Boxing Confidential: Power, Corruption and the Richest Prize in Sport

Rating:
Summary: Boxing Confidential Pulls No Punches
Review: This is one of the most informative, entertaining and disturbing boxing exposes ever written. Brady knows all about the backroom deals, fixed fights, corruption, extortion, payoffs for ratings, and outright criminality of the major promoters, sanctioning bodies, and the TV executive suits who not only turn a blind eye to the chicanery but are willing cohorts in this sordid business of exploitation and greed. Professional boxing, from small club fights to the mega million dollar Las Vegas promotions, is one putrid mess of a sport. In chapters like "The Best Sanctioning Body Money Could Buy", "The Talmudic Scholar", "The Humble Servant of Boxing", and "The Don" Brady flays open the belly of the out of control circus that professional boxing has been allowed to become over the past 25 years. He exposes, in glaring detail, the business side of the sport and the foul deeds of the few major power brokers, most of whom are human vermin without conscience who live off of the blood and brain tissue of-with a few rare exceptions- these exploited professional athletes. Boxers, unlike other sports, have no union or decent representation, and are at the mercy of a few blood sucking predators and thieves who have all but destroyed any credibility this sport may have had.
Brady tells the stories of a litany of ex-champs and contenders who have been robbed of their money dreams and dignity, and who are then discarded like so much garbage after their usefulness has ended.
Brady, a fine writer and investigative journalist, takes no prisoners as he names the heroes, villians, bums and thieves.
Whether you are familiar with boxing or not you will shake your head in disbelief and disgust at what is described in these pages. This is so much more than a boxing book. It is also a sociological study and idictment of a segment of our society. This is a very American story and a very important book.