BoxRec

I ve recently brought quite a number of 60s boxing mags (Boxing Illustrated and Boxing News) and have been impressed by the quality of the reports and the writing. Since i started following boxing the number of magazines has dwindled alarmingly. Ko and Boxing News are the best around today, as I think that The Ring is just a shadow of the magazine it was in the 80s and before. But whats happened to magazines like Fight Game, World Boxing, International Boxing, Boxing Illustrated and Boxing Beat... sadly all gone. I think Fight Game and Boxing Illustrated are the biggest losses, what I liked about these papers was how they would mix commentary on the modern day scene with archive stories on fighters and fights of the past. My biggest gripe with the current boxing papers is that they seem to have steadily grown smaller and therefore have less room for indepth stories on past fighters. Some may say that I m stuck in the past but it was reading about the likes of Armstrong, Pep, Louis, Robinson and Dempsey that got me hooked onto boxing in the first place.
The first boxing magazine I ever brought was a copy of Big Book of Boxing back in 1981 which had stories on Holmes, and Dempsey among others... it was reading about the modern day champs alongside the legendary champs that really hooked me. Looking back I can only truly appreciate how good Big Book was today, it always had tremendous stories on fighters of the past and ran series' such as the Heavyweight Champions, sadly this mag dissapeared in the mid-eighties.
Id like to hear from others on their favourite boxing mags of the past and present and what they think of the current crop. To be honest with the state that boxing has got itself into these days and the loss of credibility which has cme along with the dozens of 'world champs' I think we're lucky that there are as many boxing magazines around today as there are. Lets hope it lasts!.

One of the arguements I see when the subject of boxing magazines is brought up is that they are now irrelivant, what with internet sites posting reports and results immediatly. While that may be true, I LOVE boxing mags. Especially old ones. They're great time capsules. Not only for reports of long forgotten fights, but for where we thought certain fighters were headed.

For instance, I recently re-read a 1986 article on Mike Tyson that predicted that, in 1995, he'd be a long-retired all time great champion with his excellent long-time manager Jim Jacobs at his side brushing away comeback offers. In light of all that's happened, that article was kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time.

Another thing I learned from reading old mags was how hot Jerry Quarry was in 1973-74, up until he lost to Frazier the second time. He was on a roll, people loved him, and there were efforts to match him up with George Foreman. Interesting stuff.

My favorite all time boxing mag was The Ring from Oct 79 through about 83 when Bert Sugar put it out. What an excellent magazine! In-depth stories about old-timers, detailed fight reports, lots of coverage, the Budweiser ratings, fantastic writing. I miss it.

Nowdays I still like Ring, especially the Pete Ehrman articles and the reprints of old Ring articles in the back. And I love the fact that they're naming champions again. Boxing Digest has been better recently. For awhile they seemed more concerned with style than substance, but now they're printing more articles and they still have a "Rings Around The World" -type section.

Thing is, new boxing mags are hard to find these days. It seems we can't depend on one vendor to carry the same magazine for two issues in a row. What's up with distribution? Are boxing mags low-priority due to the waning interest in the sport? That seems to be the point FatCity is making. Like he said, let's hope we will still be able to get boxing mags in the future.

I WROTE FOR MOST OF THE MAGS OVER THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. MY FAVORITES ARE THE BOXING ILLUSTRATED OF THE FIFTIES & SIXTIES, HANK KAPLAN'S BOXING DIGEST OF THE EIGHTIES, AND ANY RING FROM THE TIME OF NAT FLEISCHER. I ALSO ENJOYED THE AGATE SECTION OF RING WHERE YOU COULD FOLLOW THE RISE AND FALL OF LOCAL HEROES,

Boxing Illustrated in the 80's when Burt Sugar took over IMO was best read. Plenty of oldtime pictures and articles to go along with the current scene.

In the early 1990's I thought KO was really good, but I must admit I've gone off it since then. Currently I think the British magazine Boxing Monthly is marvellous - it has a good mix of stuff pertaining to domestic and internation contests and I think it's very well put together.

Boxing Illustrated with Bert Sugar as editor-in chief tops my list.

Boxing News is still a good mag, especially as it comes out once a week.