North Point Press

Now he was in that distressful state when every evasive move brings new disaster, until it seems to the boxer and his public that he is ducking into fists, circling into fists, slipping into fists.

One thing all these victors have in common is that they went into the ring as long shots; the man who demolishes a concept is never popular.

You never learn anything until you’re tired.” He would therefore let his students bat each other about for ten or twelve five-minute rounds before he began trying to teach them, and I sometimes think the trouble with young fighters nowadays is that they are never allowed to become sufficiently exhausted.