Boxing books??

[dukeruffhands]

just been listening to Bunce on the radio and he had Kevin Mitchell (the jorno not the boxer) on as guest to plug his new book that sounds like a good read it's called Jacobs Beach: The Mob, the Garden, and the Golden Age of Boxing and here's a piece about it:

New York in the Fifties was the most interesting, the most vibrant city in the world. As American culture burst into life – it gave us television, beatniks, rock 'n roll, Marilyn and Elvis, Cold War paranoia, the Pill – New York was its epicentre.

New York gave the world a couple of other things too: one bloody and brutal but the king of sports, the other simply bloody and brutal. The Fifties were boxing’s last real heyday. Never again would the sport be so glamorous or so popular. And that’s where New York’s other gift to the world – the Mob - came in.

Gangsters have been around boxing for ever, but 1950s New York was special. Most of the decade’s major fights took place in the city, at boxing’s spiritual home, Madison Square Garden. Most of the deals that made or ruined the lives of the era’s many fine fighters were done on a famous strip of pavement across the road from the Garden: Jacobs Beach. And the man standing on that strip of pavement was a charming Italian murderer called Frankie Carbo.

Carbo had lurked in the long shadows of professional boxing since Prohibition, but this was his time. Through his willing associates, the International Boxing Club, he exercised total control over sport’s most dubious neighbourhood. Under Carbo, the Mob reached its apogee in the fight game; and under Carbo it would breathe its last ugly gasp. The Mob would be replaced by men dedicated to its traditions, but none would be able to match its power. When the Mob had had done it, boxing would never be the same again.

Kevin Mitchell’s gripping new book is the unsanitised story of those times and that place, of Rat Pack cool and the fading of the Mob’s peculiar glamour, brilliantly told through the eyes of the men who were there.

GOOD READ...........BUT NOT IN THE SAME LEAGUE AS WAR BABY

[-KOKid-]

Currently reading the Charlie Magri autobio, "Champagne Charlie".
Good stuff, and quite funny in parts.

See some Amazon sellers have it used but in good condition from only £0.01.
Now if that's not value for money, then what is?

Didn't boxrec poster James Mcdonnell ghost write/ 'edit' that?

McDonnell has foreword and edit.
Don't know how far he actually took the editing though, could be he wrote the whole thing along with/for Charlie.
Still, it's a good read, has made me a lot more interested in Magri's career.

[nh1]

This thread's great: very helpful, and have ordered a number of the titles people have recommended.

I know that Jane Couch ('Princess') posts on here, and that she will be biased(!)...But has anyone read her book 'Fleetwood Assassin'? And if so, would they recommend it?

Thanks!

[maninthemiddle]

Yes definitely worth a read.

[Scottrf]

My Dundee book (My View from the Corner) is signed, bought it second hand, doesn't look like a print?

Anyone know if it usually has that?

[chinny]

My Dundee book (My View from the Corner) is signed, bought it second hand, doesn't look like a print?

Anyone know if it usually has that?

I have an old second hand copy which isn't signed..

[Scottrf]

My Dundee book (My View from the Corner) is signed, bought it second hand, doesn't look like a print?

Anyone know if it usually has that?

I have an old second hand copy which isn't signed..

Nice one, was a pleasant surprise Was just wondering if it was printed onto all of them but didn't look like it.

[orbtastic]

Don't forget the Ali sig on page viii

[King Tubby]

Anyone read Nipper? Advertised on here a few weeks ago. Steve Bunce interviewed his Grandson on the radio the other week.

[orbtastic]

Has anyone read Meldrick Taylor's? I'm 1 chapter in and already I've got the feeling the book is going to be pretty bad.

[Flashing Blade]

Slightly OT, but my book, Bloody Revolution: A Journey into UK MMA is out now.

There's a short extract available to read on Sabotage Times

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-s ... ented-mma/

Or if you can't wait, you can go straight to Amazon and buy it (paperback or kindle)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Revoluti ... 513&sr=8-1

[King Tubby]

Was you the fella interviewed by Steve Bunce the other night FB?

[Scottrf]

Was you the fella interviewed by Steve Bunce the other night FB?

Do you mean this guy?
http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f ... 4#p1021114

[Flashing Blade]

Was you the fella interviewed by Steve Bunce the other night FB?

Yes. I was on his sports hour, just before the boxing hour on Thursday.

[Flashing Blade]

Just got back from my hols. Read The Killings of Stanley Ketchel by James Carlo Blake

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Killings-Stanle ... 532&sr=1-1

The amazing story of the Middleweight champ written as a novel.

Highly recommended.

[-KOKid-]

Some books I've read this summer:

"The Big If", by Rick Broadbent.
Story of Johnny Owen and his tragic fight with Lupe Pintor in 1980.
Thought it was a bit slow for the first few chapters, but it really picked up after that.
I had a hard time putting it down during the last half part.
Very good stuff.


"Trainer of Champions", by George Francis and Grame Fife.
Bio/autobio on Francis.
Easy and entertaining read about the well respected and successful boxing trainer.
Was surprised to read that he tried to commit suicide as a teenager - something he eventually did do in 2002.


"Four Kings", by George Kimball.
Excellent round-up about rivalries between Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran.
Had heard lots of good things about this one - and they all turned out to be true.
Excellent read.


"The Years of The Locust", by Jon Hotten.
Interesting story about the murder of promotor Rick Parker by Tim "Doc" Anderson.
I remember reading about this when it happened in 1995, but have not thought about it since.
If this account of the boxing world at lower level is even close to the truth, it is downright creepy.
Easy and good read.

[Jon Saxon]

Some books I've read this summer:



"The Years of The Locust", by Jon Hotten.
Interesting story about the murder of promotor Rick Parker by Tim "Doc" Anderson.
I remember reading about this when it happened in 1995, but have not thought about it since.
If this account of the boxing world at lower level is even close to the truth, it is downright creepy.
Easy and good read.

Read them all and the above is by far THE best boxing book I have ever read.

It sums up the sport and those involed at it's very worst.

If you like boxing books then you MUST read "The Years of The Locust", by Jon Hotten, it should be made into a movie I think.

[-KOKid-]

Finally decided to read a book that I've had in my shelf for years - "Only The Ring Was Square", by Teddy Brenner and Barney Nagler.
The book consists of different short stories and memories that Brenner experienced during his years as matchmaker for Madison Square Garden and other venues.
Many of the I had heard before through other sources, but some were new to me.

A good, fast and easy read (only 161 pages).

[-KOKid-]

Just finished reading Ron Ross' biography on Emile Griffith - "Nine... Ten... And Out! - The Two Worlds of Emilie Griffith".

This was a good book about a great boxer whom, as the title suggests, lived two separate lives.
While Griffith's career is quite well documented and interesting enough by itself, but it is his "other" life that really broadens the reader's view of who Emile Griffith really was/is.

Griffith was a very unusal boxer to put it that way.
He was in many ways exactly what people wanted him to be in the ring - a strong, skilled killer (literally), yet exactly what he was not supposed to be outside of it - gentle, friendly and gay.
That he managed to keep a balance those two lives for so many years is amazing and all made for a very interesting read.

The book itself has a few typos though, the worst being where you can read the exact same paragraph a few pages apart.

[Alex]

Anyone read Nipper? Advertised on here a few weeks ago. Steve Bunce interviewed his Grandson on the radio the other week.

You can read the introduction and first chapter for FREE here:

http://nipperpatdaly.co.uk/nipperbooksample.pdf

For more info visit:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... -tale.html
- Colin Hart of The Sun on the book and Nipper Pat's career

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak-EW3U0Q2s
- Steve Bunce reviews the book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RspA_pS4MdM
- the author on BBC Radio Wales

Or to buy the book visit:

http://nipperpatdaly.co.uk/nipperboxingbook.html

[-KOKid-]

Hi Alex,

I just started reading "Battling Siki - A Tale of Ring Fixes, Race & Murder in the 1920s", by Peter Benson, last night.

But I do have the Nipper book in my collection and it is on my short list of what to read next.
Looking forward to it.

[Alex]

Hi KOKid,

Great stuff - hope you enjoy it. Perhaps you could post your thoughts on Boxrec after you've read it.

[telboy66]

The Nipper book is a great read, An unbelievable story of a young kid who was boxing 15 rounds at 14years old & this career was finished before he reached 20, in a boxing world without many controls Pat" nipper" Read was exploited beyond any reasoning

[Alex]

Thanks Tel! Though it's Nipper Pat Daly.

Nipper Read is the bloke who brought down the Krays.

[telboy66]

Thanks Tel! Though it's Nipper Pat Daly.

Nipper Read is the bloke who brought down the Krays.

Glad you spotted the not so deliberate mistake but both "nippers" were great fighters in their own way