A couple of recently purchased books on boxing -
Four Kings - Leonard, Hagler, Hearns & Duran by George Kimball. Whilst I can remember some of the Ali fights in the 70's, the four great middleweights clashes at the end of that decade and into the next were the ones that really captured my imagination and this book brings those memories to life in great detail, including the great quote of Alan Minter that no black man would ever beat him before the Hagler fight... Highly recommended
The Big If: The Life and Death of Johnny Owen by Rick Broadbent. I can't remember seeing Owen fight at all - especially as all big fights involving a UK boxer, including Hagler's obliteration of Minter, were on terrestial television. I remember however watching Grandstand when his tragic death was the lead story and sobbing my socks off at the The Long Journey documentary and the visit of Lupe Pintor to Owen's family in Merthyr Tydfil. An in-depth study of this highly unusual, shy man and his heartbreaking end. Again, highly recommended but it is pretty traumatic reading.
Four Kings - Leonard, Hagler, Hearns & Duran by George Kimball. Whilst I can remember some of the Ali fights in the 70's, the four great middleweights clashes at the end of that decade and into the next were the ones that really captured my imagination and this book brings those memories to life in great detail, including the great quote of Alan Minter that no black man would ever beat him before the Hagler fight... Highly recommended
The Big If: The Life and Death of Johnny Owen by Rick Broadbent. I can't remember seeing Owen fight at all - especially as all big fights involving a UK boxer, including Hagler's obliteration of Minter, were on terrestial television. I remember however watching Grandstand when his tragic death was the lead story and sobbing my socks off at the The Long Journey documentary and the visit of Lupe Pintor to Owen's family in Merthyr Tydfil. An in-depth study of this highly unusual, shy man and his heartbreaking end. Again, highly recommended but it is pretty traumatic reading.
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