2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must for the Boxing Historian or Boxing Fan, February 12, 2005
This review is from: Ring: Boxing in the 20th Century (Hardcover)
As I was growing up, I always considered myself a quasi-Boxing Historian. I maintained my interest in Boxing even though "alphabet soup" became the norm of Champions in each weight class. I had always thought it was intriguing to have two rival organizations crown champions because it would lead to a "unified champion". It was when suddenly there were more than two organizations did my interest wane. As such, with multiple organizations tracking champions and challengers - it often became difficult to keep records (there was no internet 20 years ago) of who fought, who held titles, and who was contending. I always depended on "Ring Magazine" as a source that could provide me this information. Even though they did their own ratings, they did an outstanding job at providing Boxing coverage - especially with some of the lesser known weight classes whose champions did not reside in the U.S. Still as a Boxing Historian, I always desired to have a single book that I can pull up information on the history of Boxing. The internet is a good source, but there still is nothing like having something on your bookshelf. Therefore, I was thrilled that Ring Publisher Stanley Weston and Ring Editor-in-Chief Steven Farhood came out with a spectacular 352 page book entitled "The Ring: Boxing the 20th Century". This is as complete a history of boxing from 1900 through 1992 as I have seen anywhere (the book was first published in 1993).
The book is a beautiful hardcover edition that has big (8 x 11") pages. The key thing that makes "The Ring: Boxing the 20th Century" a great source is that it is one of those books, you can pick up at anytime and get information. The book is also in a very easy to read format. The organization of this book is the key. Here are some of the key features:
- The Book is broken up into decades. It starts out with the 1900s and goes through the 1990s. The decades are arranged in chronological order, so it is very easy to find the information you are looking for.
- Each Decade features a big two page summary of the decade from a Boxing perspective. Since the pages are 8 x 11", there is plenty of information.
- Within each decade, there is a 1 to 2 page summary of a time period within the decade (I'll refer to these as the Summary Sections). From 1900 through 1947, there is one page devoted to each year. From 1948 to 1962, there are two pages per each 6 months a year. From 1962 through 1992, there are two pages for every 4 months of the year. This again makes this very easy to obtain the information you need.
- For each of the Summary Sections, the major Boxing events are put into quasi "newspaper articles" complete with a headline. The "articles" provide a wealth of information and since they are easy to read, you can get the information very quickly.
- The Summary Sections also include a panel that summarizes all of the World Title Fights (by weight class) that took place during the timeframe that the Summary Section represents. The winner of each of these World title fights is denoted in bold. How the fight is decided is also noted (W, KO) as well as what round the fight was decided. The location of each of the championship fights is noted. If a fighter wins a world title, the country he is from is denoted (they don't list the country if a champion makes a title defense and countries for the challengers are not listed). The only drawback is that alphabet soup organizations are omitted, so it is difficult to tell what championship organization is sanctioning the fight. The exceptions to this are when a vacant title is won and when a title is unified (these items are noted). I realize this makes it difficult for my desire to track "alphabet soup" champions, but there still is a wealth of information.
- The Summary Sections also includes one or more "Ringside View" panels. This lists a very short summary of an event that happened during this time period. This may or may not be a championship event.
- In each of the Decades section, there are one or two fighters singled out in a profile. These may not be the best fighters of the decade, but could be the most interesting fighter of that decade (i.e. Barry McGuigan was picked for the 1980s). This profile is a two pager and usually is positioned within the decade section in the timeframe where that fighter fought. They list the professional career dates, the number of contests, won/loss record, KOs, and when the fighter held a world title.
- There is a terrific 4 page appendix that contains interesting stats such as: Heaviest Boxers to Fight for the Heavyweight Title; Shortest Title Fights by Weight Class; Fighters who won titles in multiple weight classes; championships decided on last round KO; most successful consecutive title defenses; longest title reigns; champions who boxed most title fight rounds, as well as some other footnotes.
- There is a nice deep index to quickly lookup information
Another nice feature is that book is loaded with lots of photos. The photos are black and white, but they add to the charm of the book. There are even photos that date back to the 1900s. The inner and outer covers have images of old Ring Magazine covers. The front cover has the older magazine covers (from the first half of the decade) while the back cover has the later covers. Perhaps the only major drawback is that there isn't a whole lot before 1900 covered in the book (I would have liked to see more attention to John L. Sullivan and the Marquis of Queensbury rules). Still this is one outstanding book and a must have for the Boxing fan.
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