KNOCKOUT READ BY A LORD OF THE RING

A Ringside Affair

For three decades at the end of the 20th century, sports writer James Lawton was ringside during one of the most tumultuous eras of the fight game. He spent time with many of its greatest protagonists, and this memoir of the best – and worst – fights and fighters he encountered is a gripping and at times poignant read.

Lawton’s time as a boxing correspondent coincided with a period in which the sport was struggling to fill the void left by the decline of Muhammad Ali. Lawton first saw Ali fight in 1977, when the ageing champion outpointed Ernie Shavers at Madison Square Garden and retained his title, in what the author describes as ‘one of the most riveting passages of sport I had ever seen’.

Yet glimpsing Ali in his dressing room afterwards, the terrible cost of his defiance was made manifest when Lawton heard him scream for the lights to be turned out as they were ‘burning his eyes like needles’.

Rich, authentic and with an understanding of a sport that only intimacy at the closest quarters can bring, Lawton’s memoir is essential reading for anyone interested in boxing’s last golden age.