The Cruelest Sport » BOXING HISTORY http://thecruelestsport.com A Professional Boxing blog Mon, 20 May 2013 16:35:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 The Catastrophist: The Troubled World of Don Jordan http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/08/15/the-catastrophist-the-troubled-world-of-don-jordan/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/08/15/the-catastrophist-the-troubled-world-of-don-jordan/#comments Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:30:50 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://dev.mvn.com/thecruelestsport/2009/07/05/the-catastrophist-the-troubled-world-of-don-jordan.html "Chaos" is the only suitable word to describe the career of Don Jordan. Fifty years after he first won the welterweight title, Jordan remains a mystery without a solution. Not only did Jordan bewilder spectators with his desultory performances, he also mystified trainers, sports writers, police officers, mobsters, and historians, few of whom have bothered to trace a career that reads more like a case study than the narrative of a boxer. Welterweight champion only long enough to make two defenses and accidentally TKO nefarious Frankie Carbo, Jordan left behind a legacy as befuddling as that of Iron Eyes Cody or D.B. Cooper. Like many fighters in the 1950s, Jordan was dogged by ties to mobsters, but it was his own instability that ultimately led to his spectacular crash.

The Catastrophist: The Troubled World of Don Jordan - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/08/15/the-catastrophist-the-troubled-world-of-don-jordan/feed/ 4 AMERICAN DREAMER: Davey Moore TKO6 Tadashi Mihara http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/07/13/american-dreamer-davey-moore-tko6-tadashi-mihara/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/07/13/american-dreamer-davey-moore-tko6-tadashi-mihara/#comments Sat, 14 Jul 2012 01:48:29 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://thecruelestsport.com/?p=5102 **** “Get the TV on the pretty things,” Moore says, holding two oversize trophies in the ring, smiling, oblivious, like we all are, to what we cannot know about tomorrow. Read more from The Living Daylights

AMERICAN DREAMER: Davey Moore TKO6 Tadashi Mihara - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/07/13/american-dreamer-davey-moore-tko6-tadashi-mihara/feed/ 0 ENFORCER: The Life & Crimes of Gus Dorazio http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/07/02/enforcer-the-life-crimes-of-gus-dorazio/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/07/02/enforcer-the-life-crimes-of-gus-dorazio/#comments Mon, 02 Jul 2012 23:19:57 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://dev.mvn.com/thecruelestsport/2009/08/19/enforcer-the-life-crimes-of-gus-dorazio.html **** Gus Dorazio, a fearless but limited contender during the late 1930s and early 1940s, made his name by being pole-axed in two rounds during a championship bid against Joe Louis in 1941. Outside of the ring, Dorazio was notorious for his scrapes with the law. On the fringes of the underworld for most of [...]

ENFORCER: The Life & Crimes of Gus Dorazio - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/07/02/enforcer-the-life-crimes-of-gus-dorazio/feed/ 12 A Crown For Cocoa Kid http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/06/15/a-crown-for-cocoa-kid/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/06/15/a-crown-for-cocoa-kid/#comments Fri, 15 Jun 2012 06:05:57 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://thecruelestsport.com/?p=5038 **** This piece, on 2012 Hall of Fame inductee Herbert Lewis Hardwick–aka The Cocoa Kid–was written by Springs Toledo and appears here as a special tribute to a fighter long unjustly forgotten. **** New York, 1959. He wasn’t sure of his name anymore, this tattered figure wandering Times Square. “Heriberto Harwitz” was as close as [...]

A Crown For Cocoa Kid - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/06/15/a-crown-for-cocoa-kid/feed/ 0 PERSPECTIVE http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/06/05/perspective-15/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/06/05/perspective-15/#comments Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:30:47 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://thecruelestsport.com/?p=1987 **** “There was no sense quitting when I was winning, and to judge from my past performances I had too much pride or bullheadedness to quit when I was losing. It’s on precisely that kind of logic that all those horseplayers die broke and that far too many boxers, good ones included, end up hearing [...]

PERSPECTIVE - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/06/05/perspective-15/feed/ 0 TCS In Undisputed Fight Magazine http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/05/21/tcs-in-undisputed-fight-magazine/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/05/21/tcs-in-undisputed-fight-magazine/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 02:07:20 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://thecruelestsport.com/?p=4921 **** I have an article on Jack Dempsey published in the latest issue of Undisputed Fight Magazine. Hard Times: The Mystery of the Jack Dempsey-Jess Willard Fight is available as part of a free preview package. Just log in to Undisputed Fight Magazine for a temporary account. Here is an excerpt from the story: And [...]

TCS In Undisputed Fight Magazine - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/05/21/tcs-in-undisputed-fight-magazine/feed/ 0 DARK MIRROR: When Max Baer Met Ben Foord http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/05/17/dark-mirror-when-max-baer-met-ben-foord/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/05/17/dark-mirror-when-max-baer-met-ben-foord/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 23:29:20 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://thecruelestsport.com/?p=403 **** After fraying American purse strings on an outlandish “comeback” tour against an assortment of bindlestiffs and saloonkeepers throughout the Great Plains and Badlands, Max Baer, former heavyweight champion of the world, sailed for England in 1937 in an attempt to jumpstart his stalled career and took on tough competition for the first time since [...]

DARK MIRROR: When Max Baer Met Ben Foord - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/05/17/dark-mirror-when-max-baer-met-ben-foord/feed/ 8 Terrors of the Lightweight Brigade: Ad Wolgast and Battling Nelson http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/04/04/terrors-of-the-lightweight-brigade-ad-wolgast-and-battling-nelson/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/04/04/terrors-of-the-lightweight-brigade-ad-wolgast-and-battling-nelson/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:11:07 +0000 Andrew Fruman http://thecruelestsport.com/?p=4734 **** In one of the most savage fights of the 20th century, mortal enemies Ad Wolgast and Battling Nelson tore at each other before 18,000 fans in Richmond, California, for the right to be called lightweight champion of the world. On February 22, 1910, these two ironmen, in the days when drawing first blood was [...]

Terrors of the Lightweight Brigade: Ad Wolgast and Battling Nelson - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/04/04/terrors-of-the-lightweight-brigade-ad-wolgast-and-battling-nelson/feed/ 3 NASTY, BRUTISH, SHORT: AL PALZER & THE WHITE HOPES http://thecruelestsport.com/2011/12/29/nasty-brutish-short-al-palzer-the-white-hopes/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2011/12/29/nasty-brutish-short-al-palzer-the-white-hopes/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:45:53 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://dev.mvn.com/thecruelestsport/2009/08/26/nasty-brutish-short-al-palzer-the-white-hopes.html On May 26, 1911, the first White Hope tournament, a motley assortment of eleven barnyard scrappers and dockwallopers, was held at the National Sporting Club in New York City. How such a tournament could be staged with a counterintuitive number of participants in a state where decisions were outlawed is testament to the huckster genius of Tom O’Rourke, ex-boxer, occasional [...]

NASTY, BRUTISH, SHORT: AL PALZER & THE WHITE HOPES - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2011/12/29/nasty-brutish-short-al-palzer-the-white-hopes/feed/ 4 DEMPSEY SPEAKS! http://thecruelestsport.com/2011/12/19/dempsey-speaks/ http://thecruelestsport.com/2011/12/19/dempsey-speaks/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:24:12 +0000 Carlos Acevedo http://thecruelestsport.com/?p=4636 **** “Any time somebody gives you a story of how he felt during a fight take it with a grain of salt. The way I’ve lived it, fighting isn’t planning or figuring. It’s all instinct. You rip. You tear. You slash. You’re not thinking of strategy. You’re moved by only one thing–the will to survive. [...]

DEMPSEY SPEAKS! - The Cruelest Sport - The Cruelest Sport - A Professional Boxing blog

]]> http://thecruelestsport.com/2011/12/19/dempsey-speaks/feed/ 4