Boxing Books

                                                      By kiki

In the last few weeks I read two great booking books. Let me say here that I am not a big fan of boxing books because there is not much I can learn from them, after all I’ve been around the sport for over 65 Years, first as a very young fan, than as an amateur boxer, amateur/pro trainer/manager, amateur matchmaker and the list goes on.

Now the books: first I read “Mexican American Boxing in Los Angeles” authored by Gene Aguilera. Gene’s book is a pictorial of Mexican American boxers that practiced their trade in Los Angeles and Southern California rings. Gene book covers Los Angeles Mexican American boxing from the 1900’s to 1990’s. I was most interesting in reading the 1940-’50-’60-’70 and 80’s chapters because that was my time in boxing...I read about many of the now forgotten fighters that I grew up watching at venues like the Olympic Auditorium, Hollywood Legion Stadium and the Ocean Park Arena et al….Gene did a great job researching the lives and careers of the boxers he covered in his book. Gene’s book is not about one boxer and any fight in particular. He also didn’t give us his opinion on any boxer or their fights that he wrote about, I liked that.

I next read “Becoming Taz: Writing from the Southpaw stance” authored by former professional boxer, Jeff Bumpus. In his book Jeff writes about his career as a pro boxer. He tells us what he went through in trying to be a champion in a very tough sport, only to fall short of his goal….He digs deep into every nook and cranny of the boxing business, he find that as a prospect you are cater to, only to lose favor as your career starts sliding down…What I liked about Jeff’s book is the human element he inserted in his book, his sister ready to stand up to some loud mouth “motherfucker”, his dad banging his fist on the ring apron ready to take on any sonofabitch that bad mouth his son. Yes, the book is a boxing book, but also about human nature.

As you open Jeff’s book you’ll find after the title page a page with this ‘To the dreamers and the journeymen’ Like all of us, Jeff, you might had been a dreamer, but you were not a journeyman fighter, you beat some top prospects, who were also dreamers, you fought great champions and some good contenders, you won some and lost some, and that my friend does not make you a journeyman boxer, what it does make you is a quality fighter.

I highly recommend both books.