“We won’t get involved in the editorial side of rankings,” promised CEO Richard Schaefer when Golden Boy Enterprises purchased The Ring in 2007. Few believed him....
Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez is the middleweight king. Five other so-called champions sit on waiting room chairs in the offices of alphabet organizations —he sits on a...
EPILOGUE: THE WINDING ROAD I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate… ~...
Mary Darthard, surrounded by family members after the tragedy that was Lytell-Darthard II. PART 8: THESE HANDS Bert Lytell was haunted by a ghost. It followed...
Bert Lytell, Outcast. PART 7: BLACKBALLED Bert Lytell never quit boxing. Boxing quit him. Long after his sudden disappearance from the ring, he told his niece...
Middleweight Bert Lytell meets light heavyweight Archie Moore, 1950 PART 6: “THE WORLD’S MOST FEARED MIDDLEWEIGHT” Rocky Graziano’s manager stood in a gym in a Massachusetts...
Holyoke Valley Arena, 1940s PART 5: IN THE MADHOUSE The uneven borders of Holyoke, Massachusetts appear on a map as a near-perfect fist with the middle finger...
Robinson nervously laughs, LaMotta looks over his shoulder. Is Bert Lytell in the house? PART 4: SHADOWS AND SUGAR RAY Promoter “Rip” Valenti, a product...
The Beast of Stillman’s Gym PART 3: THE BULL IN BOSTON GARDEN Jake LaMotta stands in a lawyer’s office in New York City. He recently found...
The Beast of Stillman’s Gym PART 2: THE NATURAL “The joint always smells wrong,” A.J. Liebling said about Stillman’s Gym. Even so, he could look at...