Yes?there is something about boxing that captures the essence of being human. Boxing is brutal?graceful?painful?magnificent?terrible?triumphant?
?There?s a primal aspect to boxing that I think is hard to deny,? says author Willy Vlautin. ?Some people get it and some don?t. I?ve taken hard-ass tough guys I know to boxing and it sickens them and I?ve taken pretty uptight women to boxing and they?ve loved it. Man, oh, man, do I think that?s interesting. For me, I love the artistry of it. ?The cost of it, the discipline of it. It can be magic watching a good fight, but of course there?s such a cost to it.?
Yes?there is something about boxing that captures the essence of being human. Boxing is brutal?graceful?painful?magnificent?terrible?triumphant.
This series has listed, A-Z, high-achieving luminaries, elegant celebrities, high-powered intellectuals, revered heads-of-state, highly-respected philosophers, and celebrated artists of all persuasions?beautiful people who one would not think would support boxing and appreciate the men who lace on the gloves.
This is a sport I?ve been involved in for over fifty years, and yet, at times, I?m still ashamed by my lingering interest in it.
?It?s the dilemma so many of us face. We love the sport but hate what that sport can do to those who participate in it. Yet we still watch,? says Willy Vlautin.
This series was originally slated for five installments. However, names kept popping up, and I needed to add two more installments. I could easily have stretched this series to ten.
I hope you have enjoyed it.
Boxers are made of flesh and blood?and miracle fibers called courage and willpower.
DING!
Here we go?the last round!
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118?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP?45th U.S. President, Businessman & Television Personality?A boxing devotee, President Trump, spurred on by Sylvester Stallone (another boxing devotee), granted a rare, and historic, posthumous pardon to former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. The bar for a full posthumous presidential pardon is high: only two have been given. Senator McCain (another boxing devotee, and advocate for Johnson) started it off, hammering out a resolution to pass Congress in 2004, but President George W. Bush and President Obama never followed up. ?I am taking this very righteous step, I believe, to correct a wrong that happened in our history,? said Trump. ?It?s about time.?
President Trump said that he is considering pardoning Muhammad Ali, who was convicted of refusing to be drafted during the Vietnam War. But it was not immediately clear what Mr. Trump sought to pardon, as Mr. Ali?s conviction was overturned nearly 50 years ago. Mr. Ali?s attorney, Ron Tweel, said the pardon was not necessary. But he thanked Mr. Trump for the consideration. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/05/24/boxer-jack-johnson-is-posthumously-pardoned-by-president-trump/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9b3951049cc1
119?WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY?British Novelist?Thackeray attended the John C. Heenan-Tom Sayers fight held in Farnborough, England on April 17, 1860. So fascinated by the spectacle, he eulogized this bare-knuckle bout with the poem entitled, ?A Lay of Ancient London.? ?This bout was truly the first international boxing tournament, and in the 37th round when the 195-pound American Heenan seemed about to annihilate his 147-pound British opponent, the ropes were cut. The two fought five more rounds until the contest was declared a draw, a decision that ignited the first international post-fight controversy.? (The Fireside Book of Boxing. P. 374)
This legendary bare-knuckle bout, fought more than a century ago, still inspires musicians to sing about it. To listen to a few songs about this historic melee, click on the links below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puWSLVwUCtc
120?HENRY DAVID THOREAU?American Writer, Philosopher & Naturalist?I was surprised to read that ?the original hippie,? Henry David Thoreau, advocated bare-knuckle boxing to ?strengthen the American male.? Very surprising! Here are two quotes by Thoreau that might support his thinking: ?All good things are wild and free? and ?Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.? Click on the link below for more quotes from this wise Transcendentalist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Q_3ZgI-4A
121?PAUL THORN?Blues Singer-Songwriter, Artist, & Professional Boxer?Thorn has recorded seven albums, and in early 2008, he enjoyed national TV performance appearances on Late Night with Conan O?Brien and Jimmy Kimmel Live! The son of a Pentecostal Church of God minister, he was a professional fighter with a 10-3-1 ring record. He fought Roberto Duran, losing by a six-round TKO. He?s an interesting character?thoughtful and articulate. Click on one of the links below and listen to him speak, and enjoy his music. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91356973
122?GAY TALESE?Award-Winning Novelist and Journalist for The New York Times and Esquire magazine ? Don?t miss this fascinating video below?it features Gay Talese, a huge boxing fan, commentating upon ?The Boxer at Rest,? an ancient masterpiece on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHgrqOIXoN8
123?NICOLA TESLA?Serbian-American Inventor?Tesla was fascinated by the Sweet Science ever since a chance encounter with the legendary John L. Sullivan. Tesla proclaimed himself an expert on the sport in general, and Adamick, a Detroit heavyweight contender in the 1930s, in particular. Indeed, he seemed quite interested in the lad, going on about his being ?one of the finest specimens of young manhood I?ve ever seen,? and eagerly anticipating Jimmy being ?one of the first to benefit by my oscillator.? (Clarence George) http://www.boxing.com/the_masher_and_the_mauler.html
124?JUSTIN TRUDEAU?Canada?s 23rd Prime Minister?In 2012, Trudeau defeated Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in a charity boxing match held on live TV at a ballroom in an east Ottawa hotel ? When the definitive biography of Justin Trudeau is written, there?s going to be an entire chapter devoted to the single most important event in his political career?the time he beat the shit out of Brazeau on live TV.
That?s right, Justin Trudeau clobbered Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in a charity boxing match that put the victor on the path to the prime minister?s office and left the loser?s career in tatters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZxezBSVWKw
125?STUDS TURKEL?American Author, Historian, Actor, and Broadcaster?Terkel received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985, but when he was fifteen years old, a little Studs ?let out a yell when Dempsey knocked down Tunney in the seventh round. ?We were all for Dempsey?To us, he was a real fighter, a working-class type of guy, while Tunney was a phony intellectual.? (Tunney, Jack Cavanaugh, p.363-364)
At 0:49 of the video clip below, Turkel discusses Joe Louis, ?The most honored black being until Martin Luther King Jr. came along?? . It?s a great interview?don?t miss it! http://mediaburn.org/video/studs-terkel-on-sports-part-2/
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126?WILLY VLAUTIN?American Novelist and Musician?Vlautin, author of Don?t Skip Out on Me, is an emerging writer?and big boxing fan. His novel, Lean on Pete, was recently put to film. ?I?d always wanted to write a book about boxing,? he said. ?I?ve followed the sport on and off since I was a kid and have always read about it. I always wanted to write one about an average boxer. Not a champion or a near champion but just a kid that boxed.? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArQt5bpOeu4
127?PROFESSOR VOGEL?Vogel taught philosophy at Vassar and Yale before coming to Connecticut College in 1989?He writes: ?I think my friends would acknowledge that WATCHING boxing has been a passion of mine, although none of them share it. So I?ve usually ended up roaming by myself into sports bars in God-forsaken places so I could view matches. I?m quite sure my passion was aroused when my father took me to a friend?s house to watch the first Liston-Clay fight on pay-per-view TV. I remember the announcer shouting, ?Clay has lineament in his eye. He can?t see.? How could Cassius possibly avoid Liston?s murderous punches? But he did. That hooked me, and cemented affection between me and my father. Despite our difficult relationship, we could talk about sports.
?There was even the time, when I was working on my dissertation in the 1980?s, that he had me paged at the Yale Library to ask whether he could take me to a closed-circuit showing at the New Haven Coliseum of a heavyweight championship (I can?t remember which). But we went and had dinner afterwards.?
Professor Vogel?s TEDx Talk about ?Ambivalent Modernity? is in the spirit of ideas worth spreading?and it?s well worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAu16vc9qGg
128?KING VIDOR?American Film Director, Producer, and Screenwriter?Vidor, an avid boxing buff, directed a real tear-jerker, The Champ in 1931. Vidor?s career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1979, he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award. http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/661046/Champ-The-Movie-Clip-I-Wouldn-t-Take-A-Drink.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85mQhvilfAE
129?VIRGIL?Greek Philosopher & Author?Historians have long known that boxing was popular in the Roman Empire. The sport appears in mosaics and pottery from that period, and pops up in literature?Virgil?s The Aeneid. Now, archaeologists have uncovered an extremely rare discovery?a pair of well-preserved Roman leather boxing gloves.
Interested in knowing what this ancient pair of boxing gloves looks like? Click on the link below and find out! https://www.history.com/news/only-known-boxing-gloves-from-roman-empire-discovered
130?EDWARD VILLELLA?Ballet Dancer?Villella is best known as the famed principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, and was largely considered the premier American male performer of his era.
Villella has been billed ?the studliest dancer ever.? He was a hardcore welterweight champion at the Maritime College in NY, and has spent a considerable part of his life in South Florida, training alongside some of prizefighting?s greats at Fifth Street Gym, in Miami Beach. http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/fighting/article1938152.html
131?CORNELIUS J. VANDERBILT, JR.?Society Writer?Vanderbilt, scion of one of America?s wealthiest and well-known families, was an outcast of high society who was disinherited by his parents when he became a newspaper publisher. He desired to live a ?normal? life. Cornelius was an admirer of Gene Tunney. He wrote ?Tunney is the hero of ?Young Americana?? and that ?Tunney is bringing the Irish boxer?s status as a socially acceptable ?hero? to its apex, completing the long process which paralleled the story of Irish immigration; from Yankee Sullivan?s parochial cult-hero status amongst Irish-Americans to Tunney?s near-universal appeal.? (Tunney, p.266)
132?LUPE VELEZ?Mexican-Born Stage and Screen Actress, Comedian, Singer, Dancer? Lupe, known as ?The Mexican Spitfire,? attended boxing matches every Friday night at the Hollywood Legion Stadium and would stand on her ringside seat and scream at the fighters. V?lez was linked to boxers Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey. (Although, how she was ?linked? I don?t know.)
On the evening of December 13, 1944, V?lez dined with her two friends, the silent film star Estelle Taylor (Jack Dempsey?s wife) and Benita Oakie. The next morning, Velez was found dead?a suicide victim. http://www.boxing.com/lupe_velez_vs._dolores_del_rio.html
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133?EMMA WATSON?Actress and British Artist of the Year 2014, also a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador? GO GIRL!!! She?s badass! Watson?s interest in boxing is inspiring all of us girls to unleash our inner fighter. And of course, the real most badass thing about this is that Watson is working to challenge stereotypes and bring much needed light to feminist-related issues. Boxing gloves or not, she?s fighting for equality. https://hellogiggles.com/lifestyle/health-fitness/insta-pic-emma-watson-boxing/
134?THORTON WILDER?American Novelist & Playwright?Winner of Three Pulitzer Prizes and a U.S. National Book Award?Wilder, the playwright who wrote Our Town, had a wide circle of friends and enjoyed mingling with many famous people, including Ernest Hemingway, Russell Wright, Willa Cather, Montgomery Clift?and heavyweight champ, Gene Tunney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUT2CKRVk1Y
135?P.G. WODEHOUSE?British Author & Humorist?Wodehouse was a British boxing fan who wrote White Feather, a boxing novel that I regret I have never read because I sold my copy to a book collector for a tidy sum at The Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, NY.
However, I do own a copy of Boxing?s Best Short Stories which includes one of Wodehouse?s many boxing short stories, ?The Debut of Battling Billson.? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Feather
136?MIKE WALLACE?American Journalist, Game Show Host, and Actor?Wallace, one of the original correspondents for CBS? 60 Minutes, which debuted in 1968, could be spotted at ringside in Madison Square Garden for many important bouts during 1950-2000.
137?JACK WARDEN?American Film Actor?(twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) ? Warden was expelled from high school for fighting and eventually fought as a professional boxer under the name ?Johnny Costello.? He fought in 13 bouts as a welterweight, but earned little money.
His contribution to the film em>Twelve Angry Men as a sports-obsessed juror is memorable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57wPbVpqaTs
138?MAE WEST?Actress, Singer, Playwright, Screenwriter, Comedian, and Sex Symbol ?West had more interest in certain boxers than in boxing. It?s not hard to figure out why. This glamorous sexpot took an avid interest in the well-built William ?Gorilla? Jones. Well, why not? He was the 1925 Vacant NBA Middleweight Champion. She had known since him since he was 22, becoming her boyfriend, chauffeur and bodyguard. West was his employer, friend and supporter until her death in 1980.
When the management at her Ravenswood apartment building in Hollywood barred the African American boxer from entering the premises, West solved the problem by buying the building and lifting the ban. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJS670okmZc
139?JONATHAN WINTERS?American Comedian, Actor, Author, and Artist ?Winters, a guest star on Rocky Marciano?s Main Event TV show, demonstrates, for Marciano?s amusement, how he holds his hands in the ring. ?I picked on little kids a lot,? quips Winters, using a spot-on British accent. This episode shows Sandy Saddler stopping Willy Pep in 1951. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dvNFmyrp5U
140?GUY WOOD?American Composer?Guy Wood (my father) was a lifelong boxing fan who wrote the melodies for a few hit songs: ?My One and Only Love,? ?Till Then,? and ?Shoofly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy.?
As a young boy growing up in Manchester, England, his favorite boxer was middleweight Eddie McGoorty from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. ?I was a young lad growing up in England and I liked the sound of his name?McGoooorty!? http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/11292 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2NL74LhnbM
141?H.G. WELLS?BRITISH AUTHOR?Often Called ?The Father of Science Fiction??Wells enjoyed taking walking tours with Gene Tunney, the then heavyweight champion of the world. Tunney was pleasantly surprised to find out that most of the literary lions he met on his European trip had an interest in boxing, apparently because they equated boxers with ancient warriors of the past. (Tunney, Cavanaugh, p. 385)
142?LOIC WACQUANT?Professor of Sociology at the University of California? When this French sociologist signed up at a boxing gym in a black neighborhood of Chicago?s South Side, he had never contemplated getting close to a ring, let alone climbing into it. What emerges is his book entitled Body & Soul?Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer, his scientific slant on the sweet science and the sociology of pugilism. In his book he ?denounces popular mainstream conceptions of the underclass and argues that the boxing gym is one of the many institutions that is contained within, and opposed to, the ghetto.?
If you are interested in listening to Professor Wacquant?s lecture on ?Advanced marginality, ethno-racial divisions and the strategies of the state,? click on the link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaIz32fUJkg
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143?MALCOLM X?Minister, Human Rights Activist?I?m not certain Malcolm X was a boxing fan, but he certainly was a big Cassius Clay fan. Click on the two links below and listen to Malcolm X talk about Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali, boxing, and much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgtQ6dNLBQk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1bt9F0BmPg
144?PRINCESS XENIA?Russian Royalty?This comely Princess flew all the way from London, England in her trimotor plane, piloted by her husband, William Leeds, a licensed pilot, to watch the Dempsey-Tunney championship bout held in Chicago. Other prominent spectators sitting ringside were a few Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Harrimans, and Astors. (Tunney, Cavanaugh, p. 350) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Xenia_Georgievna_of_Russia
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145?YALE UNIVERSITY?A Prestigious Ivy League School?One would not think Yale University, the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, (with a daunting 7% acceptance rate), once embraced the sport of boxing?but they certainly did.
The walls of the Payne-Whitney Gym, in New Haven, are lined with photos of Yale athletes and intermural sports club members dating back to the 1880s. Currier and Ives lithographs of cricket, horse racing, boxing, basketball and volleyball also decorate the gym.
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146?ADOLPH ZUKOR?Founder of Paramount Films?Young Adolph Zukor had been part of the stream of penniless Jewish immigrants who came to America in the late nineteenth century with their pockets empty and their heads full of dreams. Before he was a low-paid, piece-work furrier, young Adolph was hustling to make a dollar here, a dollar there. One of the ways he stumbled into making a buck was to fight for a dollar-a-round in a neighborhood boxing club. (When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport, Bodner, p. x)
147?CHUCK ZITO?Former President of the New York Chapter of the Hells Angels/ Actor, Celebrity Bodyguard & Stuntman? The buff Chuck Zito, a three-time NYC Golden Gloves boxer, discusses the Mayweather-McGregor fight. Who did he pick to win? Watch the clip below and find out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgZSFxQBHJk
So there you have it?A to Z?147 well-known boxing aficionados. We started with Aristotle and ended up with Chuck Zito. Where else, other than in boxing, would you ever hear those two names mentioned in the same sentence?Aristotle and Zito?
