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Boxing

It was pretty obvious, wasn’t it? (It always is) …

In the scheme of things, I was an avid fan of boxing in my youth. I regularly watched boxing bouts on the box, I went to big promotions by Mickey Duff, Jarvis Astaire and Frank Warren in and around London and – with some pals of like mind – I ran a small-circulation magazine devoted to [...]

May 3, 2015 // 0 Comments

Blows to the head

Yesterday I joined a lunch at which an eminent research scientist raised the topic of the long-term effects of repeated blows to the head in sport. This move produced a fascinating fifteen minute discussion around our table. I have a passing interest in this field. A generation or more ago, as a [...]

March 12, 2015 // 0 Comments

Worthy of respect

Just occasionally, we scribes can strike gold with a novel approach to a subject, an interesting specimen, a moment in time, or even a mere phrase that summarises an angle or breaks new ground possibly without us realising it. In which capacity today I’m happy to commend this piece by [...]

February 26, 2015 // 0 Comments

I am Ali

I have a horrible feeling that we will lose Muhammad Ali in 2015. The obit writers are going to have a problem as the word legend has been so debased that it’s devalued currency for the greatest sportsman ever. Even this does not him justice as he was the most famous American ever, the most [...]

December 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

The way we were … and are

Spotted on media websites overnight, two pieces on professional boxing-related subjects worthy of recommendation to National Rust readers: Kevin Garside compares the potential future of new UK heavyweight sensation Anthony Joshua with how it used to be ‘way back when’ in – THE INDEPENDENT [...]

October 13, 2014 // 0 Comments

Meeting a legend

Yesterday I attended a football symposium at the Argentine embassy. It was moderated by Jimmy Burns, who wrote a biography of Diego Maradona, and attended by panelists journalist Jim White, Victor Morales, the doyen of football commentating in the Argentine, Ossie Ardiles, Ricky Villa and Angelo [...]

May 22, 2014 // 0 Comments

Missing out (again) …

All sports fans are familiar with the influence of random chance upon sporting contests. It’s part of what makes following sport such an addictive pastime, prompting in advance endless speculation about likely outcomes – up to and including betting decisions – and, after any specific contest [...]

May 17, 2014 // 0 Comments

He Khan’t take the heat

Amir Khan – remember him, the young Pakistani from Bolton who won an Olympic silver medal at Athens in 2004 at the age of 17? – steps into the ring next weekend on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana (world welterweight unification) bill. The occasion is a clash, also at [...]

April 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Hurricane bows out

The boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter has died aged 76. He was primarily famous for two things – in the 1960s, when I was an impressionable schoolboy who followed the Noble Art largely through the pages of Ring magazine, he was a mini-hero of mine as a sometime contender for the world [...]

April 21, 2014 // 0 Comments

Mickey Duff (1929 – 2014)

Last weekend I attended pal’s 60th birthday celebrations. In one group conversation, a fellow guest remarked about how, these days, he had noticed that news of contemporaries dying was beginning to occur with growing frequency. The following (Sunday) morning, I awoke to hear the announcement of [...]

March 24, 2014 // 0 Comments

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