An Illustrated History of Boxing

Rating:
Summary: The Best Boxing Book Ever!!
Review: If you are interesten in the early history of boxing,then look no further!!!

Great array of pictures and stories of just about EVERY Boxer since James Figg made boxing famous!!

The Chapter on Heavyweights alone is more than worth the price of this book!!

If you love boxing and it's history GET THIS BOOK!!!

Rating:
Summary: Worth buying
Review: The good points of the book outweigh the bad in that it is a very good reference that tells the history of boxing in a very comprehensive way. Another great point is the illustrations. Huge photos that percieve the boxers as kings and look very dramatic.

But there are some annoyances. First of all, it is very biased towards certain boxers, especially heavyweights. Pages 8 to 185 are reserved for the heavyweights. Pages 336 to 410 are reserved for the featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight divisions!

Not least in the choice of photos. Why show pictures of Rocky Marciano with his kids or Dempsey at the horse-races or smoking his cigar(which takes up 3/4 page) etcetera etcetera when there are is SUCH an insufficient amount of photos for the lower classes. Why comment on how poor Primo Carnera is and show a photo. Why show so much on each heavy? It is irrelevent how they live their lives outside the ring when there is no photo which shows up Sandy Saddler as great as he was(except wrestling on the floor with Pep).

And the middleweights too. Mickey Walker is shown painting his art, but there are is hardly anything on middleweight legend Carlos Monzon!

These are only certain occurances. I am only recalling ones that are in my memory as of writing. But I would say half of the photos in the book should be replaced with photos of the less popular or lower weight boxers. Yes, HALF of the book's photos is like this.

The fly/bantam/feather sections are short(obviously the bigger men are preferred) especially considering the huge size and huge abundance of pictures in the heavy, light-heavy and middle sections. Jimmy Wilde gets a few good pictures but then again they HAVE to do that he is such a legend.

It may be very biased, but it undoubtedly is a worthwhile purchase. Especially for people who want to know the legends of the past like Jim Jeffries or Sullivan. But they really need to put more on the lower classes and the less popular but BETTER boxers.

Rating:
Summary: History of Boxing Scores Stunning KO!
Review: The History of Boxing by Fleischer and Andre is so riveting that I stayed up all night reading this book! From "Pugilisms First Heroes" to the last chapter update, the content is superb. There are so many priceless photos and illustrations pre-dating photographic equipment, from the British origins to Las Vegas!

As a kid, I remember Hurricane Carter winning a televised Friday Night at the Fights brawl by knocking his opponent out of the ring. And the local Houston, TX heavyweights like Cassius Clay and Cleveland Big Cat Williams. Well, this book chronicles the champions.

If I were to make a complaint, only the champions and their opponents are covered. So spectacular non-title fights are not covered here. I reckon that's the nature of the beast on a "best of" book like this that covers such a long period of time. But for what it is, it is all that and more!

Rating:
Summary: History of Boxing Scores Stunning KO!
Review: The History of Boxing by Fleischer and Andre is so riveting that I stayed up all night reading this book! From "Pugilisms First Heroes" to the last chapter update, the content is superb. There are so many priceless photos and illustrations pre-dating photographic equipment, from the British origins to Las Vegas!

As a kid, I remember Hurricane Carter winning a televised Friday Night at the Fights brawl by knocking his opponent out of the ring. And the local Houston, TX heavyweights like Cassius Clay and Cleveland Big Cat Williams. Well, this book chronicles the champions.

If I were to make a complaint, only the champions and their opponents are covered. So spectacular non-title fights are not covered here. I reckon that's the nature of the beast on a "best of" book like this that covers such a long period of time. But for what it is, it is all that and more!