‘The Art and Aesthetics of Boxing’ by David Scott is a really great exploration of how artists have tried to represent boxing and boxers, through literature and visual arts.
As Scott lays out the history of artistic representation of the sport and its participants, there is also a parallel thread building, addressing the necessity to think of boxing as somehow artistic in order to elevate it above the savage, and to separate it from merely ‘fighting’.
The book explores how boxing evolved to incorporate new rules, audiences and apparel, and how this was all interpreted artistically by theatre makers, sculptors, painters and writers. I found the sections exploring visual metonymies and poetry really fascinating, as this relates strongly to how I already think about art and the act of writing; but I think, in general, that there are some important links here to how boxing fans project their own desires and emotions onto fighters during bouts, and how the fighters become proxies, acting out numerous struggles and tensions within the societies in which the bouts are taking place.
Finally, the reference section of this book is an excellent source of links to further reading.
Writers on Boxing 
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