The best book you've never read

Ok so you might have read it, I don't know, I just thought a catchy title like that would get more clicks. The book in question is 'This Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own' by the British writer Jonathan Rendall. A great title to be sure - from a quote attributed to a Las Vegas barfly - but this book also has one of the most arresting opening lines in non-fiction:

It was a few hours after Frank Bruno attacked me at Betty Boop's Bar in the lobby of the MGM Grand that I decided to get out of boxing.

This is a book about boxing (this is a boxing blog after all) but as one reviewer points out, it successfully avoids falling into cliche and contains writing that would grace any genre.

For instance, how about this passage describing the author's first (and last) encounter with ageing Cuban boxing legend 'Kid Chocolate':

Kid Chocolate sat down on one of the chairs and opened his mouth to speak. But rum trickled out instead through his cracked lips stained with tobacco, like lava suddenly spewed from a long-extinct volcano. His voice when it emerged was a hoarse whisper, and he formed words with difficulty, each syllable accompanied by the widening of his eyes and a grin, as if greeting every tortured sound as an old, forgotten friend.

Rendall tells the story of his love affair with boxing; from falling in love with the sport as a wide-eyed eight year old watching Roberto Duran on television, to his subsequent all-too-brief foray into the ring at university, his career as a boxing journalist and sometime agent, through to the end of the affair and the reasons that led to him walking away from the sport - something in reality he never quite managed.

Several things struck me when I recently re-read the book. First and foremost, the quality of the writing, but also an overwhelming sense of sadness. You see, Rendall died a couple of years ago, aged just 48. His body wasn't found for a week. His talent was obvious, but Rendall lived a troubled life in many ways, and never really scaled the heights he reached in 'This Bloody Mary..' which received the Somerset Maugham Award for young writers when it was published in 1997.

Some have likened his writing to Hunter S. Thompson's 'Gonzo' brand of journalism, and it's true, there are passages, particularly those concerning his adventures in Las Vegas, that have a Hunter-esque quality. But he's also self-aware and incisive, a wonderful travel guide through the weird and wonderful world of boxing, from the fading lights of early-90s Las Vegas to the York Hall in Bethnal Green.

Although there's lots to admire for non-boxing fans, fans of the sport, particularly in Britain, will enjoy being reminded of names and characters from years gone by. People like Colin 'Sweet C' McMillan, an enormously talented British featherweight who Rendall helped guide to a world title in 1992. McMillan had a 'sweet as sugar' style that if injury hadn't forced him to retire could have made him one of the sport's biggest stars. Luckily you can watch all his professional fights on his website.

Rendall also reserves many of his most purple passages for another great British fighter from that era, Herrol 'Bomber' Graham, often talked of as the best British fighter to never win a world title. Trained by Brendan Ingle in Sheffield, Graham's quick, evasive, wholly unteachable style, was a massive influence on another up-and-coming fighter from the same gym, 'Prince' Naseem Hamed.

Rendall's writing, in my opinion, deserves to be mentioned alongside that of British writers such as Hugh McIlvanney and Donald McRae as well as the Tooles, Mailers and Lieblings of this world. He was a truly original voice and I'm just sad he wasn't with us for longer.

Five things I've learnt from my first 'White Collar Boxing' fight

I’ve been a boxing fan for more than 20 years, and I’ve been known to pontificate about who has the greatest punch, the best chin, the fastest hands. But until last Saturday I’d never climbed into a ring myself. Now with my first, and perhaps last, charity fight under my belt, what lessons can be drawn from the experience?

1. You’re only 10 weeks away from peak fitness
I was in okay shape when I started training for the fight at Legends Boxing Gym in South-West London. Like a lot of people, I play a bit of five-a-side football, go for the occasional run and eat reasonably healthily. But such is the intensity of boxing training, that within just a few weeks I found – to my surprise – that I’d made rapid progress in my overall fitness. There’s a reason for that. The recent fad for ‘high intensity training’ is something boxers have known about for years. Try punching a bag non-stop for three minutes and you’ll see what I mean! As middle age begins to spread itself across your midriff, it’s heartening to know that with a bit of hard work, you’re only ever 10 weeks away from the fittest you’ve ever been.

  2. There’s a good reason why boxers are considered among sport’s fittest athletes
Among our group of novices, there were several rugby players, gym bunnies and fitness freaks. We even had an ‘ultra marathon’ runner, someone who has completed the infamous Marathon des Sables (156 miles in the Sahara desert since you ask) and even she found the training tough. Boxing’s combination of intense bursts of anaerobic activity (punching to you and me) followed by relatively short recovery periods make it one of the most physically demanding sports out there. Six minutes in the ring almost finished me, the idea of going the full Championship distance of 12 x 3 minute rounds now completely blows my mind.

3. Age need not be a barrier
Our group included several guys in their late forties and even – my hero – a 61 year old called Norman. George Foreman famously regained the heavyweight title a couple of months shy of his 46th birthday but even his achievements have arguably been surpassed by Bernard ‘The Alien’ Hopkins, who won his last world title at the age of 49. In short, it’s never too late!

4. ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’
For weeks leading up to the fight I pored over every boxing book I could get my hands on, mugged up on ring strategies, and watched classic fights on YouTube. I also listened intently to everything my coach, Harvey Morgan, had to say on slipping, blocking and footwork. When I found out who my opponent would be – another lanky fellow – I tried to identify the best way to beat him. But as Mike Tyson famously said, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’. When that happens instinct tends to take over and every fibre of your being tells you start swinging!

5. Defensive skills are underrated 
Novice fighters like myself often end up in slug-fests because the ability to think clearly under pressure is something that can only be developed over time. You can learn to punch fairly quickly, but learning how to box takes years. As a boxing fan, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, I tend to favour the classic dust-ups like Gatti-Ward, while in all honesty Mayweather’s brand of defensive genius has often left me cold. But after this experience I’m going to re-watch a lot of old fights with a new eye. Slipping, counter-punching, timing – all these can be things of beauty, just look at masters of the art like Pernell ‘Sweet Pea’ Whitaker or Argentina’s often-overlooked Nicolino ‘El Intocable’ Locche.

And for anyone wondering what happened in my fight? After three ding-dong rounds which swung this way and that, it ended in draw. However it was declared ‘fight of the night’, so perhaps now I should retire, a little wiser, a little sorer but still undefeated!

Haye v Klitschko: The Big Fight Verdict

In the end, it was wholly predictable if depressingly so. Dr Steelhammer jabbed and prodded his way to a deserved points victory over a pitifully below par David Haye. Klitschko’s style may not be especially pretty but it’s certainly effective and this was probably his best performance to date - although as a spectacle it was fairly horrible. The tension at the beginning of the fight – would Haye get inside to land big on the Ukranian’s chin? – soon gave way to round after round of monotony. A pattern was established quickly with Klitschko working well behind his ramrod jab, leaving an increasingly flustered Haye swinging wildly at thin air and more often than not, falling over in the process. Every time Haye wound-up one of his patented ‘Hayemakers’ the Ukrainian took a step back and shoved the smaller man to the canvas. It was pitiful to watch. But Haye’s problems didn’t begin and end with the size difference or even Klitschko’s slightly dubious tactics. His timing was well off and he appeared to lose his balance almost every time he threw a punch. After the fight, he tried to blame this on a broken toe, and while painful, I’d have been more inclined to believe him if it had been a big toe he’d broken, not the little one. And it hardly befits a heavyweight champion of the world to moan about a little toe given some of the punishment his illustrious predecessors have had to endure on the way to the title. So where does all this leave Haye and the heavyweight division in general? Klitschko has certainly done his reputation no harm, in addition to picking up the WBA belt to add his collection. While few people would call him an exciting champion, there’s no denying his skill as a ring tactician. That is what I believe he is and his 56 victories are a testament to that, but he is not in my opinion a great fighter in the sense that I don’t think he enjoys a scrap in the way the best boxers over the years have. As for Haye, if he keeps to his word and retires in October, he probably only has one fight left to rescue his legacy. That fight is a must-win against a top-name opponent, maybe even Vitali Klitschko. Anything less, particularly another underwhelming domestic clash against someone like Derek Chisora, won’t be enough to take away the bitter taste left by this contest.

PREVIEW: Haye v Klitschko

After what seems like years of build-up - actually this is literally true, the fight was first mooted in 2009 - boxing fans will finally get the opportunity on Saturday night to see whether David Haye has what it takes to, in his own words, 'clean up the heavyweight division'.
Some of the pre-fight build up has been pretty tedious and some of it has bordered on the bizarre. But all is fair when there's box office tickets to sell and this one could break all the records. Certainly the appetite is there in Germany where TV audiences for boxing have been huge in the past. Saturday's fight in Hamburg is expected to attract a 60 per cent share of the TV audience in addition to the 50,000 fans crammed into the Imtech Arena. It's a welcome reminder of the days when the heavyweight championship really was the biggest prize in sport.
As for the fight itself, it could be a classic. If Haye keeps to his word and retires before his 31st birthday in October, this could very possibly be his last fight. He has to leave everything in the ring or he will regret it for the rest of his life. But it won't be easy to wrestle the belts from Klitschko that he's held since 2006. The Ukrainian has a strong jab, a longer reach and the ring nous to do just what it takes in front of sympathetic judges on home turf. If Haye let's it go to the cards, he'll be in big trouble, but then very few Haye fights go the distance. The major exception was his fight against Valuev in which he boxed sensibly, moved in and out of range and only took risks when it was clear the big man was dead on his feet. Klitschko is a completely different prospect. To win, Haye will have to knock him out, but that is by no means beyond him. The omens are good. Klitschko's two previous conquerers - Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster - were heavy-handed shorter men in the Haye mould. Sanders is 6 ft 4in and Brewster 6ft 2in, while Haye is right in the middle at 6ft 3in. Throughout his career, the one thing that has never been in doubt about David Haye is his power. When he connects, it's goodnight Vienna.
Like Lennox Lewis, I'm torn. My heart says Haye, my head says Klitschko. So I'm going to split myself in two with a bet on Haye to win by KO or TKO in rounds 4 to 6 at 8/1 with Betfred and a saver on Klitschko on points at 15/4 with Bet365.

Preview: Pacquiao vs Mosley

This has been a big week for boxing, for all sorts of reasons. On Sunday the British fight game lost one of its most iconic figures. Sir Henry Cooper - our 'enery - typified the spirit of the age in which fought and was, as his most famous opponent Muhammad Ali said, 'a great fighter and a gentleman'. He will be missed.
On Saturday night the ever-popular Prizefighter series goes international with a night of heavyweight boxing from Alexandra Palace in north London. Being a bit of a boxing traditionalist I wasn't a big fan of the format when it first appeared in 2008. But I have to admit, I'm a convert. It will be interesting to see if the concept takes off internationally and helps revive interest in boxing, as Steve Bunce clearly believes.
Over in Las Vegas, Nevada, boxing promoters are having little difficulty stimulating interest in Pacquiao's next outing, even if we're no closer to the mulit-million pound superfight with Mayweather we all want to see. 'Sugar' Shane Mosley has had a great career and is a tough cookie, but at 39 most people expect him to be too slow for Pacquiao's whirling fists. Pacquiao has fought three times since he destroyed Hatton back in May 2009 and although Cotto, Clottey and Margarito presented very different challenges, they all had something in common. They all managed to take the contest into the twelfth round and they all ended in convincing victories for the Filipino great. Mosley meanwhile has made it to the twelfth round in five of his last six fights. If the pattern is to continue, the 25/1 on offer from Sporting Bet for a Pacquiao victory in Round 12 looks tempting. I'm not quite that brave though, so I'm going for rounds 10-12, a 6-1 shot with newcomers Unibet.

Review: The Fighter

On Monday night I was lucky enough to attend a preview screening of David Russell's new Oscar-nominated film, The Fighter, which stars Mark Wahlberg as 'Irish' Micky Ward.
Ward is an unlikely subject for a boxing biopic but then this isn't really a film about his career. If it was it would never end before the fights which made him famous - an epic trilogy against Arturo Gatti (pictured above). It's really a film about his family and in particular his brother Dick Ecklund, an ex-boxer and crack addict, brilliantly portrayed in the film by Christian Bale. It's a crazy, helter-skelter performance that has to be seen to be believed and Bale is as short as 1/9 to take home the Oscar at the end of the month. Ecklund is a compelling character, a local legend around Lowell on account of his 1978 fight with Sugar Ray Leonard (he had Leonard on the canvas, but lost on points). The HBO documentary which chronicled his sad decent into drug addiction - and which features in the film - is now available to view online.
But back to those Gatti fights. If you've just come back from the cinema and you want to know what happened next, then I urge you to go on YouTube and look up Gatti-Ward.
The pair fought a total of three times, two victories for Gatti and one for Ward - but that doesn't tell the half of it. Two of their three contests were subsequently voted 'Fight of the Year' by Ring magazine and they still take the breath away, even on second, third, and fourth viewing.
Their first encounter was one of those rare occasions, in boxing and in life, when two men with an abundance of what fight people call 'heart' met in a head-on collision the like of which we may never see again. Like two cars driving towards each at full speed, they never let up the tempo, each daring the other to be the first to pull out. All three of their fights were over 10 rounds and it is interesting to speculate how they would have turned out over the 12-round championship distance. Both men gave literally everything they had, and walked away with the satisfaction of knowing they had left their blood, sweat, their very souls on the canvas.
Despite the ferocity of their fights, both became close friends after their boxing careers were over, sharing a bond few people will ever understand. Ward was devastated when Gatti was found dead in a Brazilian hotel room in 2009. His death has never been satisfactorily explained, but the fight world lost one of its most charismatic figures.
When I first watched those Gatti-Ward fights I always sided with Gatti, I'm not sure why. But knowing something of Ward's own extraordinary back story means I'll watch them again with new eyes.
The Fighter is a helluva film and deserves every one of its seven Oscar nominations. Amy Adams is also a revelation as Ward's feisty girlfriend Charlene who gives as good as she gets against Ward's mother and seven sisters. In real life there's no love lost between them to this day. The movie ends with Ward's 2000 victory over Shea Neary, a promising fighter who had previously been unbeaten but retired just two fights later. Both men played strongly on their Irish roots: Micky Ward was known simply as 'Irish' while Neary went by the nickname, the 'Shamrock Express'. In the movie though, most of the crowd in the London-based fight are wearing Union Jack t-shirts. A minor point, because the movie as a whole is superb.

Treat in store for fight fans

After the travesty of Haye v Harrison last month, a fight that simply never should have happened, boxing fans tuning into Frank Warren's 30th anniversary fistic extravaganza tonight are in for treat.

Top of the bill in Liverpool is Olympic gold-medallist James 'Chunky' DeGale against home-town favourite and former 'contender' Paul 'Smigga' Smith. Now I'm a big fan of Degale and he was hugely impressive last time out against Carl Dilks on Warren's 'Magnificent 7' bill. But he's only fought as a professional eight times and many people think he may have bitten off more than he can chew against Smith. Frank Warren won't mind what happens. Both fighters are part of his stable, although Degale is surely the better prospect. Still, Smith will have vocal support tonight inside the Echo Arena and Skybet's 9-2 about a Smith victory is grossly overpriced.

In Las Vegas meanwhile, Amir 'King Khan' takes on highly-rated Argentinian Marcos Maidana. I'm going to have to put the coffee on to stay awake (the fight is scheduled to start at 3am) but this has all the makings of a classic. Maidana has an impressive 90 per cent knock-out rate and is unlikely to rein in his big-hitting style now he's hit the bright lights of Vegas. Expect fireworks right from the start. Khan has turned into a top notch fighter under Freddie Roach and happens to have the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world as a sparring partner - Manny Pacquiao. I think Khan will be too slick for Maidana on the night but the Argentine is a tough nut to crack and it might be worth a punt on Sporting Bet's standout 11/4 on a Khan decision.