| Melanie Lloyd, one of the few women to write about boxing, chose 14 assorted British fighters, past and present, for her first book.
The interviewees – or “victims” as Lloyd affectionately terms them – range from the well-known like former world middleweight champion Alan Minter, who tells the story of his epic and controversial fight with Marvin Hagler, to the hardly noticed, such as journeyman Peter Buckley from Birmingham.
There’s stuff from the history books in the chapter on Billy Walker, and especially the interview with Johnny McManus, a man who sparred with the legendary Benny Lynch, but Lloyd has up-to-date characters as well like Liverpool lightweight Colin Dunne, an ex-jockey with the handicap of hating horses!
Among others, she talked to trainer Jimmy Tibbs, Welsh former world champion Steve Robinson, and tough Yorkshireman Crawford Ashley as well as Sky sports summariser Spencer Oliver whose career was cut sadly short.
The last interview in the book brought Lloyd a scoop she would rather have done without. She travelled to her Welsh homeland to talk to Howard Winstone and became the last person to interview the former world champion. Three weeks after their meeting he died.
The other interviewees are: Mickey Cantwell, James Cook, Bob Paget and Nobby Nobbs.
Renowned ITV boxing commentator Reg Gutteridge paid author Melanie Lloyd the following tribute after reading her series of in-depth, penetrating interviews: "I know most of the interviewees in ‘Sweet Fighting Man.’ They are brought to life by Melanie's enthusiastic and subtle insistence and with regular fight reporting, she knows a left hook from a coat hook. This tome is the first bell of a promising journalistic career - on the safe side of the ropes!"
The author
Melanie Lloyd is not ashamed to admit she fell in love with boxing after watching a Mike Tyson left hook on TV in the middle eighties. Since then she has become the boxing writer of the Surrey Comet newspaper – one of a very few women to report on the sport – and involved with amateur club Foley ABC in Surrey. “I am,” she says, “Secretary, Press Secretary and General Mother Hen Type Person.”
"... a superb read.
Buckley's insights are brilliant...
Every one of the 14 interviews is hugely interesting...
This is a must for the British boxing fan."
Boxing News |
