Tag: british boxing
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#77: ‘Sweet Fighting Man – Volume 2’ by Melanie Lloyd
‘Sweet Fighting Man – Volume 2’ is the second instalment of Melanie Lloyd’s ‘Sweet Fighting Man’ series of interview-format books, in which she assembles self-recorded conversations with a selection of British professional boxers. Volume 2 features the following boxers:
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#76: ‘This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own’ by Jonathan Rendall
‘This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own – A Journey to the End of Boxing’ is Jonathan Rendall’s retelling of his own, slightly odd, fortuitous and short-lived, ramble through boxing. Books and stories like this are always going to appeal to me as I recognise myself in any author that has no ‘real’…
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#74: ‘On The Ropes’ by Vernon Vanriel and Dougie Blaxland
‘On The Ropes’ is the story of former British professional boxer Vernon ‘The Entertainer’ Vanriel, co-written by Dougie Blaxland and directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour for its debut at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, north London. I haven’t posted for a while as I’ve been busy with work, and I’ve got a writing project of…
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#70: ‘No Middle Ground’ by Sanjeev Shetty
‘No Middle Ground – Eubank, Benn, Watson and the Last Golden Era of British Boxing’ is Sanjeev Shetty’s attempt to document the influential period of British boxing from the late 1980s through to the 1990s, which was dominated by a number of talented middleweights. I don’t put too much thought into the order in which…
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#69: ‘Rope Burns – One Man’s Reluctant Obsession with Boxing’ by Ian Probert
‘Rope Burns’ is Ian Probert’s story of a life stalked, shadowed and punctuated by professional boxing. Probert describes himself as a reluctant boxing fan and this book is an attempt to avoid writing about boxing; so much so that if it weren’t for the ‘Rules of Boxing’ which end each chapter, you might wonder during…
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#67: ‘Born To Box – The Extraordinary Story of Nipper Pat Daly’ by Alex Daley
‘Born To Box’ is Alex Daley’s affectionate portrait of his grandfather, ‘Nipper’ Pat Daly, published by Pitch Publishing. If you were to come across the life and career of ‘Nipper’ Pat Daly on the TV or in the cinema, you’d dismiss it as ludicrous and beyond farcical. Nipper made his pro boxing debut in 1923…
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#65: ‘The Fight’ by William Hazlitt
‘The Fight’ by William Hazlitt is, alongside the writing of Egan Pierce, one of the most quoted and cited boxing essays, informing boxing writers for over two hundred years. This essay is, as a young lad working on the building site I’m currently on says, a stone cold classic! I don’t know how many times…
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#64: ‘Sweet Fighting Man’ by Melanie Lloyd
‘Sweet Fighting Man – Inside Stories from British Boxers’ is a collection of 14 interviews with former British boxers, compiled by Melanie Lloyd. Book the first in what is now a series of three books. I ordered the second volume at the same time as the first so that will feature on the blog sometime…
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Up to date!!
Whew!! I’ve finally managed to catch-up with the books, articles and essays that I’ve already read. It was a bit of a challenge on my memory but I surprised myself with just how much I remembered about each piece of writing. Considering how obsessed I can get with a subject and my tendency to binge…
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#61: ‘Damage’ by Tris Dixon
‘Damage – The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing’ is former Boxing News editor Tris Dixon’s personal investigation into the effects of the blunt force trauma that is, unfortunately, inherent in the sport of boxing. This book focuses on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, also known as Dementia Pugilistica, or informally as being punch…
Writers on Boxing 