memories of that article you refer to in BM, where Astronormus predicts the coming year...
It might just be my love of the running gag, but one of my formative boxing memories is that article, where (along with the bits you've highlighted, as well as "Pernell Whitaker has fallen in love. Again. With himself. Again. He now demands a mirror be installed in the corner prior to every fight...") Evander Holyfield changed his name to Apocalypse Death Man in order to shake his goody-two shoes nice guy image & force a Bowe rematch, Riddick Bowe getting ever-fatter whilst fighting chumps, & Vinny Pazienza's ascent into the heavyweight division along with the reported quote:
"Only jerks use steroids," growled Pazienza, a rock-solid 19stone 3 lbs...
Whoever wrote that (I'm assuming it's either Glyn or Chris Bryant (?)), thank you very much, it's stayed with me for over a bloody decade...
I would like to add that in the last year or so I've bought BM religiously again, after having lapsed in my purchasing for the best part of... a long time.
I've not read the mag in absolutely years. I've probably picked up three copies in the last decade. It's just the same rag every month. The same writers write the exact same article. Graham Houston is the worst offender, all his stuff sounds like the same recycled offering but with the names changed to suit the subject he's covering. Bunce is unreadable, they killed off the letters page about a decade ago, killed off the comprehensive coverage of the fights around the world and UK, and large amounts of space is filled with huge pictures of boxers close up rather than actual text or any kind of insight. Needs a new editor, new writers, new approach. The picture of Trevor Berbick with his head split open in a pool of his own blood was absolutely shameful. I'll never buy a BM again.
An incredibly stale, boring read that was never a patch on the quality of writing, coverage, and range of ideas found in The Ring and Boxing Illustrated in the 80's and 90's.
Boxing Monthly is a great Mag Just because the editor doesnt write what the promoter wants him to Or they dont want to write about ALL of the fights in the UK Doesnt make it a bad mag Glyn leach has forgotten more than us lot know and does a great job If you dont like it then dont buy it
But dont slag IT or Leachy off Or i,ll be making a comeback
princess wrote:Boxing Monthly is a great Mag Just because the editor doesnt write what the promoter wants him to Or they dont want to write about ALL of the fights in the UK Doesnt make it a bad mag Glyn leach has forgotten more than us lot know and does a great job If you dont like it then dont buy it
But dont slag IT or Leachy off Or i,ll be making a comeback
T.M.K wrote:Blimey, this old topic just made me chuckle again...
Riddick Bowe and that WBO belt story. HAHA!
"T.M.K"
Aren't you the same T.M.K from the old Boxing Monthly guestbook?I used to post on that,many moons ago! In fact,it was my introduction to internet boxing forums. I used to love that place. I used to go by a few different names.'WBC' was one. Anyway good to see your still going strong
Datsue wrote:Terry & TMK: I too have fond memories of that article you refer to in BM, where Astronormus predicts the coming year...
It might just be my love of the running gag, but one of my formative boxing memories is that article, where (along with the bits you've highlighted, as well as "Pernell Whitaker has fallen in love. Again. With himself. Again. He now demands a mirror be installed in the corner prior to every fight...") Evander Holyfield changed his name to Apocalypse Death Man in order to shake his goody-two shoes nice guy image & force a Bowe rematch, Riddick Bowe getting ever-fatter whilst fighting chumps, & Vinny Pazienza's ascent into the heavyweight division along with the reported quote:
"Only jerks use steroids," growled Pazienza, a rock-solid 19stone 3 lbs...
Whoever wrote that (I'm assuming it's either Glyn or Chris Bryant (?)), thank you very much, it's stayed with me for over a bloody decade...
I would like to add that in the last year or so I've bought BM religiously again, after having lapsed in my purchasing for the best part of... a long time.
IMO BM should look at the ways it is different from BN and try to expand on those... for comprehensive fight coverage go to BN... but for an in depth analysis of the biggest fight in the last month - go to BM and get ex-pros to show with pictures why that shot was thrown and why it landed... etc etc... like the series Hopkins does in RING but using the latest fights.
if they dont concentrate so much on trying to recap the other fights - doing eg a text-only breakdown like RING does then they can concentrate not only on big previews but also interviews and bigger articles about prospects and old-timers.
I think previews, interviews and other features are now much more important for a monthly magazine than fight reports, because let's face it, in this day and age, we can get all the fight reports we need within a few hours of the final bell. That's not to say do away with them entirely, but they shouldn't be the focus of a print title anymore.
Judging by the complete ignorance exhibited by modern boxing fans, Boxing Monthly clearly needs to add value for money & take a leaf out of Boxing Illustrated and dedicate large parts of the magazine to old timers, written by proper boxing historians.
So many of these fans think todays fighters are the greatest ever simply because they hold a paper title and create a padded record. How about articles on men like Henry Armstrong who was the actual champion of three divisions in ONE TIME! Harry Greb, Stanley Ketchel, Ike Williams, Benny Leonard, Ezzard Charles, Boxing Monthly should salute the old masters on a monthly basis. What about interviews with the oldest living ex-heavyweight champs? Has anyone seen an extensive Jimmy Ellis or Ernie Terrell interview in YEARS?
Not totally sure about Ellis, but I know Terrell is still cognitive and would make for a fascinating extended Q&A.
overhand_right wrote:Judging by the complete ignorance exhibited by modern boxing fans, Boxing Monthly clearly needs to add value for money & take a leaf out of Boxing Illustrated and dedicate large parts of the magazine to old timers, written by proper boxing historians.
So many of these fans think todays fighters are the greatest ever simply because they hold a paper title and create a padded record. How about articles on men like Henry Armstrong who was the actual champion of three divisions in ONE TIME! Harry Greb, Stanley Ketchel, Ike Williams, Benny Leonard, Ezzard Charles, Boxing Monthly should salute the old masters on a monthly basis. What about interviews with the oldest living ex-heavyweight champs? Has anyone seen an extensive Jimmy Ellis or Ernie Terrell interview in YEARS?
Not totally sure about Ellis, but I know Terrell is still cognitive and would make for a fascinating extended Q&A.
What's up Leach?
which fans exactly? do you mean the man in the street who wondered who would win between a 20-year-old khan and a world champ hatton; the local hairdresser who thinks joe calzaghe is the only boxer to retire undefeated and the best ever from britain? but if you're referring to internet fans, they are often overwhelmingly negative about today's best, though obviously every forum has their little cliques.
Mmm. Take a leaf out of the book of a publication that went out of business ... OK, we'll be doing that then, obviously the business model to follow. Thanks for the advice.
Generally speaking, most issues of the mag tend to have at least some old time content, it's something we like, but it's not an area that we like to overplay. It quite often happens that when there is a lot of current material to choose from, the old-time stuff is put on hold. This has certainly been the case in recent months, where one particular feature has been due to appear and then dropped several times. But it's pencilled in again for the June issue so hopefully it will survive and that will keep you happy — it's a good read.
Many of the old time fighters you mention have already been featured in the magazine and it is not our policy to revisit a subject unless something happens to make their story relevant to a current situation. Interested, though, in who you consider to be a "proper boxing historian". To me, that is a largely self bestowed title, a la Bert Sugar (former editor of the out of business Boxing Illustrated — sorry Bert, love ya anyway). Who decides who is a "proper" historian? A university somewhere? I'm certainly not one nor would I ever claim or wish to be, but I'd be interested in your views as to who fits the bill. Might even give them a shout.
Very often, I find that historical pieces I receive are largely stat-based. Writers are unwilling to put in the necessary work to produce a piece of writing, they just regurgitate ring records, maybe watch a compilation DVD if you are very lucky. Often they are writing about fighters of which they have no contemporary knowledge yet feel that a stat-based approach is still valid when it is not. Much more is required. Graham Houston, for instance, has always been very big on visiting newspaper libraries in order to find contemporary quotes from publications of the day when he is writing an old-time feature. Most "writers" can't be arsed to do that. But such effort needs to be made.
Anyway, I've got to get back to doing my job badly, but please give me a few of those "proper" names to mull over.
PS. Re the Sugar Ray Leonard cover that was mentioned, it was the work — literally, he painted it — of former editor Ian Probert. I plan to paint all next year's covers in tribute, watch this space.
PPS. Belated happy birthday Boxrec, you are invaluable.
Glyn Leach wrote:Mmm. Take a leaf out of the book of a publication that went out of business ... OK, we'll be doing that then, obviously the business model to follow. Thanks for the advice.
Well, Boxing Illustrated was taken over & went downhill when new people changed it into International Boxing Digest, a much less appealing, useful or interesting magazine, so I'm not surprised it went out of business.
Anyway, there's the familiar overbearing Glyn Leach sarcasm that got tiresome in Boxing Monthly at least a decade ago. Complete disdain for former subscribers who are pitching ideas that would make them actually want to buy the magazine again. Excellent.
Glyn Leach wrote:Mmm. Take a leaf out of the book of a publication that went out of business ... OK, we'll be doing that then, obviously the business model to follow. Thanks for the advice.
Well, Boxing Illustrated was taken over & went downhill when new people changed it into International Boxing Digest, a much less appealing, useful or interesting magazine, so I'm not surprised it went out of business.
Anyway, there's the familiar overbearing Glyn Leach sarcasm that got tiresome in Boxing Monthly at least a decade ago. Complete disdain for former subscribers who are pitching ideas that would make them actually want to buy the magazine again. Excellent.
You come across as such a self-righteous twat though, who'd wanna listen to you?
Sarcasm: Well, say something silly and that's what you tend to get — BI folded and you suggested I should use them as a business model. Doesn't make sense, does it. As for the supposition that I should try to "re-recruit" you, why would I? If you don't like the mag, fine — and you made it clear that you don't and that you haven't bought it for years. People who do buy it and have constructive criticisms to make are a different kettle of fish, I owe them something and I'm happy to discuss and oblige when I can. People who just want to snipe from anonymity, no, don't think so. But, for the record, I explained the magazine's stance regarding the retro features you mention at some length. Anyway, onwards, this list of "proper" historians, still waiting for it ...
And reggae chap: Not at the last Prizefighter then fella? Could have said hello if you were. Maybe you only attend shows you are paid to attend? And maybe see you at Mitchell, though I'll be going as a fan not a reporter — can't stand people who aren't working taking press passes. I'm happy to pay and sit in the cheap seats with mates. Can you relate to that? Ever done it, even? I still like to enjoy a night at the fights as I used to before I got into this game and very often the close proximity of "boxing people" and what passes for boxing reporters today is not helpful on that level.
And cheers Big Mark, we do try.
Last edited by Glyn Leach on 11 May 2010, 06:26, edited 1 time in total.
Glyn Leach wrote:Sarcasm: Well, say something silly and that's what you tend to get — BI folded and you suggested I should use them as a business model. Doesn't make sense, does it. As for the supposition that I should try to "re-recruit" you, why would I? If you don't like the mag, fine — and you made it clear that you don't and that you haven't bought it for years. People who do buy it and have constructive criticisms to make are a different kettle of fish, I owe them something and I'm happy to discuss and oblige when I can. People who just want to snipe from anonymity, no, don't think so. But anyway, this list of "proper" historians, still waiting for it.
And reggae chap: Not at the last Prizefighter then fella? Could have said hello if you were. Maybe you only attend shows you are paid to attend? And maybe see you at Mitchell, though I'll be going as a fan not a reporter — can't stand people who aren't working taking press passes. I'm happy to pay and sit in the cheap seats with mates. Can you relate to that? I still like to enjoy a night at the fights and very often the close proximity of what passes for boxing reporters today is not helpful on that level.
And cheers Big Mark, we do try.
Anyone who joins boxrec forums on Christmas Day must be a boxing nut. Keep chugging Glyn.
Boxing Illustrated wasn't any great shakes: myopic US writers with zero knowledge of any fighters outside the USA, with perhaps Joe Koizumi thrown in to give readers a vaguely confusing take on the Oriental scene. Backed up with a stone age style three month delay on reporting the "news".
Boxing Monthly is by far the best mag on the scene in the last 20 years. With Graham Houston you have a writer who is just as familiar with the UK scene as he is with the US and world scenes, and with predictions he just can't be beat.
MightyWarrior wrote:Boxing Illustrated wasn't any great shakes: myopic US writers with zero knowledge of any fighters outside the USA, with perhaps Joe Koizumi thrown in to give readers a vaguely confusing take on the Oriental scene. Backed up with a stone age style three month delay on reporting the "news".
Boxing Monthly is by far the best mag on the scene in the last 20 years. With Graham Houston you have a writer who is just as familiar with the UK scene as he is with the US and world scenes, and with predictions he just can't be beat.
