I COULDA BEEN A CONTENDER! (THE 5 GREATEST BOXING BOOKS OF ALL TIME)
YO! ... Wanna know the top five contenders for best tome ever penned about "The Sweet Science?" From life stories of forgotten legends, to riveting memoir and superb fiction. If you've never tasted leather, these five tales will put you ring center. Pull up a stool and lend me your cauliflower ear ...
#1 SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME: MY LIFE SO FAR (by Rocky Graziano with Rowland Barber)
"THE BLOOD-SOAKED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FIST-HAPPY HOODLUM ..." So proclaimed the dime store edition of former middleweight champ Rocky Graziano's best-selling autobiography -- a classic. Pure Horatio Alger. Hard-hitting street thug Rocco Barbella, transformed by the love of a good woman, ditches his jailbird past and ascends the middleweight throne. (Sound familiar?) The true story of the real-life "Rocky" -- full of heart and dripping ring-sweat. Told in "The Rock's" own inimitable voice (thanks to sports writer Barber).
The street fighter who whipped his demons to become one of boxing's most colorful and beloved figures. (Sadly, out of print.)
#2 THE KILLINGS OF STANLEY KETCHEL (by James Carlos Blake)
"STANLEY KETCHEL STRODE THE SPORTS WORLD LIKE NO OTHER ATHLETE HAS BEFORE OR SINCE." Once wrote Nat Fleischer, dean of boxing writers and founder of The Ring magazine. A monumental understatement! An icon of early twentieth century American sports, Ketchel was a middleweight amalgam of Mike Tyson, James Dean and Billy the Kid all rolled into one.
At age 15, he ran away from his family's Michigan farm to "ride the rods" -- cutting his teeth in early 1900s hobo camps. At 16, not quite 5' 9" and a wiry 150 lbs, was head bouncer in a Butte, Montana saloon frequented by coal miners and lumberjacks. At age 22, middleweight champion of the world: pound-for-pound the hardest puncher ever to lace on a pair of boxing gloves -- and the most feared fighter on the planet (even depositing the great Jack Johnson on the deck during their "heavyweight" title bout). At age 24, shot dead. Murdered by the jealous lover of a woman he'd bedded at the ranch where he was training for a comeback.
A doff of the headgear and touch of the gloves to James Carlos Blake for his "factional" resurrecting of the "Michigan Assassin" -- a man who should loom as large in the annals of American folklore as Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok.
Had to include one fictional work on the card. The decision goes to ...
#3 FLESH AND BLOOD (by Pete Hamill)
A novel that poses the philosophical question: What if Oedipus were an Irish street brawler with a wicked left hook? Bobby Fallon -- Brooklyn street punk with chip on shoulder big as the Blarney Stone -- assaults cop; goes to prison; bites off fellow inmate's ear; learns to box; has sex with mother; loses bid for the Heavyweight Championship, and seeks to even the score with the gangster father who abandoned him as a child. New York Daily News editor and novelist Pete Hamill at his rawboned best.
#4 STREET JUSTICE (by Chuck Zito with Joe Layden)
The year: 1979. The place: The Empire Sporting Club; better known as "Gramercy" -- a cramped, Lower Manhattan boxing gym once owned by the legendary Cus D'Amato. The rank stench of five decades of sweat hangs in the air -- like stale urine filtered through a dirty jockstrap.
Two fighters are having a war in the main ring (the very same later made famous by Robert De Niro in the film "Raging Bull"). One is a hulking, Goliath of a heavyweight named John "The Baptist" LoFranco -- a Hells Angel. The other, a lanky Italian kid barely tipping the scales above middleweight. Trading toe-to-toe with his much larger opponent, the kid doggedly forces the action; David to LoFranco's Goliath. As I watch, unable to pry my eyes from what's devolved into an all-out Pier 6 brawl, legendary cut man and boxing trainer, Al Gavin, leans into me ...
"That's one tough fuckin' kid!"
Having those words bestowed upon you by Gavin -- D'Amato's heir apparent -- is boxing's equivalent of a Papal Blessing.
But it's not LoFranco who's the recipient of Gavin's hardboiled admiration -- it's the other guy ... the seemingly over-matched Italian kid. Chuck Zito.
The memoir of former Hells Angel, boxer, martial artist and celebrity bodyguard, Chuck Zito, is one wild hog ride: from a six year prison stint to the set of the HBO series "OZ" -- from outlaw biker to TV and radio personality. Not a "boxing" book in the purest sense, but hey -- YOU tell Chuck.
#5 BUMMY DAVIS VS. MURDER, INC. (by Ron Ross)
Runyonesque tale of boxing's golden age and the Mob. The short, tragic life of fabled welterweight bad boy Al "Bummy" Davis: his ties to Murder, Inc. -- a group of New York triggermen serving as an elite hit squad for the Italian Mafia (and internship for rising Mob-star Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel) -- and the Mob "king makers" who ruled the sport. Evocative as old scar tissue and painstakingly researched.
And not to be counted out ...
Let's face it, ranking the five best boxing books of all time is as subjective as scoring an actual bout. These are the five that for me epitomize the sweat and grit of the sport; celebrate that most coveted and revered quality any fighter can possess: HEART.
No other sport has fired the imaginations of our greatest literary talent like The Sweet Science: writers like Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Irwin Shaw and Joyce Carol Oates. There's a truly remarkable body of work on the subject: Mailer's, THE FIGHT; Mark Kram's, GHOSTS OF MANILA; Jake La Motta's autobiography, RAGING BULL, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's, THE SIXTEENTH ROUND -- and of course, A.J. liebling's, THE SWEET SCIENCE ... all worthy contenders!
#1 SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME: MY LIFE SO FAR (by Rocky Graziano with Rowland Barber)
"THE BLOOD-SOAKED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FIST-HAPPY HOODLUM ..." So proclaimed the dime store edition of former middleweight champ Rocky Graziano's best-selling autobiography -- a classic. Pure Horatio Alger. Hard-hitting street thug Rocco Barbella, transformed by the love of a good woman, ditches his jailbird past and ascends the middleweight throne. (Sound familiar?) The true story of the real-life "Rocky" -- full of heart and dripping ring-sweat. Told in "The Rock's" own inimitable voice (thanks to sports writer Barber).
The street fighter who whipped his demons to become one of boxing's most colorful and beloved figures. (Sadly, out of print.)
#2 THE KILLINGS OF STANLEY KETCHEL (by James Carlos Blake)
"STANLEY KETCHEL STRODE THE SPORTS WORLD LIKE NO OTHER ATHLETE HAS BEFORE OR SINCE." Once wrote Nat Fleischer, dean of boxing writers and founder of The Ring magazine. A monumental understatement! An icon of early twentieth century American sports, Ketchel was a middleweight amalgam of Mike Tyson, James Dean and Billy the Kid all rolled into one.
At age 15, he ran away from his family's Michigan farm to "ride the rods" -- cutting his teeth in early 1900s hobo camps. At 16, not quite 5' 9" and a wiry 150 lbs, was head bouncer in a Butte, Montana saloon frequented by coal miners and lumberjacks. At age 22, middleweight champion of the world: pound-for-pound the hardest puncher ever to lace on a pair of boxing gloves -- and the most feared fighter on the planet (even depositing the great Jack Johnson on the deck during their "heavyweight" title bout). At age 24, shot dead. Murdered by the jealous lover of a woman he'd bedded at the ranch where he was training for a comeback.
A doff of the headgear and touch of the gloves to James Carlos Blake for his "factional" resurrecting of the "Michigan Assassin" -- a man who should loom as large in the annals of American folklore as Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok.
Had to include one fictional work on the card. The decision goes to ...
#3 FLESH AND BLOOD (by Pete Hamill)
A novel that poses the philosophical question: What if Oedipus were an Irish street brawler with a wicked left hook? Bobby Fallon -- Brooklyn street punk with chip on shoulder big as the Blarney Stone -- assaults cop; goes to prison; bites off fellow inmate's ear; learns to box; has sex with mother; loses bid for the Heavyweight Championship, and seeks to even the score with the gangster father who abandoned him as a child. New York Daily News editor and novelist Pete Hamill at his rawboned best.
#4 STREET JUSTICE (by Chuck Zito with Joe Layden)
The year: 1979. The place: The Empire Sporting Club; better known as "Gramercy" -- a cramped, Lower Manhattan boxing gym once owned by the legendary Cus D'Amato. The rank stench of five decades of sweat hangs in the air -- like stale urine filtered through a dirty jockstrap.
Two fighters are having a war in the main ring (the very same later made famous by Robert De Niro in the film "Raging Bull"). One is a hulking, Goliath of a heavyweight named John "The Baptist" LoFranco -- a Hells Angel. The other, a lanky Italian kid barely tipping the scales above middleweight. Trading toe-to-toe with his much larger opponent, the kid doggedly forces the action; David to LoFranco's Goliath. As I watch, unable to pry my eyes from what's devolved into an all-out Pier 6 brawl, legendary cut man and boxing trainer, Al Gavin, leans into me ...
"That's one tough fuckin' kid!"
Having those words bestowed upon you by Gavin -- D'Amato's heir apparent -- is boxing's equivalent of a Papal Blessing.
But it's not LoFranco who's the recipient of Gavin's hardboiled admiration -- it's the other guy ... the seemingly over-matched Italian kid. Chuck Zito.
The memoir of former Hells Angel, boxer, martial artist and celebrity bodyguard, Chuck Zito, is one wild hog ride: from a six year prison stint to the set of the HBO series "OZ" -- from outlaw biker to TV and radio personality. Not a "boxing" book in the purest sense, but hey -- YOU tell Chuck.
#5 BUMMY DAVIS VS. MURDER, INC. (by Ron Ross)
Runyonesque tale of boxing's golden age and the Mob. The short, tragic life of fabled welterweight bad boy Al "Bummy" Davis: his ties to Murder, Inc. -- a group of New York triggermen serving as an elite hit squad for the Italian Mafia (and internship for rising Mob-star Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel) -- and the Mob "king makers" who ruled the sport. Evocative as old scar tissue and painstakingly researched.
And not to be counted out ...
Let's face it, ranking the five best boxing books of all time is as subjective as scoring an actual bout. These are the five that for me epitomize the sweat and grit of the sport; celebrate that most coveted and revered quality any fighter can possess: HEART.
No other sport has fired the imaginations of our greatest literary talent like The Sweet Science: writers like Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Irwin Shaw and Joyce Carol Oates. There's a truly remarkable body of work on the subject: Mailer's, THE FIGHT; Mark Kram's, GHOSTS OF MANILA; Jake La Motta's autobiography, RAGING BULL, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's, THE SIXTEENTH ROUND -- and of course, A.J. liebling's, THE SWEET SCIENCE ... all worthy contenders!
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