Book Review of Jacobs Beach: The Mob, the Fights, the Fifties: Long before the networks put a rear naked choke on boxing; before there were 1,001 champs fighting for 1,001 titles under 1,001 sanctioning bodies, there was New York, Madison Square Garden, one major promoter and a handful of hoods who controlled the game.
Golden era? You bet. Was the fix in? Oftentimes, yeah . . . |more|
The First Black Boxing Champions: Essays on Fighters of the 1800s to the 1920s has gone into production and will be available this Fall/Winter by McFarland Press. The book, edited by Colleen Aycock & Mark Scott, presents 15 detailed biographies of some of the first African American and black champions and challengers of the early prize ring. Boxers covered range from Tom Molineaux, a slave who won freedom and fame in the ring in the early 1800s; to Joe Gans, the first African American world champion; to the flamboyant Jack Johnson, deemed such a threat to white society that film of his defeat of former champion and “Great White Hope” Jim Jeffries was banned across much of the country.
The book also features a lengthy piece by writer/photographer Chris Cozzone, who spotlights black fighters from WWI and the early ’20s in southern New Mexico and El Paso, namely Thomas “Speedball” Hayden, who rose to stardom fighting out of Columbus, N.M.
Two Fightnews photographers made the line-up at this year’s Boxing Writers Association of America photo “Barney’s.” Ed Mulholland placed third in the feature category for a photo of Lucian Bute leaping in celebration while Chris Cozzone won an honorable mention for a shot of Manny Pacquiao. Cozzone also won an honorable mention in writing.
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Cozzone and his company, WriteShot, were also featured in today’s L.A. Times blog for his non-boxing work.
Las Vegas Boxing Examiner, by Chris Robinson: During the hectic nature of any big fight week in boxing the professionals involved in the sport have no choice but to keep pace. Whether you are a fighter, trainer, media member or anything in between there are many obligations and requirements that must be fulfilled and it can be a tiring process for all parties involved . . . |more|
After four years of “This site is under construction,” a few more days, even a week or so, won’t really matter. Also, be aware, that Fatcow, our server company, is having awful technical problems with sites using databases, such as this one. They promise to rectify the situation by the end of the week.