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Boxing’s Web Gems - August

By Thomas Gerbasi (Aug 30. 2007)

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In addition to keeping me from working a “real” job, the internet has been perhaps the most significant creation of this era, capable of allowing you to communicate with your friends and family from around the country or the world, get news on any possible topic in an instant, or see people doing bizarre things that should really never be seen.

Boxing has been touched by the world wide web as well, and frankly, it is the first place for fight fans to go if they want the most up-to-date and in-depth information available on the sweet science. But while that’s a positive, the negative is that the ‘net it so big that it’s impossible to see everything or even know where some of the best stuff is hiding. So in this periodic feature, we’ll dig up the best boxing gems from around the web, from video and written material, to games and other merchandise that should be on your ‘must-buy’ list.

Here’s a few to start us off, and if we’re missing anything, send an e-mail and we’ll get it in the next installment.

No Mas TV – From Brooklyn to Beijing
http://www.nomas.tv/
Not only home to a great blog and the best sports-themed t-shirts on the planet (where else can you see a Rubin “Hurricane” Carter shirt and a Tecmo Bo Jackson shirt in the same place?), the folks from No Mas have now gotten into the internet video field with “Brooklyn to Beijing”, a video series chronicling the quest of New York amateur star Danny Jacobs to make the 2008 Olympics, a quest that was recently squashed at the Olympic trials. Currently, there are four episodes up on the site, and each one is compelling and professionally done. This is how you do web video.

Cornered trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDuDIR0_KhQ
A documentary by Eric Drath which is currently preparing for the festival circuit, “Cornered” tells the story of the 1983 bout between unbeaten up and comer Billy Collins and Luis Resto, an infamous ten rounder that all fight fans will undoubtedly remember because of the beating Collins took due to padding being removed from Resto’s gloves. Collins would never fight again, and less than a year later, he would be killed in a car wreck at 22, where speed and alcohol was a factor. The trailer alone is chilling, and I, for one, can’t wait to see the film in its entirety.

Ballroom Boxing
http://www.veoh.com/series/BallroomBoxing
Home to some of the best club fights in the game, Scott Wagner’s Ballroom Boxing series has set the standard for competitive fights where no one gets an easy payday. Now, thanks to The Fight Network and Veoh, some of these fights are available for free viewing for those who can’t make it down to Glen Burnie, Maryland.

4-D Boxing
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=4816
For old-school video gamers, there was no better boxing game than 4-D Boxing. Available only for the PC, 4-D Boxing may not have looked great, and it didn’t have any real pro fighters, but in terms of gameplay, this game – one of the first to actually use multi-dimensional polygons – captured the sport better than anything to date. Games that came afterwards couldn’t even match 4-D Boxing until the Playstation 2’s Victorious Boxers and EA’s Fight Night series finally got the sweet science right on the consoles.

Boxing Books for the true aficionado
http://www.lulu.com
Yeah, I know, it’s a weird name for a bookstore, but Lulu.com has become a home to self-published authors worldwide, including some respected boxing scribes whose scholarly work may not have gotten picked up otherwise by publishers more interested in publishing the drivel that comes out of Paris Hilton’s mouth. Two must-haves for any true fight fan interested in the history of the sport are The Sundowners, by Kevin Smith, and In The Ring with James J. Corbett, by Adam Pollack. Sure, the prices aren’t what you would get at your local Barnes and Noble, but with Smith’s book chronicling the biographical history of black fighters from 1870 to 1930 clocking in at 656 pages, and Pollack’s in-depth look at the boxing career of Corbett checking in at 435 pages, you are more than getting your monies’ worth.

Boxing Books for everyone
http://www.abebooks.com/
When you’ve exhausted the local bookstore for boxing-oriented reading material, do a little search on “boxing” at this website and you are almost guaranteed to find something you haven’t read before, and most likely it will be at a price that simply can’t be beat. Even books not readily available here in the States are here, along with uncorrected proofs and review copies of books (in all subjects) that aren’t even available on the shelves yet. Worth a click every few weeks or so, because new (and old) stuff is coming in all the time.

Legends of Boxing free simulator
http://legendsofboxing.tabletop-sports.com/lob_home.htm
Not as full-featured as Title Bout Championship Boxing, this easy to get into simulator nonetheless provides some fast and fun simulations of the sport. And did I mention that it’s free? Packed with tons of fighters, this game still stands up to the test of time despite not being updated since 2005.

Victory – A Boxer’s Story
http://www.zuccarelliphoto.com/victorymovie.html
While MaxBoxing’s own Steve Kim has documented the rise of rising star Victor Ortiz with words, Alex Zuccarelli, Daniel Sato, and Daniel Corson have done it in video format with “Victory – A Boxer’s Story”, a compelling look at Ortiz, and best of all, there are a ton of video clips here, including the complete 22-minute film.

The Vicious Vegan
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=viciousvegan1&p=r
May be my favorite of the bunch, as Michael J. Williams, “The Vicious Vegan”, takes us through his journey from boxing newbie to an amateur fight in this ten part series filled with deadpan humor and classic moments.