Donald McRae speaks to Thomas Hauser in a meeting of renowned writers
BOXING is redeemed by the humanity of its fighters and their trainers. The courage and compassion, as well as the ambition and dedication of its most admirable men, mean that a dirty old business can keep on saving itself.
Of course there is also brutality and deceit; but you only need to walk into any gym around the world, or to talk to a boxer either just before or after a dangerous fight, to still be fascinated and uplifted.
There are also some special people on the safe side of the ropes. Thomas Hauser, in a striking example, represents the best of boxing. The gifted and scholarly 64-year-old former New York attorney has become boxing?s most indispensable writer with a stream of books and internet columns that strip away the layers of intrigue to reveal a compelling world.
Hauser has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and written an international bestseller that has been turned into a serious Hollywood movie, Missing, directed by Costa Gavras, but he is proudest of his boxing legacy. Whether writing Muhammad Ali?s biography, embedding himself in the corner of Manny Pacquiao?s dressing room or shredding boxing?s power-brokers, Hauser instills passion and gravitas into his work.
He has also just written the boxing book of the year, with his brief but beautiful novel, Waiting for Carver Boyd.
The book is a fifth of the length of a traditional novel; but its economy of scale and spare prose has produced a haunting and involving depiction of boxing in its purest form. Carver Boyd is a menacing and unhinged heavyweight champion of the world while Hauser?s hero, a fighter whose name we never learn, has to find the inner strength to face a ring ogre who occupies a darker place than Sonny Liston or Mike Tyson did at their destructive worst. The book is written in the voice of the fighter and, as much a love story as a taut ride through the build-up and explosive culmination of a world heavyweight title fight, it?s never less than gripping.
?People ask how long it took to write this book,? Hauser says, ?and I tell them, ?10 years or 10 days ? depending on your point of view.? The actual writing took only 10 days and, at one point, I said, ?I really could expand this into a 250-page novel.? But I thought, ?No, it will start to buckle under its own weight.? I wanted this to be short and sparse. And I think it?s more credible as I tried to write it as the fighter would ? without any flowery embellishments.
?If I was to trace the train of thought that led to the book, it would go back to before I became a boxing writer ? to the first fight between Marvin Hagler and Vito Antuofermo [in Las Vegas in 1979]. That fight ended in a draw. But, beforehand, everybody believed Vito had no chance. I thought there might be an interesting article about Vito being led to slaughter. In my mind I called it Waiting for Marvin. I didn?t write it. But years later, I wanted to write a short work of fiction about what it?s like to fight an intimidating champion. I remembered ?Waiting for Marvin? and it was just a case of making the connection between the two.?
Hauser believes his best book is Mark Twain Remembers ? a novel about Twain, slavery and boxing that is told in the imagined voice of the great American writer. The book has been optioned for the screen by a variety of big-hitters from Steven Spielberg to Clint Eastwood. At Spielberg?s request, Ronald Harwood, who wrote the Oscar-winning The Pianist, has written a screenplay based on Hauser?s book. Before he began Carver Boyd, Hauser planned a similar book to the Twain offering ? about Charles Dickens and written from the Victorian novelist?s perspective.
?But I knew I?d have to read a half-dozen Dickens biographies first,? Hauser explains. ?Then I?d have to spend another six months trawling through everything Dickens wrote. I couldn?t face it at that particular point, so I decided to write Waiting for Carver Boyd. I wanted to show what it?s like to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world when the title actually matters.?
It?s possible to imagine Tyson in a cinematic version. Hauser agrees: ?If you had to get a boxer to play Carver Boyd, Tyson would be the obvious choice ? although he?s probably a bit too old now.? In a prelude, the book?s narrator says that Carver Boyd is as good a fighter as Tyson ever was. Outside the ring, he?s worse.
Over the last 26 years Hauser has poured himself into boxing. That immersion in the ring has allowed him to write about the fight business with a particular resonance and truth. His first book, The Black Lights, a gritty but evocative piece of non-fiction, follows Billy Costello as he defends his WBC light-welterweight world title against Saoul Mamby in an otherwise forgotten fight from November 1984. An unflinching depiction of the boxing business contrasts with the intimate detail Hauser uses to draw us into Costello?s world.
?I had just finished writing a murder-mystery, The Beethoven Conspiracy, and I wanted to write a sports book,? Hauser says. ?Baseball was my sport as a kid but you can?t just walk into Yankee Stadium and talk to the [New York] Yankees ? just like you can?t talk to players from Manchester United. But you know how accessible fighters and trainers are around the world. So I decided to write a boxing book and build it around a
championship fight. But I didn?t want to follow an elite fighter ? a Ray Leonard or Marvin Hagler. I was more interested in writing about what it was like to be a fighter struggling to get a TV date and who wasn?t on top of the world.
?At first I toyed with the idea of building the book around Edwin Rosario [the former WBC lightweight champion]. He was managed by Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton, and I knew them well. I went to two of Rosario?s title defences in Puerto Rico, against Roberto Elizondo and Howard Davis. But the language barrier would have made it difficult to get into Rosario?s head. Then I met Billy Costello when I went to interview Gerry
Cooney. I liked Billy a lot. I said, ?This is my guy.? Whatever happens to me in the future, Billy Costello will always be my champion.?
Billy epitomises everything Hauser loves most about boxing. It seems unusual that, after his defeat to Alexis Arguello in 1986, Costello did not lose another fight. He retired for six years but, making a comeback in 1992, he won his next nine bouts. His last contest, a narrow win over Juan LaPorte in the summer of 1999, brought an end to his career on the murky fringes of big-time boxing.
?That fight against LaPorte was on an awful bill in North Carolina,? Hauser recalls. ?It was called ?Night of the Legends? and featured fights between past-their-prime former champions. There was Larry Holmes against Bonecrusher Smith, Tim Witherspoon against Greg Page. Both Billy and LaPorte were well past their prime. The general feeling was that LaPorte won but Billy got the decision. This is what I love about Billy. After the fight, in a TV interview, Billy said: ?To be honest, a draw would have been
fairer.? How often do you hear that from a fighter? That sums up Billy Costello.?
From chronicling the hard life and times of a journeyman champion, Hauser found himself face-to-face with The greatest of all-time. Muhammad Ali, and his wife Lonnie, met with Hauser in 1988 to discuss their hope that he would write a definitive and authorised biography.
?I was 14 in 1960 when he won his Olympic gold,? Hauser says. ?So I really grew up with him. I was a freshman in college when he beat Sonny Liston. And the war in Vietnam, which he refused to fight, I was very much opposed to. I also tracked his involvement in the Civil Rights movement and so I was always deeply aware of Muhammad Ali?s significance.
?I met with Muhammad and Lonnie in New York, and it was one of his bad days. Now, I think, he has mostly bad days. Back then he had good days and bad days. I thought, ?I don?t want to write this book if it?s going to depress me for two years.? But Lonnie invited me to Berrien Springs where they lived to see how we got along. I thought, ?The worst thing that can happen is that I?ll spend four days with Muhammad Ali. That can?t be bad.? I got there late in the afternoon and, the first evening, I found it hard to make eye contact with him. Outside of John F. Kennedy, my boyhood hero, I don?t think anyone else would have shaken me up so much as Muhammad Ali. But the next morning, I went down to the kitchen. Muhammad was sitting at the kitchen table and asked, ?Do you want cornflakes or granola?? ?
Hauser laughs at the memory, realising again how a simple question, albeit from one of the icons of the last century, shaped the rest of his life. ?I said to myself, ?Tom, loosen up. He?s just a person. Don?t put him on a pedestal ? talk to him like you would talk to anyone else.? From that point on it was wonderful. I don?t think I?ll ever have a professional project that brings me as much joy.
?Initially, Muhammad and Lonnie wanted an autobiography like the one Ali had collaborated on with Richard Durham in the 1970s. I said, ?I?m not going to do it that way because it has already been done. Besides, no-one is going to believe Muhammad sat down and wrote a book. I want to do something else.? I also said I wanted to control the manuscript and this would not be a puff piece. I wanted to show Muhammad as he was and still is ? a wonderful human being and a great man but someone who was also flawed. They put a lot of trust in me. They went along with it, and it?s to their credit that the book turned out so well.?
It is typical of Hauser?s generosity that he knew from the outset he could not rely on his own words to convey the majesty and importance of Ali?s story. He stresses that, ?from the very beginning I felt the best way to do it was as an oral history because Muhammad had impacted on so many people?s lives. There was a wonderful book about the Civil Rights movement by Howell Raines ? My Soul Is Rested. It was an oral history and I thought: ?That?s the way to do it.??
Hauser could easily argue that no-one else will ever matter as much as Ali. Yet, asked whether Bob Arum had made an overblown comparison in saying Pacquiao deserved to be considered alongside Ali, Hauser offers a thoughtful answer: ?It?s a valid analogy in a lot of ways. First, they?re both great fighters. Manny is really remarkable. Forget the nonsense about eight world titles. He has an extra-ordinary record of accomplishment ? going up in weight and ducking nobody.
?I?ve been in Manny?s dressing room for his last four fights. One thing I?ve noticed with Manny in the dressing room is that, when he?s getting ready to fight, it?s like he?s going out to play a game. Ali knew he was going to war. Manny seems so casual. But against Antonio Margarito, Manny?s compassion was obvious in the way he turned to the referee and asked him to stop the fight. It reminded me of the last round of Ali?s fight against Buster Mathis. Ali wouldn?t hit Buster. He just pushed him away.
?But more significantly, Manny means to the Filipino people what Ali meant to African-Americans. Manny has lifted the spirits of an entire people and he believes he has a mission in life that goes far beyond boxing. He takes his politics very seriously and he?s a
thoroughly decent man.
?I have a housekeeper who comes to my apartment in New York every other Monday. She?s a Filipino woman and she adores Manny. I wrote an article for SecondsOut [the boxing website with which Hauser?s writing has become synonymous] entitled Tina Meets Manny. I wanted to personify the adoration that the Filipino people have for him. I asked Tina if she would like to meet him and took her to one of his press conferences.
?I remember the look on Tina?s face when she saw him. We went over and I sat her down and they talked for 10 minutes. Afterwards, she said to me, ?He was so nice. He?s the most famous person in the history of our country and I?m nobody to him and he asked me about my children and he really made me feel like I?m somebody.? That?s the sort of thing Ali would do. It?s genuine. The article went online and Tina said she got calls and e-mails from people she hadn?t seen for 50 years. Now, whenever Tina comes to clean my apartment, she announces, ?It?s Tina the rock star!??
Tina, presumably, does not share the same affection for Floyd Mayweather Jnr. Hauser has also become increasingly disenchanted with a fighter he feels has been avoiding Pacquiao while, of more concern, plummeting to dark depths.
?I don?t know Floyd well,? Hauser says. ?I have a sense of him and I admire his dedication to his craft. He always comes in shape and he?s a very good fighter ? but like many people I have issues with how he conducts himself outside the ring. I also firmly believe he is ducking Manny. If you?re avoiding your greatest challenge, how can you claim to be the best pound-for-pound fighter??
Does Mayweather himself believe that he would lose to the Pacman?
?I wouldn?t go that far. I think he?s more concerned about losing to Manny than to most of the guys he has fought. Floyd tends to duck his biggest challenges. He wouldn?t fight [Miguel] Cotto for a long time. I?m sure he?d be ready to fight Cotto now because Miguel is on a downward slide. He wouldn?t fight Shane Mosley until Shane got old. He wouldn?t fight Margarito. I?m sure he would fight Margarito now.
?Manny is different. He would like to fight Floyd because Manny relishes the biggest challenges and he likes to entertain the public. He also understands how much the public wants to see this fight, so he?d like to face Floyd for that reason as well. And of course he would make a lot of money. If it ever happens there?ll be a huge amount of hype and we?ll all be plugged into it.
?As for the outcome, a lot would depend on the weight. Floyd is a naturally bigger man and my guess is he would not agree to meet Manny at 147. Floyd would probably want 150 or 154. But, even then, it might not happen.?
Hauser speaks with more warmth about his favourite British fighters. ?First and foremost, I?m a big Lennox Lewis fan. He was the best heavyweight of his time, he broke the American stranglehold on the division and he?s one of only three heavyweights who retired as champion and stayed retired. I have a lot of respect for the way he conducts himself in public. I also admire the fact that he?s curious intellectually. There are times when we?re talking and I?ll use a word he doesn?t know and he?ll ask me what it means. He?s not ashamed. In fact he told me Howard Cosell called him ?unheralded?. Lennox said that sounded nice but he didn?t know what it meant ? so he looked it up in the dictionary. Lennox is a credit to boxing. He?s just a great person.
?I also admire Joe Calzaghe enormously. The fact that he walked away undefeated is something I respect a lot. I?m a fan of Ricky Hatton as well. He?s a nice man who gave everything in the ring. As an aside, if Emma Bowe wants to ?help? Ricky the best thing she can do is shut her big, fat, ugly mouth. Those three guys are everything that boxing should be.?
Some of Hauser?s finest work on SecondsOut has centered on his relentless unpeeling of the machinations that blight boxing ? and prevent the best fights from happening because of the greed, hypocrisy, and incompetence of promoters, TV executives and sanctioning bodies. He recently undertook a three-part investigation into the way that HBO controls a stagnant boxing industry in America. His findings made uncomfortable reading.
?I ruffled some feathers but I think most people in boxing, even at HBO, believe in what I?m doing. Boxing has become a niche sport in the US. It?s not struggling in the Philippines, Germany, Puerto Rico or Mexico. It?s doing okay in Britain. But it?s struggling here. We all know the reasons. There are no recognisable champions and boxing cuts its audience off from its flagship events. How popular would Tiger Woods be if you had to pay $54.95 to watch him play one of golf?s major tournaments? Boxing?s economic model is wrong. Also, HBO is the most powerful force in boxing, and the people making judgments there on what to televise are not always wise.?
Does Hauser believe boxing is capable of changing its pay-per-view model?
?I hope so. It?s going to have to in order to thrive. It?s just nuts. You don?t have to pay $55 to watch the World Cup or Wimbledon. They say you can watch big fights on tape delay a week later on HBO. How many people wait to watch the World Cup final a week after it happens??
Boxing, meanwhile, staggers on and a consequence is that outlets like SecondsOut are embroiled in a brutal commercial battle. There has to be some doubt as to how long they can keep paying a premier writer like Hauser, whose internet columns are gathered together every year in book form by the University of Arkansas Press, which ensures his work is kept for posterity. Hauser remains committed to SecondsOut but he has also begun to write occasionally for other websites and publications.
?Whatever happens,? he insists, ?I?ll always write about boxing. At any given time I have a list of about 40 articles I?d still like to write. I didn?t really get into boxing with both feet until 10 years ago. I wrote The Black Lights and the Ali biography and occasional articles but, as you know, there are so many layers to this sport. It wasn?t until I started my regular internet column that I began to understand all the nuances to the business. It?s been a fascinating journey. I ask myself sometimes: ?What would it have meant for history if someone had been in Joe Louis?s dressing room and had written down everything that happened before he fought Max Schmeling ? or in Sugar Ray Robinson?s dressing room before he fought Jake LaMotta?? I don?t know if anyone has ever chronicled the contemporary boxing scene the way I have over the last decade. It has been a real privilege and honour and I never take it for granted when I?m in a dressing room. Before I started writing, I was a lawyer on Wall Street. If you have to work on a Saturday night, this is better. I?ve written 41 books and 20 of them are on boxing. I believe my boxing writing will be my most significant creative legacy. Most important of all, I still love doing it.?
