#53: ‘The Gloves’ by Robert Anasi

‘The Gloves – A Boxing Chronicle’ by Robert Anasi is the author’s account of his own attempt to enter the New York Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament.

This is a really great description of just how tough it is to enter amateur boxing at a competitive level as an adult, as Anasi was when he began to seriously consider competing. As someone who has trained seriously in boxing gyms, but without ever coming close to an organised bout (and only ever as an adult), it was fascinating to read about someone who had made the leap and just gone for it.

The book is full of insights as to how difficult it is to hone one’s boxing skills without a childhood spent in the gym, how big the sacrifices are when training so seriously, and how detrimental this can be to your family life, friendships and relationships as you begin to alienate yourself with dietary obsessions and road running when everyone else is in bed.

I enjoyed reading about Anasi’s doubts over his coaches’ training methods, something only heightened by his relatively mature age, as he felt he was racing toward the upper age limit for entry to the Golden Gloves. Should he stick it out with his current coach, whose methods he was losing faith in, or move to another gym, knowing that he would be ‘wasting’ time trying to settle into a new boxing style.

The characters in this book are deeply drawn, through Anasi’s informal and caring descriptions; and though I’d need to re-read both to check timelines and dates, I feel like there are some overlaps with the trainers, particularly Milton Lacroix in The Supreme Team, also appearing in Kate Sekules’ ‘The Boxer’s Heart’, which I’ll be posting about very soon.