This collection of award-winning boxing journalist Mike Silver’s best articles from the past 40 years features a colorful mix of hard-hitting exposes and light-hearted stories that include legendary boxers such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Oscar De La Hoya, and more.
The boxing world has witnessed some spectacular and iconic moments, from the “Thrilla in Manila” to the last encounter between Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta. In The Night the Referee Hit Back: Memorable Moments from the World of Boxing, award-winning boxing journalist Mike Silver looks back at some of boxing’s most legendary fights, talks with Hall of Famers Archie Moore, Carlos Ortiz, Emile Griffith and Curtis Cokes, and analyzes the changes that have taken place in boxing since the Golden Age. This collection, drawn from the author’s best articles from the past 40 years, are a colorful mix of hard-hitting exposes, interviews, and light-hearted stories featuring boxers such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Joe Frazier, Oscar De La Hoya, and Muhammad Ali.
Mike Silver captures the essence, charisma, tragedy, and romance of boxing like no one else. Featuring numerous historical and iconic photographs, The Night the Referee Hit Back is a fascinating and valuable collection for boxing fans and sports historians alike.
Mike Silver is an internationally respected boxing historian and author. He has been an Inspector with the New York State Athletic Commission; a boxing promoter; a historical consultant and on-air commentator for 19 televised boxing documentaries; a curator of the “Sting Like a Maccabee: The Golden Age of the Jewish Boxer” exhibit at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia; and a co-curator of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival’s centerpiece program, “Jews, Boxing, and Hollywood.” Silver continues to research and write about the sport as a member of the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) and is the author of two critically acclaimed books: The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science (2008) and Stars in the Ring: Jewish Champions in the Golden Age of Boxing: A Photographic History (2016). His website is mikesilverboxing.com.
Foreword Teddy Atlas
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: THE WAY IT WAS
1: Boxing in Olde New York: Unforgettable Stillman’s Gym
2: The Night the Referee Hit Back
3: Ali vs. Shavers: The Morning After
4: No Heart-Shaped Boxes on This Valentine’s Day
5: Where Were You on March 8, 1971?
6: Benny Valgar: Forgotten Boxing Master
7: Boxers 2, Strongmen 0
8: The President Boxer
9: The Other Billy Graham
PART II: THE WAY I SEE IT
10: Don’t Blame Ruby: A Boxing Tragedy Revisited
11: The Myth of “The Thrilla in Manila”
12: Get in Line Pacquiao–Marquez IV: Boxing’s Top Ten One Punch KOs
13: Foul Play in Philly
14: Fights of the Century: Then . . . and Now
15: Is Floyd Mayweather Jr. an All-Time Great Boxer? The Experts Weigh In
16: Boxing’s Ten Greatest Quotes
17: Dempsey’s Arm and the State of Modern Boxing
18: A World of Professional Amateurs
PART III: INTERVIEWS
19: Archie Moore
20: Emile Griffith
21: Carlos Ortiz
22: Ted Lowry
23: Curtis Cokes
PART IV: BONUS ROUNDS
24: “I Coulda Been a Contender”: Roger Donoghue, the Man Who Taught Brando How to Box
25: The Brooklyn Kid vs. the Marsupial Mauler
26: So You Wanna Be a Boxer?
27: Teddy’s Master Class
28: Boxing’s Five-Decade Men
Notes
Sources
Index
About the Author
In this fast-paced, enjoyable collection of essays, boxing historian Silver (The Art of Boxing) gathers the best of his articles covering four decades of professional boxing . . . Along the way, Silver covers President Teddy Roosevelt’s early boxing days, as well as the championship bouts of Floyd Mayweather, and includes interviews with such greats as Archie Moore, Emile Griffith, and Carlos Ortiz. Loaded with information and anecdotes, this will be a welcome addition to the libraries of boxing fans and sports pundits.— Publishers Weekly
A knockout . . . When you read these interviews it is more than just words on a page, you feel you are sitting in on the conversations as the voices come to life. Mike [Silver]’s knowledge and insight is unparalleled. He brings you back to the days of great writers such as Bob Edgren and Jimmy Cannon . . . If you want an education in the Art of Boxing, Mike Silver is the man to read.— Boxing Over Broadway
Silver is a reliable historian and an ardent spokesperson for boxing’s past. He looks back fondly on the time when the sweet science was ‘a relevant part of the social fabric’ of America and had ‘the capacity to address issues involving history, ideology, violence, politics, gender, and race.’— The Ring
There was a time boxing was the biggest sport in this country, bigger than baseball. The great historian Mike Silver reminds us why in his latest book, The Night the Referee Hit Back. His collection of stories punch, bob, weave and bang the body—but this time in a way that can touch your heart, without cracking a rib.— Teddy Atlas, Hall of Fame trainer and ESPN boxing analyst
Mike Silver’s knowledge of boxing history is unparalleled, but what makes him so valuable to read is the insight he brings to the subject—whether he’s demythologizing the Thrilla in Manila, putting Floyd Mayweather’s achievements into critical perspective, or chronicling boxing’s bygone golden age. Collecting some of his finest work over the years, The Night the Referee Hit Back is a Silver primer for the uninitiated and a treasure trove for the connoisseur. Opinionated but fair, unsentimental but compassionate, and restless in its desire to improve understanding of a misunderstood sport, Silver’s work is essential for serious students of the fight game.— Paul Beston, author of The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled The Ring
Mike Silver, perhaps boxing’s most revered historian, carries cotton swabs and smelling salts. The Night the Referee Hit Back, a survey of his best writing, is a head-clearing reminder that boxing wasn’t always such a mess; that it has the capability to be more than it is, that it should aspire to be more like it was. In this era of franchise champions and fading skill-sets, Silver is here to stop the bleeding.— Springs Toledo, author and essayist
Mike Silver is the Sugar Ray Robinson of boxing writers—smooth, smart, powerful, and tough to beat. The good news is that you can step in the ring with him and not get hurt. Read this book. It’s a gem.— Jonathan Eig, Ali: A Life
Mike Silver is among the most knowledgeable boxing historians in the world. His interviews and observations in The Night the Referee Hit Back are both compelling and stimulating. Boxing has always given us plenty to write about, and Silver is right on it.— Steve Farhood, boxing analyst for Showtime and member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame
Brilliant! Mike Silver’s collection of essays and interviews in The Night the Referee Hit Back is informative and ceaselessly entertaining. He has the ear of a masterful writer, the keen eye of a critic, and the heart of an avid boxing fan. Mike Silver might be the most perceptive and skillful sportswriter of our generation.— Colleen Aycock, author, The Magnificent Max Baer: The Life of the Heavyweight Champion and Film Star
Anyone who comes to me with a boxing question I reflexively redirect to Mike Silver, who to my mind is, pound for pound, the greatest authority on the subject. (And no one who’s taken my advice has ever asked for a second suggestion!) This book is only further evidence of his expertise.— David Margolick, author of Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink
For decades boxing was an art. It was filled with great practitioners and an array of rogues. In this collection of essays by Mike Silver, the reader is given a rare insight to what made boxing such a popular sport while at the same time pointing out its many flaws. Like the great art critics throughout the ages, Mr. Silver has that rare ability to look at something he loves while remaining honest about its flaws. If you want to truly understand what made boxing great and why it no longer is, you can have no better guide than Mike Silver.— Bobby Franklin, editor, BoxingOverBroadway.com
Mike Silver has taken us on a journey through the history of boxing. He brings us inside places that no longer exist and through his writing, they suddenly come back to life. You can hear the rhythm of the speed bag and the thud, thud, thud of a heavybag. He gives a voice to the great fighters of yesteryear and compares them with the stars of today. Mike is unparalleled as a boxing historian and his work on these pages illustrates exactly why.— Bobby Cassidy, Newsday
This new book by Mike Silver does an amazing thing—at least it did to me. It brought a tear to my eye, a lump in the pit of my stomach, and a smile in my heart. This book has so much going for it: insight, knowledge, and wit are found on every page. Silver explores fighters and the colorful lives they lead. No one writes so thoroughly and accurately about boxing than Mike Silver.— Peter Wood, member of the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame and author of A Clenched Fist: The Making of a Golden Gloves Champion
His reminiscences are offered with a light touch, without falling into a maudlin trap.... Most of The Night the Referee Hit Back features pieces that reflect Silver’ analytical nature....And then there are the interviews. Archie Moore, Emile Griffith, Carlos Ortiz, Ted Lowry, and Curtis Cokes round out a section of illuminating conversations toward the end of the book. They are like the equivalent of Paris Review interviews, primary documents that preserve the wit and inflection of voices too seldom heard. For example, in his talk with heavyweight Lowry, Silver asks him to describe the punching power of Rocky Marciano, whom he came close to defeating, were it not for the judges’ decision. Lowry responds with an illuminating metaphor. “He hit hard but a smart fighter had no business getting hit by Rocky because he would send you a letter when he’s gonna punch,” Lowry said. Speaking of letters, The Night the Referee Hit Back is an eminently fine one.— Sweet Science
