Sugar Ray Leonard & Other Noble Warriors - Hardcover

Toperoff, Sam

9780070650039: Sugar Ray Leonard & Other Noble Warriors

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0070650039 ISBN 13: 9780070650039

Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 1986

By examining the careers of Sugar Ray Leonard and other fighters, a sports writer brings new insights into the glorious, grimy, big-monied, media-hyped world of professional boxing

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From Publishers Weekly:

Leonard, Olympic gold-medalist in 1976, became a media favorite and the biggest money winner of any nonheavyweight boxer in the late '70s and early '80s. Toperoff, a former English professor and contributor of boxing articles to Sports Illustrated, Sport and other magazines, sees Leonard as the best fighter of his time and uses the boxer's career as his point of departure for a paean to the "sweet science." He is well aware of the seamy side of the sport and gives a fair hearing to those who agitate for its abolition, then dismisses them. What comes across strongly is Toperoff's love for the ring, where life is "primitive, savage, but direct, honest, pure." However, his devotion to Leonard is so great that he downplays the fighter's many "retirements," which some saw as manipulation of the media, and he does not mention the widespread rumor that the second fight with Roberto Duran was fixed. Those who share the author's fascination with the sport will enjoy the book. 15,000 first printing; $15,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Toperoff, a teacher and novelist, covers briefly the careers of Emile Griffith, Roberto Duran, and other boxers, but Leonard, 1976 Olympic Gold Medal winner and former professional champion, is the centerpiece of this love affair with boxing. After an eye injury Leonard vacated his title in 1982 and soon "retired" but is attempting a comeback. Toperoff sharply condemns the seamy side of the boxing business but hopes wistfully for reform. Boxing collections that own I Only Talk Winning ( LJ 5/1/85) by Angelo Dundee, Sugar Ray's manager, will want to add this worshipful view of a colorful fighter.Morey Berger, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Freehold, N.J.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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