Overview

Originally published in 1986 (McGraw-Hill), The Black Lights was the first book that fully explored the sport and business of professional boxing. Upon joining the training camp of superlightweight Billy Costello, Thomas Hauser was given unprecedented access to the fighter, his manager, and trainer as well as to the real heavyweights of the boxing world, promoter Don King, and World Boxing Council president Jose Sulaiman. The result, according to Playboy in their review of the original, is a book that """"explains why fighters fight, what they go through to win, and how they feel when they lose. It is a great book."""" In this gracefully written, fast-paced narrative, the author slips quietly into the background and gives us a firsthand look at a business that is often cruel and exploitative and a sport that is at once violent and beautiful. As the San Francisco Chronicle points out, The Black Lights provides ammunition for both sides in the debate over boxing: """"Hauser has written what is clearly the most complete and fairminded work on the subject to date."""" In an age when the controversy surrounding the evils and merits of boxing still rages, this classic account is more timely than ever.

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9781557285973

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Reviews

The Black Lights has become a boxing classic. It illuminates aspects of the boxing world generally unknown to outsiders, and is a wonderfully readable, judiciously proportioned book. --The New York Review of Books

Quite simply, the best book on the fight game since Liebling's The Sweet Science. To provide a framework for the narrative (whose title alludes to the effect of knockout punches and to boxing's ghetto heritage), Hauser follows Billy Costello during a three-month period through November 3, 1985, when he successfully defended his WBC superlightweight crown, thrashing an outclassed challenger named Saoul Mamby. The then-undefeated Costello (who lost the championship in an August bout at Madison Square Garden), his manager (Mike Jones), and trainer (Victor Valle) rank among the few nice guys in a sport where only the ring is square. The jury is still out on white hope Gerry Cooney, a Costello stablemate who has been a reluctant dragon since Larry Holmes stopped him in a mid-1982 match for the heavyweight title. Costello and Cooney, though, are but pieces of the action. Hauser takes a long, hard look at the individuals and institutions that effectively control their destinies. At stage center are the television networks and Don King - the hard-working ex-con who parlayed a personal relationship with Muhammad All into a promotional monopoly that might make Jim Norris (late proprietor of the notorious IBC) envious. The open secrets of King's success include an uncanny capacity to secure TV exposure for favored pugs (notably, those handled by his stepson, Carl) and close ties to Jose Sulaiman, enigmatic president of the WBC, the sport's dominant sanctioning body. In addition to superb reportage on the constant power struggles that can and do affect the careers of babyweights like Costello, Hauser offers informed commentary on the mechanics as well as appeal of prizefighting. Though demonstrably cruel and violent, he observes at one point, boxing, the only sport practiced and cheered the world over. . .tells us much about human potential and about ourselves. The author accomplishes no less himself. (Kirkus Reviews)

The Black Lights has become a boxing classic. It illuminates aspects of the boxing world generally unknown to outsiders, and is a wonderfully readable, judiciously proportioned book. --The New York Review of Books

Author Information

Thomas Hauser, author and attorney, has written several books, including Muhammed Ali: His Life and Times. He lives in New York City.

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