‘I’d have a million dollars today, that’s for sure. But there’s no way in the world to go back. That’s an impossible thing. I’m not going to let it bother me. But naturally I would live a different life. I don’t regret it. My son’s going to take my place on this earth and he’s a real smart boy.’ ibid.
It was a major paradox, then, that for me those worst of boxing times were the very best of times. By day I appeared to the world as a young, mild-mannered English literature professor at a respected suburban university. Most Friday nights, however, I assumed my true identity – fake UPI boxing reporter. The New York fighters of the mid-1960s were my fighters. Sam Toperoff, ‘Ree-Jected’
But we don’t win eventually. Even if everything goes our way, we will lose the big one in the end. The Fix is in. The only intimations we have for the ultimate defeat are the knockdowns and bad decisions we suffer along the way. Positive thinking be damned, I loved the losers. ibid.
I worry very much about the fellow who is going to lose, which is neither sophisticated nor practical ... Losing a prizefight has always seemed to me the ultimate disaster for an athlete. George Plimpton, ‘The Greatest is Gone’
But he doesn’t. The loser works up a ghastly grin for his opponent during the embrace; he accepts having his hair tousled with the heel of the other fellow's glove. A J Liebling once offered an interesting explanation for this behaviour: that the fighter, whatever the outcome, always ‘feels good’ after it was over. ‘A fighter’s hostilities are not turned inward, like a Sunday tennis player's or a lady MP’s ... they come out naturally with his sweat, and when his job is done he feels good because he has expressed himself.’ ibid.
A fighter named Joe Grim, a second-rate boxer in the early part of the century whose forte was the ability to take punishment, would totter to the ropes at the end of a fight whatever his state, and call out to the crowd: ‘I am Joe Grim! I fear no man on earth!’ ibid.
They never asked Vinton Hammock to make a television commercial, never wanted his smiling face hawking barbecued chicken or lottery tickets. All anyone ever wanted Vint for was his fists and his chin and his willingness to get hit for a buck. He was a pug, an opponent, the guy who shows up with a carload of confreres in your home town, battling local heroes and usually losing. Then on again, a couple of hundred dollars richer, the next stop always the same. With little talent and few options, the road continues until, beaten a few too many times, they don’t want you even for losing. Stephen Brunt, 'A Break For the Opponent'
As he is pounded almost senseless in the final round, with the crowd chanting ‘Shaun, Shaun, Shaun’, the referee again gives him the option to stop. But at the final bell, Vint Hammock is still standing, $1,000 richer, and Shawn O’Sullivan is a pro, an undefeated pro. He has won every round and earned at least 40 times more than his opponent for the same 18 minutes of work. ‘Believe me, we were concerned about this fight,’ Mike Trainer told disbelieving local reporters, who tabbed Hammock ‘a moving punching bag’. ibid.
Jack Doyle made more stage comebacks than Frank Sinatra and Dame Nellie Melba put together. While there was breath in his body and an audience willing to hear him, he would never cease to regard himself as one of the great entertainers. There was still no shortage of promoters queuing to cash in on his name in Ireland, perhaps surprisingly so in view of his advanced years and the many disasters that had befallen him. Michael Taub, ‘A Generous Man Never Went to Hell’
Scotland had a host of legends through the centuries. But only one was living and among them. Benny Lynch ... Not a footballer or cricketer or car racer had a name to equal his. The fistic and commercial world was at his feet. He had got to the rainbow’s end. But he was never to touch the pot of gold that lay there. John Burrowes, ‘Golden Arms and Tiger Juice’
The money had come in fast ... It went even faster ... the hardest man in the ring, the softest touch out of it. ibid.
For the disease had really taken its grip and was relentlessly reaping its terrifying toll ... Some would call them dipsomaniacs, but that was just another way of calling a drunk a drunk. ibid.
How do you describe voices without a soul from a conscience that fragments into a horde of demons? ibid.
‘Come on, baby, get off those ropes.’ Southpaw 2015 starring Jake Cyllenhaal & Rachel McAdams & Forest Whitaker & Oona Laurence & Curtis 50 Cent Jackson & Skylan Brooks & Naomie Harris & Victor Ortiz & Beau Knapp & Miguel Gomez & Malcolm Mays et al, director Antoine Fuqua, her to him
I’m going to tell you the truth – you’re going to be punch-drunk in two years if you keep this up. ibid.
Drinking is a solitary sport. ibid. trainer
What kind of shit is this? ibid.
Not bad. He’s a natural hitter. If he can learn how to box, he may be all right. The Ring 1953 starring Gerald Mohr & Rita Moreno & Lalo Rios & Robert Arthur & Robert Osterloh & Martin Garralaga & Art Aragon & Jack Elam & Peter Brocco & Robert Shayne & Julia Montoya et al, director Kurt Neumann, trainer to manager
You worked almost three months for that thirty-five dollars. ibid. manager
It is dangerous but not dishonest. ibid. mother
I’m tryin’ to make something of myself. ibid. him to her
This is the place where great themes can be addressed: redemption. Race. Corruption. What it is to be a man. Danny Leigh, Boxing at the Movies: Kings of the Ring, BBC 2016
The greatest boxing movies are never just about boxing. ibid.
Cinema would find its first hugely controversial star: Jack Johnson. ibid.
The Sims Act: to stop boxing movies being transported across State lines. Race would always be an awkward subject for the boxing film. ibid.
‘A fighter is a machine not a violin player.’ ibid. Kid Galahad
For twenty years Cinema turned its back on the fight film. ibid.
The secret of the boxing movie is that we are the boxer. ibid.
You can’t win with a hangover. Ray Donovan s4e7: Norman Saves the World, Terry to boxer, Showtime 2016
Who really runs British boxing? … What price fair play in the fight game? Dispatches: The Fight Game, Channel 4 1993
For much of the post-war era British boxing was dominated by two businessmen – Mickey Duff and Jarvis Astaire; their syndicate operated a virtual monopoly of the sport. ibid.
Bruno’s twelve-year career has been brilliantly if cynically sustained by Duff. ibid.
Billy Walker: a brave but limited boxed: the use of Walker showed how fights could be marketed to a new television audience of millions. ibid.
Bugner v Cooper: the verdict of Harry Gibbs in awarding the fight to Bugner was and still is regarded by many people as the most controversial decision in all the thirty years Mickey Duff and Jarvis Astaire have been at the top of the boxing business. ibid.
‘Laying everything on the line and you don’t know what you’re getting and when you do get it you are gutted.’ ibid. Jim McDonnell
‘It’s the Boxing Board of no control.’ ibid. Ken Buchanan
In the 1980s a front-page story in The Sunday Times shocked the boxing world: Revealed The Secret Cartel Behind Boxing. ibid.
The BBC’s boxing schedule is built around Astaire and Duff promotions without even knowing who is boxing. ibid.
‘They [Astaire & Duff] have I believe major influence over the British Board of Control … everybody in it are still suffering.’ ibid. Frank Warren
This is the story of a fight and of the fighters: Walter Cartier v Bobby James … No-one ever told Walter to be a fighter; his family were against it; he just had the feeling for it. Day of the Fight, Stanley Kubrick short 12.29, 1951
By the age of 27 Lenny McLean has become a street fighting legend. He is undefeated as a bare-knuckle boxer. My Name is Lenny 2017 starring Josh Helman & Chanel Cresswell & Michael Bisping & John Hurt & Nick Moran & Charley Palmer Rothwell & Rita Tushingham & Cathal Pendred et al, director Ron Scalpello, caption
I have three gypsy fights lined up with my cousin Bootnose. ibid. Lenny
Every day is a gift. That’s why they call it the present. ibid. Leslie
He’s insane. And he speaks in tongues. ibid.
Go out there and fucking kill him, all right? ibid. Val
I don’t like violence, John, John. I hate it. In fact I detest it. ibid.
Of course I’m all right. I’m daddy cool. ibid.
Be the best fighter. Be the guv’nor. ibid.