Customer Reviews

Facing Ali: 15 Fighters / 15 Stories

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For a casual boxing fan who's too young to remember Ali, this book might be a little obscure. But for boxing fans of my generation, who grew up on Ali, your boxing library won't be complete without it. Each of the 15 opponents featured here has an interesting story to tell, and the book provides a ton of material for serious boxing historians.

What is particularly interesting is how most of these men's lives were profoundly affected by their encounter(s) with Ali. Henry Cooper, for instance, a national hero in the U.K., will still always be best known for a single punch he threw in a fight he lost: the left hook that knocked Cassius Clay (as he then was) on his butt. A few of them regard Ali with love or reverence, a few with indifference, and one, in particular, with undying resentment. Overall, one gets a remarkable education on the human condition by comparing the stories of these 15 very different men. Highly recommended.

A great book, adding a perspective on Ali from the least reported angle - namely 15 of his opponents. Most lost, a few knocked Ali down, a few defeated him. All have won or lost the corresponding internal battle they had to fight.

the fighters range from well-known and immensely talented boxers (foreman, frazier) to some of the least capable and likely contenders for the title in the history of the sport. All are fascinating, not merely for their perspecitves on Ali, but also for the value of their own stories as minor players in the most turbulent and glorious period in boxing history.

Now if these 15 fights were only available on a dvd.....

Muhummad Ali is the most-photographed, most-written about, most-quoted, and most-popular athlete of all-time. So how does an author come up with a "new" angle on the Ali story that has not already been covered? Well, Author Stephan Brunt comes up with a new tact - 15 fighters who faced Ali in the squared circle tell about their experieces in their own words. This is a unique concept that has not been attempted before in the annals of boxing literature. My hat is tipped to Mr. Brunt for coming up with such a unique angle. I also applaud him for not severely editing the commentary of the opponents stories. The words are there warts and all, especially in the bitterness expressed by Joe Frazier.

The book presents 15 fights, and the individual stories of the opponents are written in vivid detail. Brunt gives a brief history of the opponent, how he became a fighter, how he came to fight Ali, and what happened to him afterwards. The 15 fighters represent several of Ali's best fights, including Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, and Ernie Shavers. Too bad we could not have read about Ali's greatest upset fight, i.e. Sony Liston's experience in words - now that would heve been eye-popping! (Liston died of an apparent drug overdose in late 1970.)

Brunt does a thorough job with each fighter. He does not so much concentrate on the blow to blow action in the fight, but rather, what the opponent was thinking and feeling before, during, and after the fight. It makes for very interesting reading for boxing fans in general, and of course Ali fans.

I could not give it a 5-star ranking as it was not spell-binding, but for being unique and holding my interest throughout, it deserves a solid 4-stars.

Jim "Konedog" Koenig

To be completely honest, it feels a little bad giving this book only a lukewarm review. It is, after all, a great idea for a book and a great find for anyone who became a fight fan in the era of Ali, Frazier, Norton, Foreman and the rest. But somehow, this manages to be a boxing book without much of anything to say about boxing. Instead of an up-close look at the characters as they rise or fall to their moment with Ali, we get a series of mini biographies about men who aren't necessarily all that interesting. Sure, Jurgen Blin and Joe Bugner may be nice enough men, but do their uninspired performances against Muhammad Ali make them worth spending any time with? Actually, considering the merciless and unforgiving nature of their chosen sport, the story of even the dullest mismatch could be interesting. But the author gives us too much back story on his subjects' lives, not enough on the euphoria, hope, sense of dread or foolish confidence that must have come with getting a crack at 'The Greatest.'

This is not to say, though, that there aren't some bright spots. Foreman, Frazier and Norton are all solid components of the legend, and their storied careers pretty much ensure more interesting chapters than the career of, say, Jean-Pierre Coopman. Even chapters on a few of the second and third-tier challengers (Chuvalo, Wepner) make for some good reading. But what we never learn, really, is what it was like for a Chuck Wepner to be picked from obscurity to fight for the title. We find out that Chuck got to train full time (for the first time in his life) at a resort in the Catskills. But did his shot at the title make his life better...worse? Did sudden fame lead to the end of his marriage and involvement, for a time, with drugs? Did he understand that he was a bit player in a very big show? He certainly seems to be a good guy, but was Wepner actually closer to being a 'goodfella' in those days?

This certainly isn't a bad book, and real fight fans will find it interesting, at least in places. But it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Tales of shady powerbrokers who control the fight game are hinted at here and there, but never mined as they might have been...we're often not given a clear picture of how most of these men are living these days, save for most of the British and European fighters who seem to have fared well. There are also a few factual errors which are a bit offputting. (in regard to Wepner, for instance, the author wonders whether the fighter will be remembered as the man who scored a questionable knockdown against the champ....or the man who was stopped by Ali in the 11th round. In truth, Wepner quite famously came within seconds of going the full 15 rounds.) Again, not a bad book, but one that feels like it could have been better.

A fan of Muhammad Ali may have seen some of the 15 fighters chronicled in the ring due to replays of numerous matches on the various ESPN channels. But what you have seen is only a fraction of the story, as author Stephen Brunt brings to life the real stories of those who battled Ali in classic bouts or had fleeting fame by stepping into the ring & fighting the long odds of going the distance.

There is Chuck Wepner, who initially learned about getting the match through a newspaper article, and whose "underdog" match gave a screenplay idea to struggling actor Sylvester Stallone; Jurgen Blin, who had to go back to his job the day after the match and Ron Lyle, a tough fighter who came very close to pulling off an upset for the ages.

It is expected that those interviewed would include Joe Frazier and George Foreman, but it's the stories from contenders like George Chuvalo, Joe Bugner and Henry Cooper & longshots like Tunney Hunsaker and Jean Pierre Coopman that makes the book so interesting.

Ali is the thread in all these lives and inside the ropes of a sport that judges courage on the punishment one is willing to take. Most may not have been crowned champions in their pro ring careers, but each boxer took something away from their experiences in facing Ali.

I thought this book would be focused on what it was like to go againat ALI in the ring.
I was wrong, but delightfully wrong.
The book is about the PEOPLE, the boxers. Each chapter gives is interviewed and discussed where they are at currently, then goes back into a summary of their lives, which is wrirtten so well and so fascinating.
It is funny, touching, sad, and inspiring.

While Ali doesn't "Appear" in the book, Ali's prescence seems to hover over the entire book. It is incredible how all of these boxer's in the ring and out of the ring meetings with Ali has influenced their lives forever.

The character of experiences of these men are so interesting. It had to be difficult to on what to choose to write about, for so many of the boxer's have had such interesting and unusual lives.

For all lthose who simply want a great read as well as all sport's and of course boxing fans.

A boxing masterpiece.

Jon

Facing Ali: 15 Fighters/15 Stories is a great way of seeing Ali's mark on the world through the eyes of boxers from all over the world who fought Ali all over there world.

Brunt does a superb job at placing the boxers in their present day setting and of the interviews he had with them which makes the context clear and easy to follow and visualize.

Some of Ali's opponents had boring lives while others had very fascinating lives. This book features interviews with Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Jurgen Blin, Joe Bugner, Wepner, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, and George Foreman's experiences against Ali.

Ron Lyle seemed creepy;

George Chuvalo seemed like Job;

Ken Norton extremely sensitive in a rationale sense.

Joe Frazier, had a wonderful hard love sort of respect/sentiment towards Ali;

George Foreman had an ethereal view on Ali;

Joe Bugner, a sort of coward-like opportunist's view point.

It was a fascinating read because each boxer's style seemed to match their personality.

It's a great book in terms of getting into the minds of heavyweight fighters of yesteryear. What I enjoyed most was that the book gave faces to people we see on television who punch each other for 15, 3 minute rounds. It's quite a humanizing tribute to all pugalists throughout history.

A great premise from the fantastic book (by Canada's best writer period--Stephen Brunt) of the same name--taking a group of ten boxers and having them tell us about the time(s) they fought Muhammad Ali. It's much more than that as the fights are just sort of bullet points to allow the boxers to tell us about themselves, their lives in and out of the ring and how Ali changed their lives mainly for the better.

The movie was shot in a very unique style that captures every nook and cranny of the weathered faces of these boxers interspersed with footage of the actual fights that have been cleaned up and look as good as you've ever seen them. We also hear from Ali a lot through archival clips so everything works seamlessly together.

The extras are pretty great too learning how the filmmakers pulled it all off from the digital cleanup of that archival footage to the interview techniques and logistics of gaining access to these fighters.

A triumph in every sense of the word.

Buyer beware, if you are a casual fan of Ali, this is probably not the book for you.
Of the 15 fighters in the book, most people would be hard pressed to recognize half of them. The format of the fighters stories goes as follows- A background of where they came from, how they happened to get a shot at fighting Ali, and where they are now. Not a lot of details on the fights themselves. I still found the book interesting even though I didn't know half the fighters. They all got to stand in the spotlight with Ali, marking their place in history, some of them a one hit wonder, but all of them changed in one way or another.

The book was in very good shape, I was worried it wasn't going to be. It arrived in a timely manner.