Herbert Randolph Sugar

Herbert Randolph Sugar

By Simon Graham

Most of us boxing fans would love to meet our idols and share a few moments with them, I’ve been lucky enough to spend quality time and fleeting moments with several boxers who I have admired over the years, some of the greats like Jake LaMotta, Joe Frazier and Nigel Benn to name a few.

As a “wanna be” boxing historian I am thrilled to get the chance given to me by http://www.fightpost.co.uk to re-read my old books, research and now watch courtesy of the web all the old fights from days gone by and write about them.

As much as I love modern boxing there is something about the “golden age” that has always appealed to me, I guess the man responsible for sparking that interest was the famous writer and boxing historian Herbert Randolph Sugar and his book that I had as a Christmas present many years ago, 100 years of boxing.

On the opening page was this man called Bert wearing his famous Fedora and giant unlit cigar, from the moment I opened that book and read his opening statement

“Muhammed Ali once said When I retire boxing will die, he was wrong” ……………… I was hooked.

Bert Randolph was the editor of Sports illustrated and later Ring magazine but in truth he was a walking encyclopaedia of boxing, he could tell you who fought who, their weights, the round they won and what the boxers ate the morning of championship fights, his knowledge was second to non.

Sugar was a prolific writer of over 80 books, in 1990, Sugar was the recipient of the Boxing Writers Association’s Nat Fleischer Award for “Excellence in Boxing Journalism.” and entered into the Boxing Hall of Fame, his forthright no-nonsense opinion respected the world over.

If I could go back a meet just one person it would be Bert Randolph Sugar, I know that I would sit and listen to him in awe as he rolled out all the fantastic stories that he had stored away in his memory banks, my job is made all the more easy due to his hard work and dedication to a sport he loved, by reading his books and watching his interviews it is though he is talking to me and me alone, On this day in 2012 boxing lost an icon, but his own inimitable style of writing will last forever.