One Ring Circus: Dispatches from the World of Boxing

Strong ringmaster commands boxing arena in One Ring Circus

First appeared at WBAN

One Ring Circus is a collection of previously published articles by author and journalist Katherine Dunn, who has covered boxing for thirty years. It is a moving tribute to the world of boxing and a rare cohesive sampling of boxing journalism.

The structure of the book takes a little getting used to. It’s unusual to find a collection of journalism articles in book format, so as you become engrossed in the book reading experience, it can be jarring to find dated information, such as speculation of what will happen with a fighter in 1985.

So think of it as a collection of short stories, because that’s really what it is. There are pieces introducing fighters such as Andy Minsker and Alexis Arguello; blow-by-blow accounts of title fights such as Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvelous Marvin Hagler; an overview of the rise of women’s boxing; and explorations of controversy, like Mike Tyson biting the ears of Evander Holyfield.

Each piece belies the depth of thought that is borne of years of meticulous attention and intelligent analysis. Dunn is raring to tackle your misgivings about the sweet science, and even if you have none, her carefully developed perspectives are bound to introduce some insights you hadn’t considered before.

Dunn’s style is prosaic journalism, to coin a term. It’s tight and factual, yet smothered in tone and bravado for a richness that makes it read like fiction, and not just any fiction – stylized fiction from the 1940’s gangster underworld. Think “gritty”… “snot-nosed”… “sleazy.” Open this book and you walk into a blue-collar neighborhood boxing club, where the coaches are hard as James Cagney, and their hearts as big as Vegas. Her voice is at once anachronistic and original.

The whole book is a send-up to the sport. The language is over-the-top in order to set the stage; the characters are larger than life. Every fighter is the stuff of legend. Where there’s spit, it’s flying; where there’s blood, it’s spewing; when boxers fight, they collide. It’s a super-saturated image that will imprint onto your brain. It’s all atmosphere.

And it works. To read this book is to be transported into a specialized world, and that’s what a good book does. Although the style is heavy, at times cloying in its gyrations to keep her voice swaggering, Dunn succeeds in each colorful turn-of-phrase. She’s a skilled writer.

A curious part of reading this, for me, was figuring out who she was writing to. The subject matter is specialized enough – boxer profiles, fight reports – that the audience would likely be reading her work because they are boxing fans. Surely this is the case by the time it’s in a dedicated collection, at least. Yet Dunn is constantly explaining the boxing world at an introductory level, like the tour guide cheerfully demonstrating her familiarity with the natives.

I can answer that in part myself. As a fan of women’s boxing, I recognized her profile piece exalting Lucia Rijker, which ran in Women’s Sports and Fitness magazine in 1998. Most of that magazine’s readers would not necessarily be erudite boxing fans, so she at once was charged with introducing the sport as well as the fighter. These articles are from various projects, newspapers and magazines, from Sports Illustrated Women to Mother Jones, so with each one, Dunn would face the same charge.

Therefore, when you’re reading these articles one after the other, you’re not only reading about the fighters in each piece, you’re digesting the body of work that is the Dunn school of boxing philosophy. She patiently, and with originality every time, rolls out her basics: boxing is a tough, beautiful sport full of love, but it suffers from a bad image imparted to the masses by the general media that misunderstands it.

The personalities are huge, the fights epic clashes, the world pure theater. And every step of the way, she lavishes love on the boxing world and holds up the very best parts to make sure you see them.

But it’s not all idealization. Dunn delivers as a journalist by laying to light the mistakes, swindling, and flaws that permeate this pugilistic world as well. One excellent aspect of the book is the order in which the pieces are arranged. The introduction and epilogue help unify the collection. The early chapters amount to an introduction to boxing that pops, dances, and draws you in. The middle steadies the rhythm with sustained portraiture of faces and moments, and the last third of the book – called The Big Risk – is a powerful close. By that point, I wanted to see more of the dark underbelly of the sport. The glorification was getting to me a bit, like needing a break from a refrain in a song. Then Dunn unfolded the story of boxer Johnny Tapia. Tapia’s story is dramatic enough that it needs no embellishment –aptly, Dunn tones down her creativity and punches it out with taut journalism. Tapia’s tragic personality and how it affects his family is sobering and heavy. This piece is the ballad of the opera, and completes it.

Oregonians will be proud to see a body of work highlight the Portland boxing community, with names of local fighters, places, and papers such as Willamette Week, the tabloid that launched Dunn as a boxing journalist.

While the fans and managers are quick to remember the names of fighters, they don’t always recognize the literary lovers of the sport who use their writing skills and talent to bind it together. Dunn provides this literary glue for the Rose City’s boxing crowd, for both men and women boxers at large, and for the entire population of the boxing world. This book is testament that she has been slugging it out in her writing world right alongside the boxers, and demonstrates that she’s a champ, too.

Interested in more books on boxing? Check this out.

Everlast EverGel Glove wraps

So I traded in my Gel Bag Heavy Wrap for a pair of these, and boy, am I glad I did. These are great. There are still some areas for improvement, but I'm enjoying hitting the heavy bag with these. I'm using them instead of handwraps. These fit (albeit just barely) into my G&S super heavy bag gloves.

The gel cushioning over the knuckles is dramatic. It's thick and solid and completely covers the knuckle area. The main problem I was trying to solve was bruising my knuckles, and this looks like it's the best solution out there. I still feel the power of the impact of each punch, and now I can really unleash. Plus, they're much faster and easier to put on and take off than handwraps.

But they're not perfect. First, I get a few tiny red spots in between some of my fingers, where the skin folds, from the material jamming during the work out. I can't feel it happening. It's pretty minimal, but a little of that padding in this area would probably take care of it completely.

Secondly, although Everlast markets these as superior alternatives to handwraps, they do not stabilize the hand. The wrist, yes, but not the bones in the hand itself. My hand was actually aching a bit the first time I used them, just because it was getting pushed around. But it's not to the degree that I feel it after the work out. Still, if you're not having trouble with bruising, I'd have to think that handwraps would be more protective. Additionally, there is literally no support of the thumb.

Thirdly, these are delicate. The instructions say "remove gently to prevent tearing." What?! Okay, I am, but come on. It's surely the materials making up the rest of the glove outside of the knuckle covering - thin nylon - that's in danger of tearing. The thing is, these are very snug, and once you work out in them, perspiration makes them practically adhere to your hands, so getting them off carefully takes...well, a lot of care.

Update: After 14 months of using these strictly inside my bag gloves, on an Everlast bag, they are splitting and ripping where I didn't expect them to. See bottom for photos. Mind you, I have only worn these inside of quality bag gloves.

Finally, these rubber palms do not breathe, they stifle, and your hands will sweat. They should have thought of this and used a breathable fabric, if not wicking. And the materials they use in these gloves, like the bag wrap, really wreaks of a chemical smell. (Note: the tag says they're all nylon, but their ad copy says the palm is rubber, which is certainly seems to be.)

But with all those complaints, I'm pretty happy with these, mainly because of the knuckle protection, and that they're so much faster and overall easier to deal with than handwraps. And oh yeah - they look cool.

(listed at $25 but normally on "sale" for $20)

Get them at Everlast Web site or here:



Marketing copy
One of our best-selling items, the Evergel™ Glove Wraps are a huge success among boxers of all ages and levels. Wear under bag gloves and training gloves as a convenient and more protective alternative to handwraps, or wear alone for light bag work, mitts, speed bag, grappling and more. EverGel™ protector supplies state of the art cushioning and support over knuckles, hands and wrist. Elastic and neoprene construction with rubber palm for sure grip. Hook-and-loop tabs for firm wrist support.

Damage photos, 14 mo.


Damage photos, 24 mo.

G&S Sporting Goods WV super bag gloves

They only look purple; they're black.

I just received and worked out in my first pair of "real" boxing gloves. With some guidance from boxinggyms.com, I decided on the super bag gloves from G&S Sporting Goods, a NYC company with an impressive history, customer base, and much better prices than I could find for professional gloves anywhere else.

(The guy on the phone was a real NYer, with a thick accent. He wasn't afraid to make suggestions - helpful ones at that. Looks like they wrote out my order by hand, ran it on a hand-slide card machine, and then addressed the box (no packing material) by hand with a marker. I really like this "real people" touch. The only thing that gave me pause was when he asked, "Are these for you or someone else?" Who else would they be for? Oh - a son, a husband, a brother, of course. Whatever. I'm probably being overly sensitive.

So the gloves: they look well made, thanks to our Indian manufacturers. They have heavy velcro wristwraps. No matter what marketers say, altho it's obviously easier than laces, it's still challenging to take a glove off or put it on when your other hand is in one. And I'd like to see loops on the wrists to hang the gloves up in storage.

Due to the molded shape, knuckles stay flat, which helps in hitting head-on instead of the edge of the hand in a flurry. Leather makes such a satisfying SMACK sound on the bag. Rubber foam cushioning is thick indeed and dense, not puffy, so the gloves seem only as big as need to be, which, for someone my size (glove size 7), is plenty big enough. The medium was the perfect size for a snug fit over handwraps and tape, tho the wrist has a little play in it unless I wrap up onto the forearm for bigger circumference. Thumb is attached, which is pretty standard now.

They smell good.

What struck me most was the weight. At 12 oz., the gloves didn't seem heavy when I was toying with them, but it wasn't long into the work out before they got pretty heavy, and I felt slow. It wasn't until the end of my work out that I was beginning to get into the groove with them. I think this is exciting - I'm about to make gains, so I want to remember how heavy these feel right now. My shoulders felt worked at the end, which is nice. [ETA Adaptation was fast and this heaviness quickly became just a memory, but it is worth noting in case you're switching from cheap sports store gloves like I did.]

And the best part is - my hands haven't been getting nearly as injured as they had been in the cheap $29 gloves from the sports store. Bottom line - they're definitely worth it.

(around $45 - a real bargain for gloves of this quality - expect to pay $100 elsewhere)

Get a pair from G&S Sporting Goods

Everlast Gel Heavy Bag Wrap

So I got myself an early present, the Everlast Gel Heavy Bag Wrap. I am not sold. This wrap is a much-needed idea, but the product needs work.

First off, it's slippery. Looks like they chose the fabric so the velcro hooks could grab. Slippery on the outside means when I try to land hooks or uppercuts, or if I hit just the slightest bit off square, my glove goes sliding right off the surface. This is dangerous to my joints. Maybe I can use it for aiming drills, but I won't want to use it for combinations all the time, especially if I'm going all-out with power and speed. For that I'm going to use a bag with leather or something similar, like bags are covered with. Secondly, slippery on the inside means that within a couple of minutes, the wrap is sliding off the bag. I have adjusted for a smaller opening at the top, to no avail. This shouldn't take a specialist to figure out that it needs a strap of some kind over the top to secure it.

The whole thing is stark black, save for the obligatory branding on a patch at midpoint. It needs markings similar to bags so I can fix on a point to target, and have some guides for bodypoints. The same company made my bag, with stripes positioned for this purpose, and even the logo works for this, so how'd they overlook this feature on the wrap?

Next is the sound. Ah, there's nothing like the smack of my gloves on a heavybag. But this funky slick material absorbs the sound, and I'm robbed.

The one good thing is that the wrap delivers what it's made to do: the cushioning is so effective that I scarcely felt like I was hitting anything. That's off-putting at first, to be sure, but the idea of being able to unleash my force without fear of bruised knuckles and injured hands afterward is why I bought this thing in the first place.

So I've boxed it up and am sending it in to exchange for the gel wrap gloves they're pushing; marketing says you can use them instead of handwraps. They're $20, the wrap was $30. ETA Much more pleased with the gloves; here's that review.

Everlast, please take this one back to the drawing board. It's a simple concept, but not as simple as you treated it. I'll be waiting for the improved version.

Marketing copy
Convert any heavy bag to awesome gel!

Helps extend the life of old bags or effectively cover tears or holes. Adjustable design with 4" hook-and-loop closure secures snugly to all bags - old or new.

Shadowboxers

A mesmerizing and inspiring documentary portrait of the world of women's boxing, focusing on world champion and my hero, Lucia Rijker, known as "the most dangerous woman in the world." I'm a boxing enthusiast, but this film has much to offer anyone. Great inspirational gift for any female finding her own way in the wild world of fitness or sports.

($25 for movie, $25 for poster)

Get it at Shadowboxers.com or here: