BoxRec

Just been looking through my old Ring mags from the 60s, 70s and 80s and old Boxing News' from the same period.
Hours fly by going through them. Remember the grainy all black & white format?
Scary how Ring magazine was so biased towards US fighters in hindsight during the above period.
Stopped having Ring about 10 years ago as I felt it lost its way a bit.
Big problem with Ring is you are reading about fights in the December issue that happened in August !

Boxing News is still the best for me, some of the front pages are legendary, but it must have took a hit with the instant nature of the internet and live fight streams.

Even so, there is still something about having the magazine drop on the doormat every thursday morning.

Personally, KO Magazine was my favourite. I have every single issue from 1980 (when it began) to Dec 1997.

My girlfriend bought me a subscription to Ring Magazine for my birthday and I think you hit the nail on the head about it being outdated when it comes in the post. There are still some good general articles in it but it was so woefully out of date when I received it that only half of the mag was worth reading. The intervals in which I received the editions were rather strange too. I would get two editions about 1.5-2 weeks apart and then wait 6-7 weeks for the next one. Big thumbs down from me for Ring.

I live in Germany now but use to get Boxing News every week when I was living in the UK and thoroughly enjoyed it. I always pick up a copy of Boxing Monthly when I'm back home and I was disappointed that my girlfriend opted to get me a subscription to the Ring instead of to Boxing Monthly. The Xmas edition of BM is one of my Xmas highlights.

Germany also has a boxing magazine called "Boxsport" which, IMHO, is pretty shite as it deals more with the boxers lives than with their boxing. I appreciate that it can be good to get some insight into the life of a boxer and to see what makes them tick but I find the balance to be somewhat skewed.

Old ring magazines and american boxing mags in general in the 50s to 90s annoyed me by having to flick back and forward to read articles split with 40 odd pages in the middle

Cant beat old BN though

I haven't renewed my BN subscription - can't say I miss it.

Sick of the paper being padded out with adverts & pictures and very little actual boxing news and articles.
The internet provides alot more imo

tonyevs wrote:I haven't renewed my BN subscription - can't say I miss it.

Sick of the paper being padded out with adverts & pictures and very little actual boxing news and articles.
The internet provides alot more imo

Totally agree.

You might enjoy this site:

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Boxing

Updated every 15 minutes with the latest news from the world of boxing.

Objectivism wrote:

chad wrote:

tonyevs wrote:I haven't renewed my BN subscription - can't say I miss it.

Sick of the paper being padded out with adverts & pictures and very little actual boxing news and articles.
The internet provides alot more imo

Totally agree.

You might enjoy this site:

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Boxing

Updated every 15 minutes with the latest news from the world of boxing.

Worst site I've ever seen.

I've seen worse.

I prefer boxing monthly and ring. You can get news anywhere these days pretty much instantly, but it's the articles and stories I enjoy most. Also, you end up just reading fight reports from fights you've seen in BN.

I'd rather read pieces people have spent time on.

chad wrote:
Totally agree.

You might enjoy this site:

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Boxing

Updated every 15 minutes with the latest news from the world of boxing.

Newsnow used to be excellent but there are several 'websites' that just see what comes out on there, they cut and paste stories, muddle them around a bit and then re-submit them as their own.

They all try and outdo each other, copying and pasting like mad to beat each other to resubmit it.

As a result the site who has the full story, gets lost amongst all the copycats.

Does anyone actually know why the Ring is always so out of date? I've often wondered...

milpool wrote:Does anyone actually know why the Ring is always so out of date? I've often wondered...

Weirdo Septic publishing/newsstand dating thing, I think. They put print it in, I dunno, November say, release it in December & call it the February issue. By the time it makes its way to this side of the Pond, it's February already.

Never quite understood why.

Also, I have long refrained from this, but Thomas Hauser's recent articles on Maxboxing --let alone the Collins-Raskin-Detloff debacle (a masterstroke that Allegedly is probably pissed off that he doesn't have the sort of muscle & connections to pull)--have made me realise what a bunch of skeevy shit-eating pudenda Golden Boy are. Fvck them & fvck their official cheer-leading organ.

I'd rather read the Scum. & that's saying something.

Prefer Boxing Monthly myself, better articles than The Ring. BN is good but as already stated it's full of adverts.

At least the Ring have stopped spreading their articles around the magazine so you no longer get "continued on page xx" for five pages.

i prefer BN, the ring has 'the best ive faced....' which is best bit
BN should do something similiar

Chad - thanks mate.
I like Fightnews.com too.

Over 21years I got my BN. But since it re-invented itself into a 'magazine' instead of a 'paper' it has dumbed down to concentrate more on pictures than actual news.
I remember a thread a few months back where a writer from BN commented in. He seemed of the opinion the BN was better than ever with the new direction ... So with that in mind, it made me realise it was never likely to revert back to what I want of it.
So never bothered re-newing.
I may give BM a look.

bennythekid wrote:i prefer BN, the ring has 'the best ive faced....' which is best bit
BN should do something similiar

BN do something similar in both the 60 second interviews (toughest you've faced) and in the semi-regular career look-back segments (hardest puncher faced etc etc).

I get all three. I would say that Boxing Monthly is the best because the articles are always excellent. I like Boxing News but I would prefer them to cut down a bit on so many fight reports and instead add a couple of articles into the mag. 25 pages of previews/results is a bit much IMO.
RING was terrible for a time but I actually like the current crop there and enjoy the mag. Like others, however, the fact that it's so out of date is annoying.

For me, Boxing Illustrated pissed on all the opposition in America, beat it hands down. It was a thinking man's boxing mag by comparison and for a while it outsold Ring. Shame it isn't still going, great mag in its day.

But back to the title of the thread, got to be BM for me

Edit: just read what I wrote: Got to be BN for me, FFS!

I wouldn't be without my Boxing News everyweek, it's an historical record of all fights taking place throughout the world, and generally unbiased.
However, my main concern is the 'Americanisation' of what is , or what should be, a primarily British publication. The editor, Tris Dixon, who I've met and is a nice ,honest sort of bloke, has produced dozens of interviews he's had with lower level American boxers of the years, something he did even before he became the editor. Tris, I would imagine, is behind the over emphasis on boxing in the USA.
It regularly features little known boxers from across the pond, and I feel that he should be concentrating more on lesser known fighters , and their gyms, in this country.
Boxing News is a business now, and it's purpose is to make a profit for its owners. That might have always been the case, but I do think that years ago, it was the main concern.
There have been numerous articles , as I've said , with American fighters, but where are the ones from here. Jesse Ferguson v Brian London for example. Jesse Ferguson v Billy Walker, Jesse Ferguson v Scott Welch.
I appreciate it's difficult to balance the content, but this thread, and people I know who no longer even consider buying it, demonstrate that their is an audience out there who have been disenfranchised for some reason or another. Old editor Harry Mullan had a page every week in which he commented on issues around British rings. Reg Gutteridge commented generally on the London scene and when things were quiet there were serials on past British greats. What's wrong with getting someone away from their desk midweek and travelling to a busy rural gym in this country to find out what' s happening and making contacts which would serve the magazine well in the future. To be blunt , boring articles from Lennox Lewis and John ' what's his name' don't do it for me. I would far rather read about what Matt Seawright is thinking about putting lipstick on that ruby lips tattoo on his neck which gets smudged everytime his opponent gets into a clinch with him !!!!

Glyn Leach wrote:Shame it isn't still going, great mag in its day.

Why did they stop producing it, Glyn?

Glyn Leach wrote:But back to the title of the thread, got to be BM for me

DD

I liked KO mag far more than the Ring, which mainly centred around some 'Philly legend from 1922" whom the self-indulgent writer would masterbate furiously about for 5 pages.

The Dark Destroyer wrote:BM is the only one I get every issue of, I sometimes get BN when there is something that catches my attention. I haven't bought the Ring in about five years, I never thought it was that good and back then if I wanted a copy I had to go all the way to WH Smiths in town to get one.

As for online stuff, Boxing News 24 seems to be the gold standard of internet boxing journalism, well thought out and balanced articles that are impeccably spelled without any glaring grammar mistakes.

It's the one-stop boxing info shop!

I used to find everything about BI so dry, other than the cover.

elephant man wrote:

Glyn Leach wrote:Shame it isn't still going, great mag in its day.

Why did they stop producing it, Glyn?

Glyn Leach wrote:But back to the title of the thread, got to be BM for me

DD

Only realised what I'd written when I read your post! Honest mistake, though I doubt Freud would believe me!

Can't remember the full story, it all got a bit murky, but Bert Sugar lost control of BI financially, he went off and then BI re-emerged as International Boxing Digest, with completely different people involved and no likeness to BI. Bert tried to launch another mag of the same ilk as BI, Fight Game, but it folded after a couple of issues. Bert was many things, but not a great businessman!

The guy that took it over was Bernard G Goldman or something like that. Seemed to take himself very seriously. It was like eating dry crackers reading it cover to cover.