Comments Thread For: Best Books on Boxing - Holiday Reading: 2019

[Marchegiano]

good post and have bookmarked for future reference

i want to read more boxing literature but dislike biographies, i think they can be a little over blown and throwaway

but history is something i can get my teeth into

cheers

I'm really glad you mentioned that. It's not something a lot of fans will realize from the outset if they're just getting into history but Bio book are kinda more propaganda than history

Matt was lucky to get me to read Peter Maher. I was actually researching CC Smith when Matt told me his book has a page on Smith. Being as it was my only jumping off point for CC I picked up the book for reference material, but, Dunnellon really went out of his way to write about Peter and everyone around Peter. So that one's actually a good history book combined with your more run of the mill bio glorification stuff.


Outside of that, yeah, a bio book you read just to read a whole lot of ass kissing. They always do things like gloss over 3 losses in a row in a few lines then go on for a page and a half about how great some random KO was over some no body.


Great post bud, thanks for pointing that out.

[Marchegiano]

I can't find Western Fighting Science on Amazon. Do you happen to know the author?

Book Link

RT Fuller is his name, but, I don't know him and can't tell you how good an author he is. I enjoyed the book and it seemed quality when I read it but I can't go to bat for a guy I don't know or an era I could easily have been mislead in.

While I am for a poster quite knowledgeable of medieval era boxing it is still my weakest era. Ancient stuff is easier to find than the period just after and before the enlightenment.

The problem with medieval is everything is illegal, as ****.

Boxing disfigures faces, man is made in God's image, therefor, boxing disfigures the face of God and is a heathen practice.

I won't condescend you by going into how powerful church was at this time, but it should be mentioned so I wrote this line.

That said, the best source for medieval boxing is actually church records and legal documents. It's a huge pain in the ass.

Russia actually has the best kept record for boxing in this period, their version of boxing anyway. Russian Orthodox Church records is what you want to look for. They didn't think boxing was so bad for quite a long time so their records are pretty good.

The Church will teach you who was boxing and what penalty they faced for it, but that's only the guys who got caught. The real underground scene for the sport is a hard nut to crack that I work on to this day.

Outside of that, you have duels. Boxing, as a sport, is illegal across the Christian world. Dueling unarmed is not. Fencing with fists is a term older than boxing because before they named it boxing (like 14th century I reckon) and after they made illegal Pyx there was fencing with fists. This is also where fisticuffs comes from.

For duel info you need to look at legal work. They may not be archived with the church as often as with national legal, like lawyer ****, organization per nation. It's REALLY difficult and confusing but can be done.

[The D3vil]

I like the "Arc of Boxing" by Mike Silver. It opened my eyes about a lot of stuff.

I like the book Teddy Atlas wrote with Burt Sugar, "The Ultimate Book of Boxing Lists too.

But, I'm looking for like a boxing history book that like covers all the greatest champions across weight classes through the years.

I guess like a good boxing encyclopedia maybe?

[Marchegiano]

I like the "Arc of Boxing" by Mike Silver. It opened my eyes about a lot of stuff.

I like the book Teddy Atlas wrote with Burt Sugar, "The Ultimate Book of Boxing Lists too.

But, I'm looking for like a boxing history book that like covers all the greatest champions across weight classes through the years.

I guess like a good boxing encyclopedia maybe?

Let me know when you find that. I don't mean that smart assedly either, I am genuinely interested in a good boxing encyclopedia myself.

[Mick Higgs]

I'm currently reading the excellent Gypsy Gem Mace by Jeremy Poolman. Other good non-fiction include the Fighting Blacksmith (Bob Fitzsimmons) by Gilbert Odd, The fighting windmill (Jack"Kid"Berg) by John Harding, High life & hard times by Ken Buchanan, My bleeding business by Terry Downes, Lonsdales lelt by John Harding & Boxing quotations by Harry Mullan . Of course there's many more available. Ebay have most of them.