The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Boxing

by Peter Arnold

This comprehensive reference guide covers all subjects from the careers of the world's greatest boxers to the intrigues behind the scenes.

Genres: Sports, Reference

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Peter Arnold is a prolific British author who has written over 40 books covering a wide range of subjects including football, cricket, boxing, gambling, snooker, darts, and card games. He is best known as the co-author of the popular Complete Book of Card Games and served as General Editor of The Official Rules of Sports and Games, a widely respected reference work. With a deep knowledge of both traditional and modern games, Arnold has become a trusted voice in the world of sports and recreation. He divides his time between London, England and Spain.

Reviews

[Joseph Hirsch]

The only group of people more contentious than science fiction fans are boxing fans. We're quick to wrath and quick to argument. Thus, any book that makes a claim to being an "ultimate encyclopedia" either needs to come correct and really amass a phone book's worth of information, or lose a point or two.

This book provides a pretty good overview of both the contemporary boxing scene, and of boxing's storied history. There are also some good anecdotes and resources for references on various historic "firsts." That said, this book is nowhere near exhaustive, and those who buy this book thinking it is some sort of master reference tome are in for a surprise.

That being said, taken in the correct spirit, there's a lot to commend this book, from the lush accompaniment of photographs to the humorous or fascinating asides about the sport's byways and history.

I think a new edition is forthcoming, so if I were debating whether or not to buy this (the 7th edition), I would hold off temporarily. This book was written and published before the rise of the Eastern European resurgence, and the resurrection of the English boxing scene (I think the UK has something like thirteen world titlists currently). Of course, the authors of this book can't be faulted for not predicting the rise of Golovkin, Kovalev, Joshua, etc. so it doesn't lose any points for that. Recommended.

[Mark Soone]

To me this was one of the more superficial boxing books, and to call it "The Ultimate Encyclopedia" is almost laughable. There are some interesting photos, and little captions to go along with them....but their list of 200 greats is humerous...and to include 7 HW's inside of their 12 legends of the sport, and to include Tyson inside of that 7(12) is laughable since he does not even crack my top 7 HW's...a 12 legends devoid of Greb, Charles, Langford...and they included Leonard...but the wrong one! Why would you include Sugar Ray over Benny Leonard...Any credible boxing fan or historian would not even think of placing Ray over Benny...not sure where they are going with this.

Sure this is worth the time to read if you are big boxing fan, but be prepared for a letdown and a superfical read based more upon opinion than useful facts and historical data.

[Liam]

Just about 4 stars.

A very interesting and information packed book which has been presented nicely. Unfortunately there are a bizarrely high number of typos which mar it slightly and some sections are a little too long, while others may benefit from being expanded upon.
Also, it was a nice touch to see Harry Mullan's name on the front, after his death in 1999 it is good to see his hard work is still being recognised as he began these encyclopedias. Matt Bozeat took over this one as Bob Mee(the brain of boxing - who's name also appears on the front) was unable to update this edition and overall he has done a good job; the book was for the most part very enjoyable to read.