Tyson Fury during a press conference at the The Mazuma Mobile Stadium, Morecambe. Tyson Fury faces Oleksandr Usyk in the 'Ring of Fire' undisputed world heavyweight title fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 18 May 2024, April 10, 2024
“A CHAMPION is someone who gets up when they can’t”
So said legendary American heavyweight, Jack Dempsey, whose very name is synonymous with the hardest of hard times endured by the US working class in the decade following the first world war.
This particular quote breathes verisimilitude into the cliche that boxing is a metaphor for life, which for the vast majority of us has and does involve getting up at precisely the point at which we don’t believe we can.
From Manchester pubs to global arenas, Ricky Hatton embodied working-class pride in and out of the ring, but his last round was fought in solitude, writes JOHN WIGHT
Vilified by the public after defeating Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner’s remarkable career and tragic decline reflected the era’s attitudes as much as the man himself, says JOHN WIGHT
Amid riots, strikes and Thatcher’s Britain, Frank Bruno fought not just for boxing glory, but for a nation desperate for heroes, writes JOHN WIGHT
In recently published book Baddest Man, Mark Kriegel revisits the Faustian pact at the heart of Mike Tyson’s rise and the emotional fallout that followed, writes JOHN WIGHT
