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Torres believes that boxing is “not really a contest of physical ability.” He elaborated his ideas in a subsequent meeting: “I felt it was a contest always of character and intelligence. And I always felt what made a champion and an ordinary fighter was that, the character, the will to win, more than the physicality. Because when you are up there, among the best, the physicality is the same.” Torres takes evident pleasure in explaining why Ali was not the greatest boxer, but was a genius in the ring. Doing so affords him the opportunity to recall fond memories of Ali and legendary trainer [[w:Cus D’Amato|Cus D’Amato]] while also illustrating his point about boxers being liars. In his book on Ali, | Torres believes that boxing is “not really a contest of physical ability.” He elaborated his ideas in a subsequent meeting: “I felt it was a contest always of character and intelligence. And I always felt what made a champion and an ordinary fighter was that, the character, the will to win, more than the physicality. Because when you are up there, among the best, the physicality is the same.” Torres takes evident pleasure in explaining why Ali was not the greatest boxer, but was a genius in the ring. Doing so affords him the opportunity to recall fond memories of Ali and legendary trainer [[w:Cus D’Amato|Cus D’Amato]] while also illustrating his point about boxers being liars. In his book on Ali,he starts the story with D’Amato, the guide to three world champions: Floyd | ||
he starts the story with D’Amato, the guide to three world champions: Floyd | Patterson, Torres himself, and Mike Tyson.“[Ali] is not a good fighter, so says | ||
Patterson, Torres himself, and Mike Tyson.“ | |||
D’Amato, much less a great fighter. But he is champion of the world.Which, | D’Amato, much less a great fighter. But he is champion of the world.Which, | ||
believing Cus, and I do, makes Ali a genius....” He continues, in virtually the | believing Cus, and I do, makes Ali a genius....” He continues, in virtually the | ||
same words he spoke to me decades after the 1971 book appeared: | same words he spoke to me decades after the 1971 book appeared: | ||
<blockqoute>Ali is not a great fighter in the conventional sense that Sugar Ray | <blockqoute>Ali is not a great fighter in the conventional sense that Sugar Ray | ||
Robinson, Willie Pep and Joe Louis were. Each of these fighters | Robinson, Willie Pep and Joe Louis were. Each of these fighters | ||
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Other writers have made similar claims in connection with other fighters. | Other writers have made similar claims in connection with other fighters. | ||
Jack Dempsey’s “overwhelming power made many people overlook the calculation that went into every punch he threw,” Roger Kahn writes in A Flame of Pure Fire.“In that regard, he was a thinking, even intellectual boxer.” In the | Jack Dempsey’s “overwhelming power made many people overlook the calculation that went into every punch he threw,” Roger Kahn writes in ''A Flame of Pure Fire''. “In that regard, he was a thinking, even intellectual boxer.” In the | ||
first volume of A Man without Qualities, published not long after Dempsey’s reign as heavyweight champion ended, novelist Robert Musil prefigured Torres and D’Amato with observations like this one: “the tricks and | first volume of ''A Man without Qualities'', published not long after Dempsey’s reign as heavyweight champion ended, novelist Robert Musil prefigured Torres and D’Amato with observations like this one: “the tricks and | ||
dodges used by an inventive mind in going through the logical operations of | dodges used by an inventive mind in going through the logical operations of | ||
a mathematical problem are really not very different from the ring-craft displayed by a well-trained body.” A. J. Liebling, who composed numerous entertainingly digressive, erudite articles on boxing for The New Yorker in the | a mathematical problem are really not very different from the ring-craft displayed by a well-trained body.” A. J. Liebling, who composed numerous entertainingly digressive, erudite articles on boxing for The New Yorker in the | ||
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Part of boxers’ “culture,” in the view of Torres and his fellow thinkers, is | Part of boxers’ “culture,” in the view of Torres and his fellow thinkers, is | ||
the ability to lie successfully. As Jeremy Campbell notes in his so-called history of falseness, A Liar’s Tale,“when winning is the important factor, deceitfulness is a kind of ethic....” From a technical standpoint, Ali did plenty | the ability to lie successfully. As Jeremy Campbell notes in his so-called history of falseness, ''A Liar’s'' ''Tale'', “when winning is the important factor, deceitfulness is a kind of ethic....” From a technical standpoint, Ali did plenty | ||
“wrong,” but excelled nonetheless because of his cleverness, his ability to con | “wrong,” but excelled nonetheless because of his cleverness, his ability to con | ||
his opponents. He perfected the liar’s ethic. | his opponents. He perfected the liar’s ethic. | ||
Of course, eventually Ali did meet opponents who could beat him, but | Of course, eventually Ali did meet opponents who could beat him, but | ||
even then his genius was evident. Sting Like a Bee ends with Ali’s first | even then his genius was evident. ''Sting Like a Bee'' ends with Ali’s first | ||
bout with Joe Frazier, which Ali lost. Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, told Ali’s | bout with Joe Frazier, which Ali lost. Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, told Ali’s | ||
biographer, Thomas Hauser, that Ali still successfully tricked his fighter | biographer, Thomas Hauser, that Ali still successfully tricked his fighter | ||
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By exaggerating, Ali made Joe think that he was fooling. He conned him | By exaggerating, Ali made Joe think that he was fooling. He conned him | ||
good.” | good.” | ||
Ali did eventually regain the championship, and he did so by again digging into his bag of tricks. He prevailed over George Foreman by fighting a | Ali did eventually regain the championship, and he did so by again digging into his bag of tricks. He prevailed over George Foreman by fighting a very different fight than most expected. Rather than dancing around the | ||
very different fight than most expected. Rather than dancing around the | |||
ring, using his speed to outmaneuver the famously hard-hitting Foremen, Ali | ring, using his speed to outmaneuver the famously hard-hitting Foremen, Ali | ||
positioned himself on the ropes, allowing Forman to tire himself out throwing punches. While the “rope-a-dope” might not have been a good practice if concern for long-term health had been a primary concern, it was a successful tactic that morning in Zaire. Looking back on “Rumble in the Jungle,” Foreman conceded that Ali had him fooled. | positioned himself on the ropes, allowing Forman to tire himself out throwing punches. While the “rope-a-dope” might not have been a good practice if concern for long-term health had been a primary concern, it was a successful tactic that morning in Zaire. Looking back on “Rumble in the Jungle,” Foreman conceded that Ali had him fooled. | ||
The sport, as Ali so skillfully showed, shares elements with confidence | The sport, as Ali so skillfully showed, shares elements with confidence | ||
games. In The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man, David Mauer | games. In ''The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man'', David Mauer | ||
observes that such deceptions are not as simple as unscrupulous exploitation of the naïve. Con men prey not on the gullible and good but on the | observes that such deceptions are not as simple as unscrupulous exploitation of the naïve. Con men prey not on the gullible and good but on the devious. A mark must have more than money ready for the taking. As Mauer | ||
devious. A mark must have more than money ready for the taking. As Mauer | |||
puts it, “he must also have what grifters term ‘larceny in his veins’—in other | puts it, “he must also have what grifters term ‘larceny in his veins’—in other | ||
words, he must want something for nothing, or be willing to participate in | words, he must want something for nothing, or be willing to participate in | ||
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looking at it. Boxing is much more than two brutes beating up on each other. | looking at it. Boxing is much more than two brutes beating up on each other. | ||
It is also more complicated than one fighter tricking an unprepared dupe: | It is also more complicated than one fighter tricking an unprepared dupe: | ||
mismatches may be a part of the game, but they are boring.When the fighters are well matched physically and also shrewd strategists, with each seeking to exploit the other’s desire to find an opening, an advantage, a | mismatches may be a part of the game, but they are boring. When the fighters are well matched physically and also shrewd strategists, with each seeking to exploit the other’s desire to find an opening, an advantage, a | ||
weakness—then the sport rises to the level of art. | weakness—then the sport rises to the level of art. | ||
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himself.” The importance of cunning in boxing doesn’t lessen the very real | himself.” The importance of cunning in boxing doesn’t lessen the very real | ||
physical perils. Boxing is not professional wrestling; the violence is real. The | physical perils. Boxing is not professional wrestling; the violence is real. The | ||
sport’s mental aspect, which Torres so prizes, comes into play when physical abilities are comparable. Ali, the “Louisville Lip,” was able to back up his | sport’s mental aspect, which Torres so prizes, comes into play when physical abilities are comparable. Ali, the “Louisville Lip,” was able to back up his bluster, even if he did so with an unorthodox style. | ||
bluster, even if he did so with an unorthodox style. | |||
The idea that boxers, individuals who choose to engage in a | The idea that boxers, individuals who choose to engage in a brain damaging game, are smart might strike the uninitiated as peculiar if not | ||
ridiculous. Indeed, the strangeness of associating fighters with intelligence | ridiculous. Indeed, the strangeness of associating fighters with intelligence | ||
cause some to doubt that Torres actually wrote his books ~he also published | cause some to doubt that Torres actually wrote his books ~he also published | ||
a biography of Tyson!. A rumor suggested that Mailer actually wrote Torres’s | a biography of Tyson!. A rumor suggested that Mailer actually wrote Torres’s | ||
portions of the Ali book. Jonathan Rendell, in his brilliantly titled This | portions of the Ali book. Jonathan Rendell, in his brilliantly titled ''This'' | ||
Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own, recounts hearing a version of it.“Mailer | ''Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own'', recounts hearing a version of it. “Mailer | ||
wrote it for him,” the man on the next barstool explained to Rendell. “That | wrote it for him,” the man on the next barstool explained to Rendell. “That | ||
was the deal they had. Torres taught Mailer how to box and Mailer wrote | was the deal they had. Torres taught Mailer how to box and Mailer wrote | ||
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give the novelist some boxing pointers. Still, Mailer insists that the book is | give the novelist some boxing pointers. Still, Mailer insists that the book is | ||
genuine and not another instance of a boxer’s con game. For he did share his | genuine and not another instance of a boxer’s con game. For he did share his | ||
friend’s views about pugilistic trickery. In his 1975 account of the AliForeman fight, Mailer explicitly invokes the D’Amato-Torres philosophy, a | friend’s views about pugilistic trickery. In his 1975 account of the AliForeman fight, Mailer explicitly invokes the D’Amato-Torres philosophy, a key component of which is that a skilled boxer can block or evade any punch | ||
key component of which is that a skilled boxer can block or evade any punch | they can see coming. “Champions were great liars,” Mailer explains in ''The''''Fight'' “They had to be. Once you knew what they thought, you could hit them. So their personalities became masterpieces of concealment.” | ||
they can see coming. “Champions were great liars,” Mailer explains in The | |||
Fight | |||
them. So their personalities became masterpieces of concealment.” | |||
However, Mailer elsewhere expresses the other widely held view of boxing, the one in which fighters are heroic warriors, which is precisely how | However, Mailer elsewhere expresses the other widely held view of boxing, the one in which fighters are heroic warriors, which is precisely how | ||
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a character,” he writes in Only in America: The Life and Crimes of Don King. | a character,” he writes in Only in America: The Life and Crimes of Don King. | ||
“That’s why writers and filmmakers are drawn to it. Almost everyone in | “That’s why writers and filmmakers are drawn to it. Almost everyone in | ||
boxing is a colorful story teller with a touch of lunacy or larceny.” It is certainly true that he chose to focus on one of boxing’s colorful characters in King. A former numbers runner who killed two men, King became fabulously wealthy by using the rhetoric of racial solidarity to sign black boxers to his promotional company and then exploit them mercilessly,according to Newfield’s account. Newfield finds conniving and cunning not | boxing is a colorful story teller with a touch of lunacy or larceny.” It is certainly true that he chose to focus on one of boxing’s colorful characters in King. A former numbers runner who killed two men, King became fabulously wealthy by using the rhetoric of racial solidarity to sign black boxers to his promotional company and then exploit them mercilessly, according to Newfield’s account. Newfield finds conniving and cunning not | ||
only on the business side of the sport, but in the fights themselves. He discusses the Ali-Foreman bout in terms very similar to Mailer’s, writing: “Boxing is based on deceit. Fighters are taught to lie—to conceal fatigue, mask | only on the business side of the sport, but in the fights themselves. He discusses the Ali-Foreman bout in terms very similar to Mailer’s, writing: “Boxing is based on deceit. Fighters are taught to lie—to conceal fatigue, mask | ||
pain, disguise intent with a feint, deny an injury, look one way and punch | pain, disguise intent with a feint, deny an injury, look one way and punch | ||
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Albert Camus describes boxers as “gods with cauliflower ears,” giving some | Albert Camus describes boxers as “gods with cauliflower ears,” giving some | ||
indication of the respect he has for athletes who, like Sisyphus, persevere | indication of the respect he has for athletes who, like Sisyphus, persevere | ||
through ultimately pointless endeavors. He also transmutes physical combat into the equivalent of a matter of language, viewing a fight as though | through ultimately pointless endeavors. He also transmutes physical combat into the equivalent of a matter of language, viewing a fight as though it were an argument. Fighters’ representative capabilities—their amply | ||
it were an argument. Fighters’ representative capabilities—their amply | |||
documented tendency to be regarded by spectators as the embodiment | documented tendency to be regarded by spectators as the embodiment | ||
of a race, an ethnicity or a nationality—offers writers plenty of material | of a race, an ethnicity or a nationality—offers writers plenty of material | ||
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reach in his argument. It lands persuasively between his contradictor’s eyes.” | reach in his argument. It lands persuasively between his contradictor’s eyes.” | ||
What writer wouldn’t want to have such a reach? | What writer wouldn’t want to have such a reach? | ||
Joyce Carol Oates, for one, expresses impatience with the sort of “hellish-writerly metaphor” in which boxing serves to stand for something else. She concedes that skill, courage and intelligence can all be observed in a boxing match. She even “can entertain the proposition that life is a metaphor for | |||
boxing.” However, boxing itself is, quite simply, “the most primitive and terrifying of contests.” Her On Boxing does not offer extravagant assertions of fighters as avatars of artistry or as unrecognized geniuses. She briefly surveys other writers’ writing on boxing and is impressed by little of it. She dislikes Liebling and does not think Ernest Hemingway’s boxing stories rank | |||
among his best. She admires aspects of Mailer’s work on the subject, but | |||
concludes that in the end he gets it wrong. “It seems clear to this reader at | |||
least that Mailer cannot establish a connection between himself and the boxers: he tries heroically but he cannot understand them,” she writes. Whereas Camus likens boxing to an argument, Oates stresses its wordlessness, its lack of language. Whereas he sees fighters carrying on historical disputes, she | |||
counters that men fighting and those watching them belong “to no historical time.” For Oates, boxing is not like something else. It is certainly not like writing, as it was for Mailer, Newfield and others. Instead, “boxing is only like boxing.” If she finds truth in boxing, it is of a much more diminished and melancholy sort. | |||
Rendell fell into the Johnson camp, the camp that sought truth in the sport, only to conclude that viewing boxing as expressive of some deep meaning can only lead to disappointment. In ''This Bloody Mary'', his memoir of experiences in the boxing world, he recalls being a teenager looking at the photos in ''Ring'' magazine of ritualistic post-fight events—the announcement of the decision and the victor consoling the vanquished— | |||
and thinking: “It was as if all of them, the winners and losers and the managers and trainers, had touched something that only they could know about, something big, like truth.” Later, when the romance was gone and | |||
he’d seen enough of the fight game, he concludes that its connection to the | |||
truth was very different than he’d initially thought. “Boxing had been leading me to a truth after all, but only to the truth about boxing. And the truth was just a story itself, the first addictive dance under the chandeliers, | |||
and then the doomed roller coaster ride on thousands of blue curves.” The | |||
sort of truth he discovers is fighters dying in their twenties or living but with irreparable damage. For him, too, Ali becomes symbolic of boxing’s truth. Rendell describes meeting the former champion, who required an | |||
hour to eat a bowl of soup. The fighter once famous for his quickness and | |||
prowess now had to move carefully, deliberately, and slowly in order not to | |||
dribble. | |||
The competing views of boxing—the notion that it is an honest expression of man’s nature versus the belief that it entails artful deception as well as the more obvious physical challenges—also appear in W. C. Heinz’s 1958 | |||
novel ''The Professional''. Doc Carroll, a boxing manager, holds both, without | |||
acknowledging the paradox of viewing boxing as essentially truthful and involving much trickery. Explaining why he likes boxing, Doc says he sees the “truth of life” in it, and that truth includes “that remnant of the animal in | |||
man.” He says, “I find man revealing himself more completely in fighting than in any other form of expressive endeavor. It’s the war all over again, and they license it and sell tickets to it and people go to see it because, without even realizing it, they see this truth in it.” Later he tells his fighter, Eddie: | |||
“There’s only so many punches. Everybody knows what they are. You’ve got | |||
to con the other guy into walking into them. It’s thinking, first of all.” If Doc’s theories of boxing can be reconciled at all, it is by concluding that the essential truth, as revealed by boxing, is that man is a thinking beast, violent and clever, basic in animal desires and inclined toward misdirection to | |||
satisfy them. Doc favors the fundamental-honesty-of-boxing school, regarding cons as tactical rather then essential elements of the game. Eddie, who admits to Doc that he had not realized role of trickery despite his nine years in boxing, loses the fight at the end of the book. | |||
Another novelist, Darin Strauss, combines elements of history and fiction while mining the deep vein of literary possibilities offered by the idea of an intimate bond between pugilists and tricksters. If in Heinz’s world deception is merely a part of boxing strategy, in Strauss’s it throbs in the very heart of the sport. He very loosely based his 2002 novel ''The Real McCoy'' on the life of Norman Selby (a.k.a. Charles “Kid” McCoy), a crafty boxer who used his skills as a con man both in and out of the ring. Strauss remains faithful to these essential features even if he rearranges some facts to suit his story. (“We can change the normal way of things to fit our case,” McCoy persuades one of the women he marries.) Like the historical McCoy, the fictionalized Kid was born in Indiana in the late nineteenth century, becomes known for his trademark “corkscrew punch,” and has a colorful career as a charlatan. | |||
Strauss departs from the documented record of Selby’s life in various ways. For instance, his “Virgil Selby” assumes the identity of another boxer known as Kid McCoy rather than creating the identity himself. The “real” McCoy won the vacant middleweight title in 1898, whereas Strauss has his McCoy win the welterweight title on January 1, 1900, by tricking the reigning champion into fighting what he thought was a mere exhibition. Strauss not only puts his McCoy in a lower weight division, he stresses his character’s slight build in order to highlight his mendacity in the ring. | |||
Some of the fictional McCoy’s comments about boxing make him sound | |||
like he could have come straight out of D’Amato’s school of boxing philosophy. “I lack in bulk, but I make up for it in guile,” McCoy explains in response to a reporter’s commentary on his skin-and-bones physique. “Boys, artifice is a dignified defense.” After successfully deploying his skin-ripping corkscrew punch in his title bout, McCoy is confronted by the deposed champ’s wife: “Admit it, Mr. McCoy.... You lied to my husband to get the | |||
crown.... Admit your trickery!” “I don’t admit it,” he replies, “I ''relish'' in it.” Of course, Strauss recognizes that boxing requires physical ability and is | |||
more than just deception. “McCoy knocked out Tommy Ryan thanks to real skill and the flimflam.” | |||
The contending views of boxing as either the brutal violence it immediately appears to be or something akin to art and equally complicated and ultimately irreducible to any simple explanation will not be settled for as long as human beings stage combat for enjoyment’s sake. Given that boxing’s roots can be traced back hundreds of years before Virgil and that writers continue to find something of themselves in fighters long after the sport’s | |||
heyday in the twentieth century, imminent resolution seems unlikely. That does not mean the match is even, however. The conclusion of Paul Johnson and José Torres’s well-rehearsed account of their college speaking engagement has the union organizer wondering if he never became a better fighter than he did because he was too honest. It may be that writers and other successful practitioners of artifice (such as Ali) do not suffer from such scrupulousness. An indication of which perspective appears to have the upper hand might be found at Gleason’s, a deliberately spare gym in a once-gritty neighborhood that later transformed itself into one filled with galleries, boutiques, and pricy loft apartments. Almost every time I have visited the place to talk | |||
with its proprietor, Bruce Silverglade, there have been camera crews filming movies or commercials or taking photographs of models. Athletes still train there, but meaning-making and spectacle-creation simultaneously | |||
occur amid the sparring and shadow boxing. Artifice, whether dignified or not, should never be underestimated. | |||