Blog #231  11/14/17

I worked on a study of championship boxing for six years,
an in depth project that resulted in the book
“AT THE FIGHTS: Inside the World of Professional Boxing”
published by Sports Illustrated and Time/Life Books.

To the book – http://amzn.to/2yoPTPo

Images of boxers from “AT THE FIGHTS”

I attended and photographed at ringside many boxing matches all over the United States, mostly for Sports Illustrated. The evenings were very long sometimes starting at 6 or 7 p.m. and ending past midnight. I was not as interested in the early minor matches as in the later championship fights.

There was so much going on in the venues, clubs, stadia that I was able to explore and discover. One of the aspects of the sport that I recognized early on in the project was that the fighters, though they are the stars of the show, are at the top of an enormous pyramid of other players who populate the world of boxing.

I set up a small studio backstage with a backdrop and strobe lights and invited everyone who was at the fight to come in for a portrait for the project.

The supporting cast is huge:
Promoters
Managers
Match Makers
Referees
Judges
Commissioners
Ringside physicians
Inspectors
Cut Men
Trainers
Assistants
Family members of the boxers, especially fathers and brothers
Ring card girls and their employer
Medics
Security people, bouncers
EMG staff
Waitresses
Cooks
Ticket takers
Bartenders
Boxers attending as guests
Retired Boxers
Celebrities
Men and women friends of the combatants
Advertising agents
Equipment managers
Janitors
Photographers
Sports Writers
Magazine and newspaper reporters
Politicians
TV camera operators and audio crew
TV producers
Boxer liaison personnel for TV broadcast
TV gaffers and electricians
TV commentators and analysts
Ring Announcers

And, here they are, a super cast of characters,
300 individuals AT THE FIGHTS!