Broken Dreams

About

Each year, readers, writers, and critics alike look forward to Thomas Hauser’s newest collection of articles about the contemporary boxing scene. As Booklist has proclaimed, “Many journalists have written fine boxing pieces, but none has written as extensively or as memorably as Thomas Hauser. . . . Hauser remains the current champion of boxing. . . . Hauser is a treasure.”

Broken Dreams meets this high standard with its coverage of 2020’s most important fighters and fights, outside-the-ring controversies, regulatory missteps, and other issues that defined the year’s boxing scene. Hauser explores the heavyweight trio of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Deontay Wilder in depth, as well as Canelo Álvarez and historic greats like Jack Dempsey, Carlos Monzon, and Muhammad Ali.

Hauser also tackles the larger social challenges that imposed themselves so assertively in 2020, including the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, runaway social media, the presidential election, and other forces that left a deep imprint on the sport and business of boxing.

Author

Thomas Hauser is the author of fifty-four books, including Missing, which was made into an Academy Award–winning film, and Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, the definitive biography of boxing’s most celebrated figure. The Boxing Writers Association of America has honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism. More recently, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor—induction into the International Boxing Hall Fame.

Review

“Two hundred years from today, if mankind still exists, folks interested in the goings-on in the world of boxing during the first decades of the 21st century will be directed to the writings of Thomas Hauser. And I have no doubt that a complete set of his annual anthologies will be a prized collectible.”
—Arne K. Lang, The Sweet Science, October 2021

Contents

Fighters and Fights
Wilder–Fury II in Perspective
Top Rank on ESPN and What Comes Next
Jack Dempsey and the Newsboy: Debunking a Myth
How High Can the Charlos Climb?
Fight Notes
Macho Time
Carlos Monzon: A Fistful of Murder
Killed in Brazil
Teofimo Lopez Stakes His Claim to Stardom
The Tyson–Jones Exhibition
Joshua–Pulev and the Heavyweight Mix
Canelo Álvarez, Callum Smith, and DAZN

Curiosities
I Didn’t Watch the Super Bowl This Year
Russ Anber: The Magician
Fistic Nuggets

Issues and Answers
An Email from a Reader
Politics, Problems, and Power at the New York State Athletic Commission
Ivan Redkach and the New York State Athletic Commission
Paulie Malignaggi, Showtime, and the Dialogue on Race
Boxing Dishonored: The Backstory on Estrada vs. Adkins
The Ali–Kopechne Letter
The Best and the Most
Should Amateur Records Count in Evaluating Greatness?
Why Doesn’t Boxing Attract More Young Fans?
Jarrell Miller and Boxing’s PED Problem
Fistic Notes
Sporting Blood
The Night the Referee Hit Back
Bundini
Cassius X
Gordon Parks X Muhammad Ali
Literary Notes
Which Active Fighters Deserve to Be Called Great?
What If Deontay Wilder Had Accepted DAZN’s $100 Million Offer?
Underground Fight Clubs and the New York State Athletic Commission
In Memoriam

Boxing and the Coronavirus
From 9/11 to COVID-19
Boxing Grinds to a Halt: The Past, the Present, and the Future
UFC’s Coronavirus Gambit
What Will Fans See When Boxing Comes Back?
More on UFC and the Coronavirus
Will Boxing Fans Come Back to the Arenas?
Some Notes on the Coronavirus
I Miss the Boxing Scene
Muhammad Ali and the Coronavirus
Some Notes to End On