Kings of the Ring: The History of Heavyweight Boxing

by Gavin Evans

Book Overview

They ruled the ring with iron fists and carved their names in boxing history. Here are their stories, told in words and pictures that bring you inside the world of a heavyweight boxing champion. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0297844202
• ISBN13: 9780297844204
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.8" x 10.5"

Customer Reviews

One of 2 best boxing books I have read

I have read 5-6 boxing books over the past 5 years. I have bought many boxing DVD's. This is the best boxing book I have read: insightful, well written, cliche free. This offers a very reasonable review of the strengths and weaknesses of boxing heavyweights. As a aside: this is much more informative and well written than the books by Bert Sugar.

No new ground but still a good book.

This is a rather enjoyable book. Its not meant to be a blockbuster or reveal any new ground breaking information regarding the fighters. It's basically a nice picture book about boxing that can be thrown on your coffee table. The pictures are very nice quality. The information about the fighters is more a "cliff's notes" version of the division. Its the equivalent to a piece of bubble gum to the boxing fan.

Outstanding history of the heavyweight division with a twist

This is one of the finest books I've ever read on the history of heavyweight boxing. What really propels it from the realms of the mundane are two traits that are as follows. Firstly the prominence given to pre-Louis black fighters who partly through their own talents (ie no one wanted to square up to them) but mostly due to American racism were never given the opportunity to compete for the crown. And arguably they were so superior to other boxers of their day, that it's likely that the history of boxing might have been radically different had they had that chance. It's great to see Pete Jackson, Sam Langford and Harry Wills finally get their dues. The second thing to recommend this book is the warts-and-all approach that Evans takes. I get so tired of reading how these guys were killers in the ring but gentlemen outside. Not true! Boxers are rough, hard men and it's refreshing to read a book that doesn't attempt to air-brush them and instead reveal all the squalid ugliness and prejudice that enveloped them. On the downside, I do get the impression though that Evans is digging for dirt slightly and going for sensationalism somewhat. For example, Dempsey is quoted as having said that Schmeling's victory over The Brown Bomber was a great validation for the white man and yet I have copies of The Ring from that era (between the two Louis-Schmeling bouts) where Dempsey is simply gushing over Joe, stating that Louis shouldn't get disheartened by his loss. The most annoying thing about Kings Of The Ring, though, is the lack of proofreading. There are some scandalous errors such as attributing Liston-Patterson II to 1967 instead of 1963 and for this reason I cannot recommend it to a total newcomer. However, provided you know your facts already, this is a fine read that I'm already referring to over and over. And Evans' final paragraph on Tyson is a fitting and eloquent swansong to the man who could have been Dempsey, Louis and Marciano combined had he reined in his darker impulses. That paragraph is worth the price of admission alone.

A very nice history of the Heavyweight Champions

This book is never going to be ground-breaking as there has been so much written about the Heavies of the years. One thing that attracted me greatly was the use of rare photos that I hadn't seen before. The stories on Harry Wills and Sam Langford were much appreciated as they were both overlooked in so many books. A glossy and enjoyable book, recommended.

kings of the ring

I must admit I picked up `Kings of the Ring' with a little trepidation. I like my sports books to be correct in every detail as well as sparkling and original, and I was concerned this might be coffee table fare - great on pictures but light on text. I found myself extremely pleasantly surprised. The book is broken up into chapters on all the heavyweight champions and a few who never won universal recognition, from the bareknuckle days to the present, and yet it manages a seamlessly coherent narrative. In the early 20th century, for example, the theme is one of white (mainly Irish-American) men striving to the top while battling to keep African Americans out of the loop. This allows the author, Gavin Evans, to delve deeper than any other I have read into the lives of some of the great fighters who were frozen out of the title race (Peter Jackson, Sam Langford and Harry Wills) and also to look at the failings of the great champions with an unblinking eye. He clearly admires many of these men and the way they fought, but he never allows that to blind him to their many faults. As he writes in his introduction, "In retrospect their flaws probably seem more remarkable than in their own airbrushed times: the extreme racism of most of the early white gloved champions, the violence against women and other men, the greed, the stupidity, the links with organised crime, the alcohol and the drugs." All of this is exposed without recourse to euphemism or, indeed, for hyperbole and in some cases the picture that emerges is genuinely shocking. For example, I was raised to think of Jack Dempsey as a sweetheart outside the ring as much as he was a killer inside the ropes, but, sadly, this book presents a very different picture of the man: a violent, racist, bully for much of his life. Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and even Rocky Marciano also emerge more flawed, or rather more rounded, than the bowdlerised versions of their lives I'd previously encountered. Despite all this, Evans clearly adores the old heroes - as much for their flaws as for their assets - and he lovingly provides vivid details of their fights and their lives as champions. In the end, though, he emerges as something of a modernist, taking the view that boxing, like every other sport, has moved on. He ends by predicting, tongue presumably not too far from cheek, that in 50 years time we'll be saying: "Ah, Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Klitschko - they don't make them like that any more." So, definitely worth a cover-to-cover read and on top of that the pictures are truly wonderful. I've been following boxing for many moons but most of the pictures of the old champions were ones I'd never seen before, and they include contemporary cartoons and other illustrations. Highly recommended. *****