Reviewed: The Gods of War: Boxing Essays, by Springs Toledo. Publisher: Tora Books, 4/2014. Hardcover $24.99, 218pp.

Home // August.11.2016 // Paul Blumer

Legends of Gods and Ghosts

These essays amount to a twenty-round bout with history and expectation. In The Gods of War, Springs Toledo pounds out an astute choreography that is as graceful as it is engaging, as imaginative as it is real. If you don't dance away shadowboxing, you probably weren't that into the sport to begin with.

Among his involvements in the sport, Toledo is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, the International Boxing Research Organization, the International Boxing Hall of Fame Committee, and Ring 4 Boston, and is a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. But, truth be told, these essays about boxing are not only about boxing. The main attack of the book is the connection between "the sweet science" and a more vivid version of life itself. Toledo steps away from the pleated khaki of sports-writing to dip into a deeper philosophy that transcends mere points and publicity. After a somber etude about post-career addictions and depression among fighters after the inevitable end of the Final Fight, he waxes existential:

For flesh and blood, time begins as a courteous friend walking ahead and opening doors. It rewards our youthful energy with diplomas and promotions and titles. Then we age and stumble and can't keep up, and everything gets away from us. We shake a liver-spotted fist at the clock while clinging to times gone by like a drunk to a lamppost. The good ol' days we'll call them, and the older they are the better they'll be. Eventually the friend from our youth will stop along the road. He'll turn and face us, and we'll gasp when we notice that he carries a sickle: Time, the destroyer.

Meanwhile, The Gods of War spars through so many layers of time and boxing history it can be difficult to keep up. Strap on your pads: the book is quick on its feet, bobbing and weaving, never still for long enough to zero in and knock it down, delivering jabs that daze and left-hooks that bewilder. Turn up the focus. Anyone who's ever gloved-up knows the feeling:

Boxing has a way of punching right through the flimsy shield of false ego to expose the truth about a man. Any flaws underneath are forced to the surface: deficiency of will, low pain tolerance, self-consciousness, fear . . .

Skirting the pitfall that threatens much non-fiction, this collection is not just an assemblage of drifting ephemera, tidbits from the lives and careers of big names in the sport. Toledo has done his homework, and the research speaks for itself. Have you heard of Turon Andrade, active just a few years ago, upon whom great expectations had been placed; where is he now? He's worth not forgetting. And who remembers Charley Burley or Harry Greb? If these names are not familiar—you should read the book, and add their stories to your personal storehouse of sports mythology. If they are known to you, well then, you'll love this book. Toledo's telling is likely to become the canonical treatment of these athletes.

So then: in the same volume, you get uncrowned heroes of boxing, unsung champions of canvas and street, bouncing light-footed and ever-living through the pages of these essays, while ghosts of the past are finally given their due acknowledgement of the timeless sport, and laid to rest with honor. If I wax poetical in praising this book, take it as my assurance that these are exciting stories, excitingly told.

Once the odds are set, after the words have weighed-in and warmed up, the fun begins. Toledo explains his system for evaluating the keyed-up contenders in his personal boxing pantheon. His rubric breaks down into seven aspects of a fighter's performance:

Quality of Opposition, 25 points
Ring Generalship, 15 points
Longevity, 15 points
Dominance, 15 points
Durability, 10 points
Performance Against Larger Opponents, 10 points
Intangibles, 10 points

This is key; we get not just the author's ranking, but insight into the way he constructs that ranking, inviting us to look over his shoulder, and cast our own judgment beside his. This is the way the best commentators teach us about the spectacle, not merely by reporting upon it, but by deepening the audience's understanding of the sport, its mechanics and history and stakes, while reporting.

Take a look at that seven-part scheme; isn't that some good advice for the would-be student of boxing? If you want to judge good fighters from bad, here's what you do: set aside popularity contests; ignore marketing as irrelevant; and be ready to look past the obvious choices as bland and under-researched. What you really need to ask, Toledo is saying, is: Do they dominate? Do they endure? What deserves our attention, moment to moment, as they seek to prevail in that ring? Spare no punches, whether accurate and technical or improvised and devastating. Too right.

Springs Toledo surveys the fighters, pits time and change against gestalt and truth, and comes up with a remarkable ticket of champions. Even if your list differs from his, you won't be able to say he hasn't thought about his choices carefully and with the integrity of a seasoned reporter and true lover of the sport.

So the bout begins! Ten long counts toward the ultimate god of war. These essays invite you to imagine yourself into the place of commentator, sports historian, and critic, and to see if you can guess for yourself who takes the top spot and title in Toledo's ranking. (Though, if you do guess and get it right—without flipping ahead to the end to confirm—I heartily encourage you to contact the author to request that he sign your copy. A worthwhile conversation, about sportsmanship, fanmanship, and other vantages on the sweet science, is likely ensue.)

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Dixon, Tris. The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing's Wastelands. Worthing, England: Pitch Publishing, 2016.
Lardner, Ring. Stories & Other Writings. New York: Library of America, 2013.
Liebling, A. J. The Sweet Science. New York: North Point Press, 2004.
Mailer, Norman. The Fight. New York: Random House, 2013.
Oates, Joyce Carol. On Boxing. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006 (resissue edition).
Seligson, Susan. "The Pugilist Poet". Boston University:BU Today, 2012.
Toledo, Springs. "Muhammad Ali’s Secret to Greatness". HBO: Inside HBO Boxing, 2016.

Banner graphic source: Photo (cropped) of the so-called “Thermae boxer”, an athlete resting after a boxing match; Greek bronze of the Hellenistic era, 3rd-2nd centuries BC; from the Thermae of Constantine; in the collection of the National Museum of Rome, accession Inv. 1055. Photographed by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2009). Used here according to the terms of a CC BY 2.5 license.