Author Ryan Gregory, longtime Utah boxing trainer and manager, has provided a book, Blood on Canvas: Between Bells, that will satisfy the interests of both boxing fans and people who have a casual interest in the sport.
This is a narrative that goes deep under the gloss of the sport. It is a tale of the wanna-bes, the fighters and managers from obscure locations, without financial support, who travel to the glitzy TV cards as "B opponents," essentially enjoying two or three days to pick up a loss to a top prospect backed by the promoters.
Nothing is fixed, the fights are on the level. However, the hardscrabble life of the "B Team" - the late calls to fight, the struggles to make weight, the pressures, lead usually to a loss.
In Blood on Canvas, author Gregory takes readers on a very few days of a B fighter, and his coach, getting the opportunity to fight on a top-level card. It's a true story, but names have been changed.
It's an incredibly compelling read of an immature but talented boxer and his financially challenged coach. Both have flaws, particularly the boxer, but they are so well developed that the reader will grow to admire both despite their insecurities.
There's a whole cast of other characters, fighters, promoters, managers, event staff, all well developed.
A manager fretting that his uninspired fighter will miss the paid-for flight. The absolute fear and panic when a fighter is 16 pounds overweight a day before the weigh-in. The fighter, clad in rubber suit, jogging with his manager/trainer in the early-morning hours before dawn. The fighter skipping rope in 108-degree temperature minutes before weigh-in while his manager pleads for a weight adjustment. The strange but real camaraderie between the A and B trainers. The efficient monied assured confidence of a top promotion, including the above average lodging. All of this, including more, is in the book.
Author Gregory provides great detail. The fight, a near upset, is fascinating to read and experience. The post-fight turns from optimism to panic when the fighter gets drunk most of the night and almost misses the only bus that will get them back to the home flight.
The unique characters at every big promotion. The top fighters, trainers, hangers-on. Gregory provides interesting sketches of the long weekend, that also includes other Utah fight people on the undercard. This will fascinate boxing fans and provide an excellent introduction of the fight game to others. The goings on at the hotel where the fight takes place reminds me of reading The Harder They Fall, Budd Shulberg's classic '50s novel of the boxing game.
This may also be the best book about boxing -- from the club fighters' perspective -- written since Fat City. It gives readers an accurate look at the sport.
-- Doug Gibson
