Donald McRae - Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing

Donald McRae was born in South Africa in 1961 and worked as a teacher in Soweto for two years before moving to London in 1984. He writes for the Guardian and has won numerous awards for his journalism. He is also the author of eight books. Dark Trade:Lost in Boxing and In Black & White both won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, while Winter Colours: Changing Seasons in World Rugby was shortlisted for the prize. All three of his sports books have been re-issued in 2014 with new material.

Also re-issued in 2014 are Every Second Counts, the story of Christiaan Barnard and the race to transplant the first human heart, and The Old Devil, the biography of American lawyer Clarence Darrow. His family memoir of growing up in apartheid South Africa, Under Our Skin, is also available from Simon & Schuster.

Donald McRae lives with his family just outside London. He is currently working on his next book, about the boxer Emile Griffith, which will be published in 2015.

ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Nothing Personal: The Business of Sex

Winter Colours: Changing Seasons in World Rugby

In Black & White: The Untold Story

of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens

Every Second Counts: The Extraordinary Race

to Transplant the First Human Heart

The Old Devil: Clarence Darrow

The Worlds Greatest Trial Lawyer

Under Our Skin: A White Familys Journey

through South Africas Darkest Years

First published in Great Britain by

Mainstream Publishing Company (Edinburgh) Ltd, 1996

This paperback edition published by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2014

A CBS COMPANY

Copyright 1996 by Donald McRae

Postscript 2014 by Donald McRae

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction without permission.

All rights reserved.

The right of Donald McRae to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

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Every reasonable effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. If any have inadvertently been overlooked, the publishers would be glad to hear from them and make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

24 Hours to Tulsa

Words and music by Burt Bacharach and Hal David

Copyright 1963 Intersong Music

Used by permission of Windswept Pacific Music Ltd and MCA Music Ltd

ISBN: 978-1-47113-537-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-47113-538-5

Typeset in the UK by M Rules

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

For Alison

This book could never have been written without the thoughtful and consistently entertaining company of its featured fighters. The best moments, inevitably, belong to them to James Toney, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones, Michael Watson, Naseem Hamed and Chris Eubank. Each of them provided extraordinary insight into boxing and their own lives.

Sherry Toney became a good friend and I will always cherish the telephone calls and faxes and the tasty memories of all her Speciality Cakes & Pies packages.

Even though they understood that I would side with the fighters before themselves, the biggest promoters in boxing were unfailingly approachable. Bob Arum, Don King and, especially, Frank Warren were as interesting as they were affable.

There were hundreds of other boxing characters who were also kind enough to broaden my understanding of the ring round which they worked. Specific thanks are owed to the following for the time and help they gave me: Muhammad Ali, Roberto Alcazar, Andy Ayling, Nigel Benn, Frank Black, Riddick Bowe, Jay Bright, Frank Bruno, Bill Cayton, Julio Cesar Chavez, Dena DuBoef, Joel De La Hoya, Mickey Duff, Lou Duva, Jesse Ferguson, Bob Foster, Eddie Futch, John Home, Tom Johnson, Brendan Ingle, Jackie Kallen, Hank Kaplan, Sugar Ray Leonard, Stanley Levin, Butch Lewis, Lennox Lewis, Tim Littles, Frank Maloney, Everett Martin, Bronco McKart, Eugene McKart, Bill Miller, Robert Mittleman, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Steve Nelson, Rock Newman, Pat Putnam, Chris Peters, Steve Robinson, Alfie Smith, Dingaan Thobele, Jimmy Tibbs, Johnny Tocco and Jeremy Williams.

My agent Bill Hamilton never wavered in his support of this book. His backing was much appreciated as the months turned into years.

Bill Campbell and Peter MacKenzie at Mainstream were as great to work with as ever. They, too, were unstinting in their encouragement even when it must have seemed to them that I was writing an almost biblical epic. I owe them a lot as well as a few more drinks.

Judy Diamond at Mainstream put up with my endless changes and rewrites with extraordinary good humour and patience. I also would like to thank her for suggesting the cover images.

Sandor Szenassys understanding of the great heavyweights was instructive and, as I neared the end, I took much heart from his own superior work. I would like to thank him, Frank Warren and Lucy Thorburn for the use of his two paintings.

There were many great boxing writers and editors who assisted me throughout this book. When I began I went to see the two best boxing newspapermen in this country. I remember visiting Ken Jones at his home in early 1991 he was both informative and supportive. I was lucky enough to get to know Hugh Mcllvanney even better and I have never forgotten the times we spent together in Las Vegas or London. He was inspirational and witty whether talking about books or boxing.

Harry Mullan, another great boxing doyen, was always friendly and helpful and he and Claude Abrams at Boxing News were good enough to run a number of my rambling articles over the years. My respect for them, and for all the staff at Boxing News and Boxing Monthly, is boundless. I will still be buying their magazines long after this book is forgotten. Glyn Leach at Boxing Monthly was always willing to pass on a telephone number or contact name and I still remember fondly the few beers we had together one freezing week in Tulsa.

Apart from salvaging some of my more wayward articles, Tim Hulse at Esquire gave me the opportunity to write about Toney, De La Hoya, Hamed and Jones relatively early on in their careers.

In this books own formative stages, Kath Meadows was the first person with whom I discussed my writing about boxing. I valued her enthusiasm and interest as well as her suggestions that I should begin with Muhammad Ali and South Africa. Luke Alfred and Rob Nixon both offered invaluable advice as I struggled with the earliest outline.

When it came to the actual writing the following people were irreplaceable:

Ronnie Sull, Fulhams answer to Don King, knew exactly when to open my door and shout Showtime, Baby! or some less printable boxing words, to gee me up when I was feeling bored.

Ainslie Clarke was one of the first to read the opening chapters and she helped me with numerous suggestions as well as instigating a rethink of the title.

I greatly appreciated Mike Fishers scrupulous sharpening of my sloppier ravings.

Tim Musgrave, despite having to put up with descriptions of his sisters exotic dance routines in a book about boxing, was never less than generous or incisive. He was also instrumental in my reworking the introduction and in dating distinct sections.