06.04.04 – Review by Andrew Mullinder – The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle (Robert Anasi) Mainstream Publishing – At 25, Robert Anasi was old in boxing terms when he first set foot in a boxing ring in a decrepit and rapidly failing boxing gym in San Francisco’s Tenderloin with some pretty uninspiring results. Yet here he is, in his early thirties, and after many years of boxing inactivity, attempting to fulfil his dream of entering New York’s Golden Gloves. Despite the fact that the Gloves walks along a pretty well trodden road (Anasi is not by a long way the first writer to cross over to the other side of the ropes) he manages to assemble a near masterpiece from his experiences.
In his attempt to improve his skill level and gain fitness, Anasi joins ‘The Supreme Team’, run by the maverick trainer, Milton LaCroix, and populated by a disparate group of would-be contenders, straightened out ex cons, faded ex pros, teenage Crips and white collar fitness fanatics. The journal of Anasi’s passage from “disabled puncher” to skilled amateur boxer introduces us to an engaging variety of characters who, in part, reflect the diverse makeup of modern day boxing fans and participants. The incongruent Milton: hot headed verbal abuser, hustler and antagonist (and clearly talented trainer) who barely makes a living but still gives the poorer kids free boxing lessons; Julian, the ex-con and former Harlem gun-runner who is trying to make something out of his life; Laura, the physically astounding accountant who, driven by the violence she suffered at the hands of her husband, has become one of New York’s top female prospects; Victor, a talented young amateur who can’t break free of his gangland connections; and Joe Penna, a bus driver who works horrendous hours to make ends meet for his five children.
Anasi’s writing is ideal for his subject matter, being open, honest, graceful, and muscular; he never shirks from the awkward issues, never paints a rosy picture of boxing or his gym mates; he articulates a keen passion for boxing and its violence while managing to stay just the right side of macho. This allows him to dextrously weave his own progression and stories of life with the characters of the gym, with some outstanding comment on boxing – specifically, boxing’s safety and its medical effects, the background and exploitation of its combatants, corruption, and race issues.
The jewel in the crown for the Gloves is the final chapter, a wonderfully erudite essay entitled ‘Boxing’ in which Anasi examines, in some depth, reasons for the decline of boxing and his own, somewhat ambiguous, love for the Hardest Game. In its own way, this essay is as illuminating as those crafted by heavyweight writers such as Joyce Carol Oates and Hugh McIlvanney. After finishing this final chapter, you, the reader, realise for the first time that Anasi has not merely crafted a highly entertaining story, but through the story has thoroughly examined the nature of boxing itself and its most pervasive issues.
Boxing Confidential (Jim Brady) Milo Books Ltd
Boxing Confidential’s subject matter, the history of corruption in boxing, is perhaps one of the most fascinating themes in boxing, and is certainly an issue with direct relevance to modern day pugilism. Sensibly, rather than try to link the main threads of his book together in a linear history, Brady has dealt with each subject thematically. They move, in a broad sweep, from the origins of the fight trade and early corruption, the domination of boxing by Frankie Carbo, ‘Blinky’ Palermo, and the IBC, through to the frighteningly similar arrangement between Bob Arum, Don King, and alphabet sanctioning bodies we suffer in modern day boxing.
Unfortunately, despite the ‘can’t miss’ subject matter, and his excellent pedigree as American correspondent for Britain’s Boxing News, Brady has somehow managed to let his undoubted passion and knowledge become detrimental, turning what could have been a definitive examination of some of the most interesting issues surrounding boxing into a maladroit personal testament.
Rather than objectively examining the subject of each chapter in depth, and using the evidence to draw pertinent and cogent conclusions, Brady produces a series of vaguely connected vignettes, which often move far beyond their necessary conclusion. While the method behind Brady’s ‘madness’ is in this case admirable – to highlight fighters’ exploitation – it serves no other purpose than to allow the book to drift down a plethora of tangents and detract from the core subject matter. Furthermore, in doing so, Brady loses all sense of objectivity when assessing the historical evidence, ruining any analysis and comment in the process.
The over-egging of the soufflé continues in the chapters dealing with the WBC and the IBF. Instead of just proving the hypothesis that the WBC is a corrupt organisation which lines its own pockets before taking care of the safety and welfare of boxers, and offering some options as to how boxing may free itself from the alphabet shackles, we have to wade through page after page of what looks like three years worth of tax return forms. Rather than giving us a few choice quotations from the Bob Lee bribery saga to show what a charade the IBF and their ratings procedures were, we have nearly a whole chapter of wire tap quotations. Add to this a cornucopia of spelling and grammar errors, historical inaccuracies, and lots of typos, and you begin to get an idea of what a waste Boxing Confidential is.
What really comes through in the book, though, is Brady’s determination to expose what a raw deal the average boxer gets; what a tragically exploited bunch they really are.
This leads to the obvious conclusion that there are two books contained within Boxing Confidential: an examination of the history of corruption, and a similar expose on the exploitation of boxers and what a difficult road they face – and two worthy books they would be too, given Brady’s ability.
Ultimately, I can’t help viewing this book as little more than a publication of a first draft; an early effort to structure the research. It is a book of missed opportunity. If you read lots, and are a boxing fanatic, I might recommend it, but based on subject matter alone.