A Ringside Affair

For three decades at the end of the twentieth century - throughout boxing's most engrossing era - James Lawton was ringside, covering every significant bout, spending time with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hitman Hearns, Roberto Duran, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and many other great fighters. Lawton found himself captivated by the sport as he followed it around the world. From a big fight's initial announcement, through the fighters' punishing training regimes, the overblown press conferences and dramatic weigh-ins, up to the bout itself and its savage fall-out - Lawton observed and absorbed it all, grateful for the remarkable access he was afforded. He witnessed Ali screaming in pain for his dressing-room lights to be turned out after a fight; he was there to meet Tyson at the prison gates on his release in 1992; he listened as former champions wept while struggling to find their new place in the world. As part of a small, tight-knit group of sportswriters with the privilege of covering each fight in such intimate detail, Lawton formed lifelong friendships and found himself forever altered by being caught up in the whirlwind of a sport at its most spellbinding. A Ringside Affair brings that brilliant epoch back to life - and puts it in the perspective it deserves. It salutes the epic quality of boxing's last years of glory, retraces arguably the richest inheritance bequeathed to any sport, and speculates on the possibility that we will never see such fighting again. It is part celebration, part lament, but perhaps most of all it is a personal record of some of the most enthralling and challenging days produced by the world's oldest sport.

James Lawton first started covering top-flight sport as a 19-year-old for the Daily Telegraph in 1963 and, after a seven-year stint in North America, went on to become chief sportswriter of the Daily Express and the Independent. He received numerous accolades including being voted sportswriter of the year three times, as well as sports columnist and sports feature writer of the year. He wrote 14 books, including an award-winning collaboration with Sir Bobby Charlton on his two volumes of autobiography. His Forever Boys: The Days of Citizens and Heroes, was the Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year 2015.

Prologue 1 New York, September 1977 2 Montreal, June 1980 3 Las Vegas, October 1980 4 New Orleans, November 1980 5 Las Vegas, September 1981 6 Las Vegas, November 1984 7 Las Vegas, April 1985 8 New York, January 1987 9 Las Vegas, April 1987 10 Las Vegas, August 1987 11 Tokyo, March 1988 12 Seoul, March 1988 13 Atlantic City, June 1988 14 Tokyo, February 1990 15 Las Vegas, October 1990 16 Indianapolis, February 1992 17 Las Vegas, November 1992 18 San Antonio, Texas, September 1993 19 Indianapolis, March 1995 20 Sacramento, May 1995 21 Las Vegas, June 1997 22 New York, March 1999 23 Memphis, Tennessee, June 2002 Epilogue Acknowledgements