The hardest game

the long version

"This compilation of articles from foremost sports journalist Hugh McIlvanney provides a ringside seat to some of the most remarkable happenings in world boxing since the 1960s. At the core of this collection stands the incredible career of Muhammad Ali - the man whom McIlvanney considers the greatest figure in the history of sports, McIlvanney was also on hand to witness thrilling bouts involving Carlos Ortiz and Carlos Monzon - two of the greatest fighters ever seen - and the extraordinary contests between "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard. With the author's hallmark combination of immediacy and incisiveness, more recent writing reports on Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones, Mike Tyson, and Lennox Lewis. While McIlvanney can starkly illuminate farce and tragedy in boxing, the passion of his writing reveals that, in spite of deep and persistent doubts about its justifiability, he continues to be drawn to this, "the hardest game.""--BOOK JACKET.