In the ’80s everything was a boom, a transaction. Or a big takeover. Money was God. Money is God. TwentyFourSeven 1997 starring Bob Hoskins & Danny Nussbaum & Justin Brady & James Hooton & Darren O Campbell & Karl Collins & Johann Myers & Jimmy Hynd & Mat Hand & James Corden & Frank Harper et al, director Shane Meadows
The problem is, he thinks there’s nothing he can do about it. The lads and the people in this town have been living in the same day their whole lives … That’s why nothing ever changes. ibid.
Lads, we are going to – Wales. Well don’t get too excited will ya? ibid. Hoskins to boxing club
‘The body is the instrument on which imagination plays.’ After the Last Round, 2009, Joseph Duemer
‘At its best it’s balletic, as its worst it’s brutal.’ ibid. Bert Sugar
‘Without the fighters you are out of business … If fighters are dirt, what are managers made of? ibid. The Harder they Fall 1956, Humphrey Bogart
Boxing World Steps in to Help McClellan: Benn v McClellan remains one of the most dramatic, exciting title fights in boxing history. The ring warriors battered each other almost to death in from of 12,000 spectators at the London Arena, with 13 million more watching on television. The World Boxing Council super-middleweight title fight’s tragic consequences are a reminder of the dangers every fighter faces, and the poverty it can lead to.
Today, Gerald McClellan is deaf, blind and consigned to a wheelchair with permanent brain damage …
Exactly that is happening in London as a result of the wishes of Nigel Benn. McClellan and Benn will both attend a gala fund-raising dinner at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel tomorrow night – the first time they have met since the fight 12 years ago.
Forty-two British and world champions are attending the event, although Michael Watson, the British fighter who made a recovery from life-saving brain surgery, is away with his family … Daily Telegraph article 25 February 1995
Young noblemen in tall hats and white cravats jostled suited workmen as they pressed eagerly round the ring.
Within its confines, two men, one black man and one white, wearily traded punches that still held a sledgehammer force.
The fight between the Black Terror and his larger opponent, the fearsome Tom Cribb, had been going on for a good two hours. The Terror, older and smaller, seemed on his last legs, his features bruised, his bare knuckles streaming blood.
In the 60th round, he sank to the ground. He had been beaten, but it was an honourable defeat.
That October day in 1805 marked an epic event in British boxing – the first time a black man had entered the ring in an important British prize fight.
The extraordinary story of Bill Richmond, an American slave, who became Britain’s first black superstar, is told tonight on Channel 4. Daily Telegraph article The Lord of the Ring
Ring cycle ends at the Garden: The ghosts of Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano will haunt boxing’s most hallowed stage tomorrow afternoon, accompanied by the immortal spirits of Sugar Ray Robinson and the Raging Bull he tamed in that roped square.
The death rattle of Benny Kid Paret will echo once again around Madison Square Garden.
The genius of Muhammad Ali will flood the memory of his blood brother, Joe Frazier. Nostalgia will tug at the throats of all the living legends who are expected to stand attendance as sport’s ultimate artefact is carried out of that fabled arena one last time.
The rings into which pugilistic history has been pounded in all its pain and glory for more than 80 years is being dismantled and sent to its retirement home. Daily Telegraph article Jeff Powell 18 September 2007
Klitschko admits steroid abuse: Vitali Klitschko, who defends his World Boxing Council heavyweight title against Britain’s Danny Williams in Las Vegas on December 11 has admitted to having used steroids in his career. Daily Telegraph article 2 November 2004 Bob Mee
But that pursuit brought this man to this dark crumbling cave of an underground apartment and a life of desolation and despair … ‘Probably one of the most serious offences ever committed inside the ring … He lost his life, he lost his career, he lost his family, he lost everything.’ Assault in the Ring aka Cornered: A Life in the Ring, HBO 2008
‘Sometimes I feel like crying … Why they did that to the gloves?’ ibid. Luis Resto
As a pro his [Luis Resto] career stalled. ibid.
1983: Billy Collins is one of those stories the boxing world loves, an undefeated Irish kid … ‘They were grooming Billy Collins to become a superstar.’ ibid.
‘Hold it! Hold it! Commissioner! All the padding’s out of the damned gloves!’ ibid. Billy’s father at end of fight
24 years after that night in the Garden, Luis Resto was still saying he didn’t know who had tampered with his gloves. ibid.
Panama Lewis was no stranger to controversy when he worked Luis Resto’s corner in June of 1983. Seven months earlier he had come under suspicion during the championship bout between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello. In between round TV microphones had picked up Panama in Pryor’s ordering assistant Arty Curley to pass him the water bottle and then suspiciously clarifying which bottle he meant … ‘Give me the other bottle, I one I mixed.’ ibid.
Billy Collins junior: A fighter who didn’t know what was hitting him … Doctors diagnosed Collins with a torn iris … Now he was being told to retire … Billy’s Collins junior’s spiral came to a tragic end. ibid.
‘Panama took the gloves.’ ibid. Luis
‘Been thinking about that fight every day. Every fucking day.’ ibid.
He knew he was cheating that night in the ring. ibid.
Tyson vows he’ll fight again but when he does will he get his fair share of the purse or will it go to the man who controls him? Frontline: Don King Unauthorised, PBS 2001
I was taken aback by the intensity of his rage and his attempt to intimidate me. ibid. Jack Newfield
His roots go back to a violent past. ibid.
King, a numbers racketeer, stomped a man to death in 1966. ibid.
He was arrested more than 30 times between 1951 and 1966 on charges ranging from gambling to assault. ibid.
It was the right time but King was the wrong man. ibid.
He cheated [Lloyd] Price out of his share of the partnership. ibid.
King betrayed the last of the men who had given him is start … Muhammad Ali … King shortchanged him out of a million dollars. ibid.
After The Rumble in the Jungle, Don King held a virtual monopoly on the heavyweight championship for the next 17 years. ibid.
ABC TV: There was fraud involved … the venture collapsed in scandal. ibid.
During the 1980s a dozen fighters never reached their full potential under Don King. ibid.
Larry Holmes v Tim Witherspoon: Witherspoon was paid $53,000. ibid.
Mobsters got lucrative closed-circuit TV deals for some of King’s fights. ibid.
The Justice Department never prosecuted King for racketeering. ibid.
Mike Tyson’s relationship with Don King has all the makings of an American tragedy. ibid.
Jimmy Cannon: ‘The red light district of sports.’ ibid.
10. Charles Martin robbed and shot in his car 2016.
9. Mike Tyson fight [McNeely]: A time traveller who seems to be recording the bought on a yet to be invented smart phone.
8. Al Haymon: Arguably the most powerful man in boxing … never been interviewed and rarely is seen in public.
7. Lennox Lewis v Oliver McCall II: Only landed 26 punches through the course of the fight … ‘Oliver McCall is now crying’ … By early April he was deemed mentally ill.
6. Amir Khan v Peterson: The mysterious man in a hat …
5. Harold Johnson mystery: Johnson’s trainer said his fighter began acting queer in his dressing room after taking a bite of an orange which Johnson complained tasted bitter.
4. Frank Warren shot.
3. Edwin Valero: allegedly killed his wife and committed suicide in prison, 2010.
2. Sonny Liston death January 1971
1. Arturro Gatti death. 10 Shocking Unsolved Mysteries in Boxing, Boxing Legends TV 15.14