In This Corner . . . !: Forty-two World Champions Tell Their Stories [Paperback]

Peter Heller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1994

Here is Jake LaMotta discussing his career as a hoodlum; Floyd Patterson on growing up in the ghetto; Gunboat Smith on the Jack Johnson era; Jack Dempsey on the Willard fight and the Tunney ”long count”; Rocky Graziano on showbiz; and dozens of others—including Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Pastrano, José Torres, Carmen Basilio, Joe Louis, Willie Pep, and Archie Moore—on boxers, racketeers, drugs, payoffs, managers. Including two never-before-published interviews with Roberto Durán and Alexis Argüello, this newly expanded and updated edition of In This Corner. . . ! is undoubtedly the best one-volume history of boxing ever written.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"Boxing fans should welcome this chance to hear their favorites speak in their own voices, as well as learn more or less firsthand about fight managers, white hopes, and the continual encroaching of the underworld on the sport," said LJ's reviewer of this volume in which Heller interviews 40 former titleholders (LJ 9/1/73). This edition has been revised and expanded.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Peter Heller is the author of Bad Intentions: The Mike Tyson Story. A sports producer for ABC News, he lives in Putnam Valley, New York and Boca Raton, Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 2 edition (August 22, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306806037
• ISBN-13: 978-0306806032
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A real insight into 'the hardest game in the world'!, June 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In This Corner . . . !: Forty-two World Champions Tell Their Stories (Paperback)

Although the edition I have is pretty old and the most recent interviews were taken in the 1970s this book is still a fantastic look at the lifes of many of the 20th centuries top boxers. Each boxers story is told in a single chapter and in their OWN words. Its brilliant reading about how these champions grew up, what led them to boxing and how they have survived. As well as the Jack Dempsey's, Jake LaMotta's many other 'lesser known' boxers are featured but their stories are just, if not more interesting. A great insight into 20th century american life from those whose lifes have often been the hardest.

Great reading!!!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! What a knock-out book!, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In This Corner . . . !: Forty-two World Champions Tell Their Stories (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book. It is the type of book one savours as one might enjoy a good glass of wine or an extrordinary meal. As a history teacher I've used it in the classroom to explain historical periods and sports. You buy this one! You will not be disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insightful, interesting, & entertaining read, June 8, 2009

By 

feedthecat (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In This Corner . . . !: Forty-two World Champions Tell Their Stories (Paperback)

As author Peter Heller writes in his preface, "It's my hope that this book will show (the) human side (of the fighters whose interviews appear within), their private thoughts, recollections, triumphs, and disappointments ... (t)his is simply a volume of thoughts and recollections, tempered by time and circumstance, as these men remember it, or wish to remember it." Although some of the boxers, such as Johnny Wilson and Tommy Loughran, had still clearly retained their pride (in the worst sense of the word), arrogance, and conceit over the years, most are honest, open, and matter-of-fact in their descriptions of their ring battles and some, like Fidel LaBarba and Jimmy McLarnin, are very modest about their accomplishments and gracious toward their former adversaries and this is what makes this book so enjoyable a read.

I must note, though, that the reason I gave this volume "only" four stars was because the author did not ask his interviewees many of the questions that one would figure he ought to have asked, such as whom the fighter believed to have been his best opponent, whom he believed to have been the best fighter in his division's history, etc, etc. Although the recollections of the champs, as they appear in the book, seem to be spontaneous, free-flowing "soliloquies" about their lives and careers, Heller, as he states in his preface, had, in fact, edited their statements, at least insofar as to "eliminat[e] the irrelevant or the uninteresting, EDIT OUT MY QUESTIONS, and restructure them for a sense of time and place. But the basic material is unaltered" [my emphasis].)

Nevertheless, the recollections of the fighters interviewed are, as a whole, quite compelling. I don't want to spoil it for readers who approach the book anew, but to give you an idea as to how interesting these recollections are, I'll give some examples of what you can expect:

- Sugar Ray Robinson revealing that he had a dream the night before their bout that he would kill Jimmy Doyle in the ring, a premonition that tragically came to pass (but not before Doyle had the Sugarman on the brink of being kayoed in the sixth round)

- Charley Phil Rosenberg's honest appraisal of his bout with all-time great featherweight Johnny Dundee

- Fritzie Zivic, one of the "dirtiest" fighters in boxing history, relating that terrific-hitting lightweight champ Lew Jenkins (who is also an interviewee) used to manipulate his boxing gloves so that little padding would actually cover his huge knuckles

- Archie Moore explaining how his animosity toward Lloyd Marshall and Jimmy Bivins developed

- LaBarba confessing that, at the end of the bout, he only remembered just over a minute of what transpired in the ring during his first fight with powerpunching bantamweight Bud Taylor because he kept blacking out whenever Taylor nailed him with a great shot, a bout that LaBarba WON (in turn, in HIS interview, "Bat" Battalino claims that he remembered almost nothing from his victory over LaBarba)

- Jack Dempsey modestly and graciously admitting that, "Even at my best I don't know whether I could lick (Sam Langford) or not."

- Ed "Gunboat" Smith - whose interview is definitely among the most revealing, interesting, and entertaining in the book - explaining why the 1910 Jack Johnson-Jim Jeffries title bout was moved from California to Nevada and admitting that he used to "load" his boxing gloves

All in all, a very good book. Incidentally, I didn't bother to name all of the fighters who were interviewed for this book because you can see their names for yourself by clicking on the "Look Inside!" balloon above the image of the book's cover on the Amazon webpage. However, I should note that the book includes an index at the back, which is handy in that it gives you an idea as to the adversaries about whom the interviewees speak.