Don King, on Mike Tyson


"Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter?
He went to prison, not to Princeton."



"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music
and the dancers hit each other."

Friday, April 29, 2016

Ortiz versus Berto Two

 




 

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Gennady Golovkin stops Dominic Wade

 Golovkin, nicknamed Triple G, looks over his opponent during his middleweight title fight at The Forum

“His power is real,” said Wade (18-1, 12 KOs). “I tried to get comfortable. Once he started hitting me, I couldn’t do that. He is a great champion. … He does everything well.”

 

 

Gennady Golovkin stops Dominic Wade in second round with 22nd straight knockout to extend winning run to 35 fights unbeaten

  • Gennady Golovkin knocked Dominic Wade down three times during fight
  • Wade came into the middleweight title fight in Los Angeles without a defeat
  • Kazakhstan's Golovkin was cheered on by 16,353 fans in a sold-out Forum  


Wade (left) and Golovkin trade blows during the middleweight fight at The Forum in Los Angeles





Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-3555900/Gennady-Golovkin-stops-Dominic-Wade-second-round-22nd-straight-knockout.html#ixzz46oWCYS7n 



Gennady Golovkin vs. John Anderson Carvalho Full Fight


 

Published on Jun 19, 2015
Gennady Golovkin vs. John Anderson Carvalho Full Fight
Геннадий Головкин - Джон Андерсон Карвальо Полный бой
July 11, 2009 Nürburgring, Nuerburg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.

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    • Standard YouTube License



 

Greatest Hits: Gennady Golovkin (HBO Boxing)


 

Subscribe to the HBO Boxing YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/hboboxing

Watch
some of the best moments of undefeated superstar and knockout artist,
Gennady Golovkin. Golovkin vs. Wade happens Saturday, April 23 live on
HBO at 10pm ET/7pm PT.



 

MUHAMMAD ALI SPARRING - 1970 High Quality



 1970 with Cus D'Amato and Angelo Dundee Commenting during the sparring.



Angelina Jolie lookalike, Zarina Tsoloeva doubles as Olympic boxing hopeful

Angelina Jolie lookalike doubles as Olympic boxing hopeful

 

Boxer Zarina Tsoloeva is proving to be a real knockout — as fans are dazed by her resemblance to Angelina Jolie.

Khazakhstan-born Tsoloeva, 22, bears a striking resemblance to the Hollywood beauty.

And the national bronze medalist — who has been acclaimed as an up-and-coming talent in the world of women’s boxing — said she was surprised but flattered to be compared to the actress, who is married to Brad Pitt.

“I won’t lie, I love this actress and am amazed by her beauty,” Tsoloeva said.  “The whole world tries to imitate her looks, but I do not think we look similar. Maybe some features are more or less like hers, but we definitely look different.”



  Tsoloeva, whose favorite Angelina Jolie movie is “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” admits her family was skeptical when she first took up boxing.

But she proved them wrong by winning her bronze medal in the Kazakh national championships — losing in the semifinals to the eventual winner — and is now hoping to compete in the Rio Olympics this summer.

Her coach Alexander Vistoskiy remembers his first meeting with the talented athlete.

“I asked her to do a couple of hits,” Vistoskiy said. “Immediately I realized that she is an incredible talent. In five minutes, she learned as much as most people would learn in a year.”

Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the 2012 London Olympics, producing the world’s first 12 female Olympic medalist


 Link:Angelina Jolie lookalike doubles as Olympic boxing hopeful

 

 

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Muhammad Ali training

Muhammad Ali training in Miami, Florida, 1966. (Photo: Gordon Parks)







Anthony Joshua vs Charles Martin (FULL FIGHT)


 



 

Neurologist calls for mixed martial arts to be banned

Prof Tim Lynch believes death of Joao Carvalho in Dublin will bring about change
Prof Tim Lynch: “Any sport that involves deliberately hitting the head and knocking people out needs to be asked questions, and we need to ask whether this is right.” Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Prof Tim Lynch: “Any sport that involves deliberately hitting the head and knocking people out needs to be asked questions, and we need to ask whether this is right.” Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill


The director of the Dublin neurological institute at the Mater hospital has said mixed martial arts (MMA) should be banned in the Republic and expressed doubts whether increased regulation of the sport would make a substantive difference to fighter safety.Prof Tim Lynch, who is a consultant neurologist, was speaking after the death of MMA fighter Joao Carvalho (28), who died after becoming ill following a bout at the National Stadium on Saturday.

“There has been no major discussion around what is a pretty aggressive sport where you’re trying to knock somebody out,” he said. “I suspect the events of the weekend will change all that.

“Any sport that involves deliberately hitting the head and knocking people out needs to be asked questions, and we need to ask whether this is right. So from a personal perspective, yes, I think those types of sports should not be allowed.”

“I would have similar concerns about boxing. MMA goes a step up. I find it bizarre that it’s tolerated and doesn’t have a very critical review and discussion as to whether this should be encouraged, allowed, endorsed, and is regulation enough or should it be banned.”

Permitted Prof Ciaran Bolger, who is a neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital, said he would not favour a ban on the sport but questioned whether children ought to be encouraged or permitted to take part.

“I wouldn’t ban it,” he said. “I don’t think when it’s between consenting adults that you can ban what people want to do to themselves, but I do think there are issues around what we do with children and whether the sport should be introduced to children.

“We need to look the safeguards. For big bouts in boxing, there has to be a neurosurgeon at the fight. In MMA, they can have any doctor, but any doctor isn’t good enough.”

Prof Bolger said medics at Beaumont “haven’t noticed any increase in problems that have presented” from MMA.

“It’s a matter of regulating it, educating referees, and minimising the harm to people. It can be made safer. Skiing is probably just as dangerous. How many people have given themselves brain injuries skiing but you wouldn’t ban it.”
Popularity The sport has grown substantially in popularity since the rise of UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, but several boxing clubs yesterday dismissed the suggestion that more children are gravitating towards MMA rather than boxing.


Phillip Sutcliff, who runs Crumlin Boxing Club, where McGregor started his career, said he does not like the sport himself but that incidents such as the death of Carvalho can happen in many other sports.

“I’m very happy for Conor McGregor and all his achievements but I’ve never liked the sport,” he said.

“A lot of our kids went to the MMA. Some of them have come back and some of them have stayed. Some are probably doing both.

“The rules should have been changed a long time ago to make it safe. People have died in boxing rings, on Gaelic pitches, on rugby pitches.

“People have died riding horses. People have even died running the 100 metres after having a heart attack later.”







Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/neurologist-calls-for-mixed-martial-arts-to-be-banned-1.2609597



Cantillon: Glanbia left grappling with MMA
Urgent regulation of MMA needed, says Michael Ring
Johnny Watterson: Popularity of MMA no defence for legal killing


Read More
MMA fighter Joao Carvalho dies after Dublin contest
Study shows MMA fighters suffer brain injury in one third of bouts
Conor McGregor says João Carvalho ‘will be sorely missed by all’
Neurologist raises concerns over Dublin MMA event
Sonia O’Sullivan: Is MMA really sport if it enters the death zone?
 


Tuesday, April 19, 2016

MMA fighter dies after TKO



                                               Photograph: Facebook/Nóbrega Team


 João Carvalho fell ill 20 minutes after his bout against Charlie Ward.

• Carvalho underwent emergency brain surgery after fight
• Total Extreme Fighting offers ‘sincere condolences’




A Portuguese mixed martial arts fighter has died following a Total Extreme Fighting event in Dublin at the weekend.

João Carvalho fell ill 20 minutes after being beaten in a technical knockout by Charlie “The Hospital” Ward, a team-mate of the Ultimate Fighting Championship champion Conor McGregor.


The fighter was attended to by on-site medical staff and was taken to Beaumont hospital where he underwent emergency brain surgery but the 28-year-old succumbed to his injuries on Monday night.

A statement from his Vitor Nóbrega team on RTE confirmed his death. “It is with great sorrow and sadness that we write these words, that the death of the athlete João Carvalho happened after 48 hours in critical condition,” they said.

“On the site [Carvalho] was immediately assisted by the medical team and then quickly transported to the hospital Beaumont, where he was subjected to a brain surgical intervention, after which the athlete remained in critical condition during the 48 hours following, eventually passing away on this Monday at 21:35 hours.”

The organisers of the event, Total Extreme Fighting, said: “The TEF team are deeply saddened by the news of João Carvalho’s death. Last night 11th of April, mixed martial artist João Carvalho passed away after two days of the best medical care and treatment in Beaumont hospital following his three-round TKO stoppage defeat on Saturday 9 April at the National Stadium in Dublin.”

Cesar Silva, the CEO of Total Extreme Fighting, added: “We extend our most sincere condolences to the family of João Carvalho’s and his team-mates in Team Nobrega. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We’d also like to thank all sports fans for their concern and support. We will give whatever support we can to João’s family.

“We have been in contact with his family and they have requested that we all understand their need for privacy at this difficult time.”



Anthony Joshua vs Dillian Whyte - Full Fight







Monday, April 18, 2016

Pinoy Pride 35 | Prince Albert Pagara vs. Yesner Talavera Full Fight [HD]




Felix Sturm Tests Positive for Steroid

 

Champion Felix Sturm Tests Positive for Steroid
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Sturm, the world super middleweight champion, announced that he had tested positive for an anabolic steroid after his win over Fedor Chudinov on Feb. 20



NYTimes.com/MyAlerts »

 

 


Felix Sturm could lose WBA super middleweight belt after failed drug test

German boxer tested positive for anabolic steroid stanozolol
Sturm getting B sample tested and denies wrongdoing 
 
 
Felix Sturm could be stripped off his World Boxing Association super-middleweight belt after failing a drug test following his split decision victory against Fedor Chudinov in February.

Thomas Puetz, the president of the German association of professional boxers (BDB), said Felix tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol after the fight on 20 February in Oberhausen, Germany.

Sturm told the Cologne newspaper Express he was having the B sample tested and hiring a lawyer, while denying any wrongdoing.

Sturm won the fight against the previously unbeaten Chudinov on the cards of two judges, while one ruled it a draw. His victory made him the first German to be a world champion five times, having also held the WBA and WBO middleweight titles.




 
 
 
 

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Roberto Duran spars with Shane Mosely





WATCH: A 65 years old Roberto Hands of Stone Durán vs sparring session






Errol Spence Jr. vs. Chris Algieri

Adding another really good quality fighter to the mix at 147 pounds...


Published on Apr 16, 2016
Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. (19-0, 16 KOs) vs Chris Algieri (21-2, 8 KOs) 16.04.2016

  • Category Sports


  • License - Standard YouTube License

  K.O. FULL FIGHT 16.04.2016

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Pacquiao Defeats Bradley by Decision


Manny Pacquiao knocked down Timothy Bradley twice in the fight. Pacquiao won with a unanimous decision. Credit Mike Nelson/European Pressphoto Agency
Sports
Pacquiao Defeats Bradley by Decision, and Says Farewell to Boxing


By JOHN ELIGON
 APRIL 10, 2016

Agency

LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao made a name for himself with a delicious mix of ferocious punching power and shifty speed.

In recent years, however, even as the wins continued to come, the ring swagger seemed to give way to a more genteel, rote performance art.

Maybe it was age; maybe it was other responsibilities tugging at his attention. Whatever it was, it was clear that Pacquiao’s illustrious career was winding down. But as he stepped into the ring on Saturday night for a third fight against Timothy Bradley Jr., he was determined to show that he was not leaving because his skills had diminished. He wanted to win convincingly, he said.


Mission accomplished.

There was no jaw-jolting knockout. But there was that trademark, hunched-over bob, the lunging left hands and the bouncing of an adolescent unable to contain his energy.

Pacquiao (58-6-2) scored a unanimous decision victory over Bradley (33-2-1) in the welterweight bout, saying farewell in a thrilling fight that at times drew deafening cheers from the crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. All three judges had it 116-110.

Pacquiao said goodbye to the sport just the way he wanted to. He also made an argument that maybe it was not time for him to step away.

Pacquiao, who knocked Bradley down twice, showed not only that he still had skills but that he had the passion.

“Every round, I’m looking for a knockout,” he said after the fight.


“He’s just very quick, very explosive,” Bradley said. “It’s hard to really judge him.”

Both fighters were so quick that the early rounds were touch and go, without any clean shots landing.
 

As the action got heavier in the middle of the fight, and the punches started to land harder, Pacquiao seemed to relish the moment. He sprang up and down like a man on a pogo stick. He ducked in and pulled out just in time to feel the looping right hands of Bradley go breezing past his head.

When Bradley did connect with a hard left hook in the eighth round, Pacquiao stumbled backward, wobbly and red in the face. After sitting on the ropes amid a flurry from Bradley, Pacquiao eventually stopped the onslaught by hugging his opponent. 

Pacquiao, 37, said before the fight that he was not sure how he would feel in retirement, whether he would enjoy it or itch to return to the ring.

 Pacquiao had not fought since losing a unanimous decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May. That fight was the most lucrative in boxing history, but it failed to live up to the hype. Pacquiao showed on Saturday night that he still had what it takes to create a thunderous atmosphere.
  
Those who know Pacquiao well were not necessarily fazed by the outside distractions, which he has thrived on throughout his career. In fact, some observers say Pacquiao’s ring abilities flagged in recent fights after he brought more order to his personal life, which had been marred by gambling and infidelity.

In the days leading up to Saturday night’s bout, Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, said that his fighter had been looking like his old self. Pacquiao said he had been hampered by a shoulder injury in the Mayweather fight but now was 100 percent.


After showing that with his hands on Saturday night, Pacquiao certainly seems to be leaving a lot on the table if he sticks with retirement.





Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/sports/manny-pacquiao-defeats-timothy-bradley-boxing.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=2








Monday, April 11, 2016

Arthur Abraham vs. Gilberto Ramirez || Full Fight


 

National Geographic Fight Science: Stealth Fighter - The Kick Test (feat...


 

Published on May 31, 2012
National Geographic Fight Science: Stealth Fighter - The Kick Test (Capoeira, Karate, Muaythai & Taekwondo).

Join our Capoeira Email List and get a Free copy of your "Ultimate Capoeira Glossary List": http://goo.gl/IQUiIr

The
Fight Science team explores the deadly art of stealth fighters - in
this episode four Martial Arts Experts (Capoeira, Karate, Muay-thai and
Taekwondo) have been invited to particpate in a kick test on who can
deliver the fastest and most powerful kick.

http://youtu.be/WdTMfs04I0I

Capoeira



Sunday, April 10, 2016

Anthony Joshua vs Charles Martin 2016 - Full Fight (Highlights) 2016


 

ANTHONY
JOSHUA made light work of CHARLES MARTIN to claim the IBF world
heavyweight title, sending the defending champion to the canvas twice in
round two before the referee brought a swift end to the fight.



Saturday, April 9, 2016

Fight Science - Qi Gong Tested


 





David Lemieux begins a comeback

Lemieux came up short against GGG but he is an exciting fighter to watch.  Too bad his first comeback fight was cancelled.


AP GOLOVKIN LEMIEUX BOXING S BOX USA NY
(Photo at top of David Lemieux by Seth Wenig, AP)


 Ex-champ David Lemieux ready to begin road back to the top
 

The photo, captured at the perfect moment by AP photographer Rich Schultz at Madison Square Garden last Oct. 17, has become an iconic boxing shot, labeled by some as the most brutal shot of the year.
It showed then-middleweight champion David Lemieux reeling from a left hook from a fierce-looking, determined middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin. Lemieux’s facial features were knocked out of whack by the vicious punch, with eyes closed, blood and sweat jarred loose from his nose and the sweat-soaked shock of hair on top of Lemieux’s head flowing in the opposite direction of the punch.
At once, it reflects the ferocious power of Golovkin and the toughness of Lemieux.
If you didn’t know better, you would swear that blow put Lemieux on the canvas to stay. But if you thought that, you don’t know David Lemieux. The tough French Canadian fighter from Montreal did not go down. Referee Steve Willis finally stopped the punishment, a stoppage Lemieux didn’t appreciate. He still had fight in him, he said.
Gennady Golovkin, left, hits David Lemieux in the eighth round of a world middleweight title fight on Oct. 17. (Photo by Rich Schultz, AP)
Gennady Golovkin, left, hits David Lemieux in the eighth round of a world middleweight title fight on Oct. 17. (Photo by Rich Schultz, AP)







Lemieux lost his IBF title to Golovkin that night, and pretty much lost touch with his American audience as well, if only temporarily. We’ve heard little or nothing from Lemieux the last six months.

But if you thought the loss lingered in Lemieux’s psyche, think again.

“It didn’t take me too long to get over it,” Lemieux told USA TODAY in a recent interview. “There were certain things I needed to adjust from a fight like that. But I wasn’t hurt mentally or physically and so I came back in training pretty fast after that fight. I took some time off for a vacation with my kids, but then I came back in training.”

The ex-champion knockout artist (34-3, 31 KOs) will begin his road back to the top on Saturday against Mexican James De La Rosa (23-3, 13 KOs) at the tiny Olympic Theater in Montreal. It’s a far cry from Montreal’s Bell Centre or Madison Square Garden. And it’s not on HBO, but FOX Deportes (10 p.m. ET). In a sense, it’s like starting over for Lemieux.

But Lemieux is only 27, he feels great and believes he can make it back to the division’s elite sooner rather than later.

“I think it’s not going to take very long,” he said. “I see as far as March 12th, and then the other doors will be open. For now we’re focusing on March 12th but I don’t think it’s going to take very long to get a title fight. I’m ready to take on anybody in the middleweight division.”

Asked about possibly fighting middleweight champion — and promotional stablemate — Canelo Alvarez down the road, Lemieux said, “Yes, of course, but Canelo’s not a middleweight. I will not go below 160. That’s why I’m a middleweight. Canelo is a very good fighter but if he wants to fight middleweight he has to fight at 160.”

Even though he was stopped by the undefeated Golovkin, Lemieux feels he acquitted himself pretty well against possibly the best fighter and one of the hardest punchers in the world today. He explained why he seemed so passive at times in that fight.

“I didn’t go in there thinking I was going to outbox Golovkin,” Lemieux said. “But I wanted to trade shots and I just didn’t see the right timing or opening, so it took a bit longer than I thought and when I wanted to open up, things didn’t go my way.

“I still have faith that I could beat Golovkin. He’s a great fighter and I give him the props for that fight. But I just have to adjust and come back.”

Lemieux has no regrets on taking the fight and believes he was ready for Golovkin, who came away with the Canadian’s prized IBF middleweight belt.

“I knew what I was doing. I knew he was a very good fighter,” he said. “I don’t regret nothing. He’s a tough fighter to beat. It’s going to take a good plan to beat a guy like this. He’s a very complete fighter. But no, I don’t regret taking the fight. There’s some things I would have done better (in hindsight). But that’s the way it is. . . . I’ll get back to where I was.”

While Lemieux says he is solely concentrating on De La Rosa right now, he admits there are a lot of middleweights he has his eye on if he gets by the Mexican, who was KO’d by Hugo Centeno Jr. in his last outing in December.

“Whoever is the most significant,” Lemieux said when asked to be more specific on who he’d like next. “Obviously the most interesting of the middleweights, I think, Golovkin, is tough opposition. But in the near future I will take him again also.”

























LINK: http://boxingjunkie.usatoday.com/2016/03/07/ex-champ-david-lemieux-ready-to-begin-road-back-to-the-top/











NFL Acknowledges a Link Between Football, CTE




NFL Acknowledges a Link Between Football, CTE


March 15, 2016


 


After years of skepticism, professed doubts and at times outright denial, the NFL has acknowledged a link between playing football and the degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The acknowledgment came one day after Jeff Miller, the NFL’s senior vice president for health and safety, told the House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce, that football-related head trauma can lead to brain disease. 

Asked by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, (D-Ill.), whether “there is a link between football and degenerative brain diseases like CTE,” Miller responded, “The answer to that is certainly, yes.”  

He added, however, that “there’s also a number of questions that come with that,” noting a lack of data about the prevalence of CTE.

“The comments made by Jeff Miller yesterday accurately reflect the view of the NFL,” a league spokesman said in a statement to FRONTLINE on Tuesday.

In his comments before the panel, Miller said his assessment was based on the research of Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at Boston University who has diagnosed CTE in 90 out of the former 94 NFL players she’s examined. 

In September, McKee told FRONTLINE that despite such findings, “convincing people this is an actual disease” was her biggest challenge. 

In all, she and her colleagues at BU and the Department of Veterans Affairs have found CTE in 176 people, including 45 college football players and six high school football players.

Miller’s admission broke with the NFL’s past stances on the issue.

In a series of scientific papers published between 2003 and 2009, members of the league’s since disbanded “Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee” wrote that “no NFL player” had ever suffered chronic brain damage as a result of repeat concussions.

Professional football players do not sustain frequent repetitive blows to the brain on a regular basis,” they wrote in one 2005 paper.

In 2009, a league spokesman told The New York Times it was “quite obvious from the medical research that’s been done that concussions can lead to long-term problems.”

But the league has walked that position back in recent years. As recently as Super Bowl week, Dr. Mitch Berger, the neurosurgeon who leads the NFL’s subcommittee on long-term brain injury, said there was still no direct link between football and CTE. 

That assertion came after a season in which NFL players sustained at least 271 concussions, a 31.6 percent increase over the year before.

Within hours of Miller’s comments, an attorney for seven retired players who are objecting to a proposed settlement between the NFL and the roughly 5,000 former players now suing the league over head injuries, sent a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which is considering their appeal. 

Under the settlement, the NFL has agreed to pay damages to families of those found to have suffered from CTE between 2006 and last April, when the settlement won approval from a district court judge.

The objectors argue that the NFL should be responsible for compensating players who are diagnosed with CTE in the future. 

In a letter to the court, their attorney, Steven Molo, called Miller’s comments “a stark turn” from the league’s previous position in court.

“The NFL’s statements make clear that the NFL now accepts what science already knows: a ‘direct link’ exists between traumatic brain injury and CTE. 

Given that, the settlement’s failure to compensate present and future CTE is inexcusable.”

In a separate statement released Tuesday, Christopher Seeger, an attorney for the remaining players in the lawsuit, said his clients “welcome the NFL’s acknowledgment.” 

He added, however, that “the scientific study into CTE is in its infancy and a reliable method for detecting it in living people does not exist. 

Therefore, the settlement provides compensation and care for those who exhibit neurocognitive symptoms associated with CTE — dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS 

 importantly without having to prove the cause or link to CTE.” 

Over the last few years, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has repeatedly said it will be up to the medical community to decide whether a link exists between tackle football and CTE. 

To date, the NFL has donated more than $100 million toward the study of player health.





Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/nfl-acknowledges-a-link-between-football-cte/










Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/nfl-acknowledges-a-link-between-football-cte/



Andre Ward vs Sullivan Barrera Full Fight

Barrera was slow of foot which made him an ideal opponent for Ward who has great footwork, mobility and ring generalship.







New York Golden Ages of Culture and Boxing.

New York’s Age of Genius

David Reid borrows the title of his rambling “interpretive historical essay” about 20th-century New York cultural iconography from an observation Gore Vidal made in The New York Review of Books decades ago.

Except for a brief interregnum, Vidal wrote, the United States had been at war from Dec. 7, 1941, until Aug. 15, 1973. “Between 1945 and 1950,” Vidal declared, “the empire turned its attention to peaceful pursuits and enjoyed something of a golden or at least for us not too brazen an age.”

Mr. Reid, an essayist, author and editor (“Sex, Death and God in L.A.”), explores the fulcrum of this age of genius in “The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art and Bohemia” (Pantheon Books, $30).


Sammy Vogel Credit Photographs, via Lyons Press 
 

His book actually opens in 1944, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s punishing four-borough campaign motorcade, and his purview extends well beyond the three years, 10 months and 10 days defined by Vidal to encompass the trial of Max Eastman, the socialist editor of The Masses, for sedition during World War I, and the Beat generation in the early 1950s.

In between, the author introduces readers to a standing-room-only salon in which Weegee, the photographer, waxes rhapsodic about the newspaper PM (“You could tell PM readers on sight. They looked like people from another planet waiting for someone to take them back to their leader … which, of course, was PM”); C. Wright Mills, the Columbia sociologist, describes militant labor leaders as “the new men of power”; and Simone de Beauvoir writes curiously of “something in New York that makes sleep useless.”

Roughly half of Henry Wallace’s 1948 presidential vote was cast in New York, which, Mr. Reid argues, is where the cultural Cold War began, where genius mattered to the public intellectuals and private wannabes and where Louis Simpson, a classmate of Allen Ginsberg at Columbia, tossed his wristwatch out a window “because we are all living in Eternity now.”

 
Julie Kogon Credit via Lyons Press


Boxing has always been a vehicle for ethnic succession, and Mike Silver focuses on the first half of the 20th century in “Stars in the Ring: Jewish Champions in the Golden Age of Boxing:A Photographic History” (Lyons Press, $29.95).


“Getting knocked down and picking yourself up to continue the battle,” Mr. Silver, a sports historian, writes, “can be seen as a metaphor for life’s ups and downs.”

From 1901 to 1939, he writes, 29 Jewish boxers were recognized as world champions (about 16 percent of the total) and more than 160 were ranked as top contenders in their divisions. By 1928, he writes, “Jewish boxers comprised the single largest ethnic group among title contenders in the 10 weight divisions.”

Mr. Silver affectionately recalls an era when boxing rivaled baseball in popularity, when Benny Leonard was “the first Jewish-American pop culture icon” and about which Philip Roth could write with authority: “In my scheme of things, Slapsie Maxie was a more miraculous Jewish phenomenon by far than Dr. Albert Einstein.”


Muhammad Ali Attacks Anti-White BBC Parkinson




  BBC Parkinson 1971.

 

  



Friday, April 8, 2016