Bert Sugar on Boxing: The Best of the Sport's Most Notable Writer

I haven't tried Bert Sugar before but I will buy more of his books after reading this one. The book consists of a collection of his articles over the years, some of the stories are short, some are fairly lengthy. I think that the strength in Sugar is not so much his readable writing style, it is the way he occasionally adds little nuggets of information on certain boxers. He is a breezy author and his books are not difficult to read at all. I liked the stories on the fighters especially John L Sullivan. I would have liked to have seen more modern stuff in the book as that was where Sugar stands out, he knows the inside story on some fighters. The best section is Chapter 1: Rants and Raves - this is how the book could have been presented, a series of boxing articles. He would write a good auto-biography.

Bert Sugar - Let's Face It You Have To Read It Anyone who has poked around the literary side of the sweet science has heard of Bert Sugar. Anyone who has an interest in boxing has seen the hat and cigar at press conferences and sitting ringside. Let's face it - Bert Sugar is as much a part of boxing as Angelo Dundee or Doc Brodus or the name Sugar (as in Sugar Ray, Sugar Shane etc) One of my favorite lines is that Bert Sugar has been covering fights since Cain and Abel! This is a good book. It's a compilation of some of Sugar's works - 4 sections - sections 1 (Rants & Raves), 2 (The Fighters) & 3 (The Fights) are a collection of articles and section 4 is a brief history of sorts. It's a really good read and I enjoyed it. What I have to say next I feel somewhat sacrilegious saying but - I enjoy the Thomas Hauser books more (ex: A Year At The Fights and/or A Beautiful Sickness) and would recommend them before this - that is not to say skip this - you HAVE to read Bert Sugar - it's like saying you're a boxing fan, but unfamiliar with Rocky Marciano's fight record - but if you're a Hauser fan you'll also enjoy Bert Sugar.