Boxing's Greatest Fighters
by Bert Randolph Sugar
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bert Randolph SugarEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-01-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Book Reviews of Boxing's Greatest Fighters
Book Review: A decent book for new or casual fans of the "sweet science"
Summary: 3 Stars
Bert Randolph Sugar, he of the everpresent fedora and unlit cigar, is one of the best known "talking heads" in the boxing media. He is articulate, writes well, and is very passionate about boxing, the greatest, truest, and purest of athletic competitions. However, he is more a boxing writer than a boxing historian, as is demonstrated by the fact that he believes (and promulgates) many of the myths that have floated around for years about this or that fighter without having bothering to check any primary sources to confirm these stories (Sugar relates many of these fairy tales in this book, but states them as fact, such as Willie Pep having won a round in a fight with Jackie Graves without having landed a single punch [Pep himself, in most of his accounts of the bout, said that he did, in fact, throw and land more than a few punches in that round], that Harry Greb's last name was Berg [Greb's birth certificate says otherwise], that Jack Dempsey broke Jess Willard's jaw in their 1919 battle [an injury that none of the reporters who interviewed Willard in the hours and days after the bout seemed to notice], that Greb broke Gene Tunney's nose with a headbutt in the first round of their first of five wars [Greb and many ringside reporters attributed the break to a left hook and Tunney himself stated that it was probably the result of a Greb right and definitely not from a butt], that Sam Langford gave Jack Johnson all he could handle in their fight [Langford admitted more than once that 'Lil Arthur had whipped him)], etc, etc).
More importantly, Sugar's understanding of boxing technique is good but not impressive, which is aptly illustrated whenever he demonstrates (and butchers) a technique that he is relating and by the fact that he rarely describes in great detail the particular TECHNIQUES that made this or that fighter effective, but, instead, waxes on the boxer's STYLE of fighting. For these reasons, it's hard to take his ranking of boxing's greatest fighters too seriously, especially since, like most boxing fans when they produce fighter rankings, he places far TOO MUCH weight in determining a fighter's "greatness" on the boxer's popularity, "historical importance"/legacy, the "name" fighters whom he fought, the number of titles that he won, etc and NOT ENOUGH weight on the fighter's willingness to take on all comers and his effectiveness against all of the basic boxing "styles" (e.g. outboxers, pressure fighters, stalkers, stick and movers, etc) and against opponents who possessed a certain skill or attribute to an exceptional degree (indeed, among the reasons why I do not place Sugar Ray Robinson - whom Bert Sugar and many others deem the best boxer pound-for-pound of all time - among the top five of MY all-time lb4lb list is the fact that he went to great lengths to avoid fighting good stick and movers [Robinson liked to be the matador] and legitimate powerpunchers [which should be obvious given that, despite fighting in the talent-rich 1940s & 50s, the hardest hitters that the Sugarman could boast of facing were Artie Levine and "blown-up" welterweight Rocky Graziano, who was well past his peak by the time he fought Sugar Ray - to get an idea of how many great punchers Robinson AVOIDED during this era, check out the list of opponents FOUGHT by Robinson's outstanding peer Charley Burley, whom Sugar Ray, of course, "ducked" - then again, if I were put on "queer street" by good but far from great hitters like Levine and Jimmy Doyle, I'd probably want to avoid thunderous punchers like Burley and Lloyd Marshall, too.)
Another problem with the book is that it is littered with typographical, grammatical, and factual errors (that is, the ones aside from the myths Mr. Sugar embraces). Furthermore, boxing fans who have read some of Sugar's other books will feel a sense of deja vu because he tends to recycle his best bon mots in most of his books. And, there is also the fact that Sugar, given the brevity of each of the boxer profiles, invariably relates the boxer's most famous fight or most well-known characteristic, which is beneficial to boxing "newbies" but boring for knowledgable fans.
All in all, BOXING'S GREATEST FIGHTERS is a decent enough book for new or "casual" boxing fans, but hardcore fans will not find it anything special (except to argue over Sugar's rankings). For the benefit of less knowledgable fans, I present the following list of great fighters whom Sugar did not include in his book: Eddie Booker, Fighting Harada, Frankie Genaro, Owen Moran, Jimmy Bivins, Fidel LaBarba, Billy Petrolle, Young Peter Jackson, Mysterious Billy Smith, Freddie Steele, Lloyd Marshall, Holman Williams, Michael Spinks, Jack Blackburn, & Lew Tendler.
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