Skip to main content

The Fight

By


Probably not many boxing fans in this forum, but Norman Mailer wrote a great book on The Fight. And, there is also a great documentary, When We Were Kings, on the Ali-Foreman fight that is well worth watching even if you are not a boxing fan, as it captures the three-ring circus that formed around the fight. Ali is one of the few fighters to truly transcend the sport, and Taschen lavished quite a monograph on him, simply entitled G.O.A.T. for those who want to plunk down 3000 euros.

Comments

  1. TripplerOctober 30, 2009 at 8:50 PM

    Who can forget Humble {sic} Howard Cossell's call of this epic match?

    The Rumble in the Jungle got quite a build up but it proved that Foreman at that time did not have the stamina to last or the jab needed to wear down an opponent. There has been some talk that Trainer Dick Sadler slipped Foreman a mickey and that this is why he lost all pop in the 7th round. Don't know if it's true but Sadler worked for Ali in his next bout.

    Foreman recommitted himself to conditioning and re-gained the championship thereafter with the Ol' Mongoose Archie Moore in his corner.


    http://www.antekprizering.com/foremanmoore7984.html


    I love to read American history books but old time boxing and baseball remain among my favorite reading.

    ReplyDelete
  2. James FergusonOctober 30, 2009 at 10:11 PM

    I thought this might pull you back into the forum. Great fight, at least if you were an Ali fan. I just think Foreman was too young and too raw, seriously misjudging the "old man."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

By
It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi
12 comments
Read more

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

By
  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro
228 comments
Read more

Colonel

By
Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!
240 comments
Read more