The Sweet Science Goes Sour: How Scandal Brought Boxing to Its Knees.

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Thomas Myler approaches the subject of corruption in boxing from a decidedly British and European perspective. The boxing writer for the Irish Independent and the Irish correspondent for Boxing News, he reserves his most laudatory adjectives for the English fighter, Don Cockell, savaged by Rocky Marciano in May of 1955. “When the supremely gallant Briton arose on shaky legs, his eyes glassy,” Myler says, “Rocky rushed across the ring with a non-stop attack, both arms flailing.”

Myler’s survey of boxing’s crooked fights, gangster infiltration, and mismatches is chiefly a compilation of reports and stories from assorted publications. His bibliography runs a full four pages and, besides books, includes citations from magazines, record books, even videos. Though he is careful in most cases to include his sources in the body of his text, there are other instances where his descriptions of a fight are more a composite of other commentators and writers. His language is florid and tinged with a British sensibility. An example is his report of the November 15, 1980, rematch between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran—the fight in which Duran quit in the eighth round. Myler says, “Near the end of the round, the crowd enjoyed a real slugfest as both boxers punched it out for nearly 30 seconds to great cheers.”

The Sweet Science Goes Sour was originally published in Great Britain as Boxing’s Hall of Shame; weights are given in “stone” rather than pound. That, and the addition of “Jun.” and “Sen.” instead of Jr. and Sr. to fighters’ names should have been modified for this North American edition. But Myler’s coverage is good. His chronology jumps around when he discusses fights, but he has included most of the notorious phony and suspicious bouts. Having all of this in one place is a bonus for fans.