Product Description

The story of journalist David Matthews' journey into the heart of one of the most dangerous sports there is. For nearly two years, he sacrificed his career, family, and almost his life in pursuit of one goal: to write the story of a professional boxer by becoming one himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #489094 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Is this the best sports book ever written?
So-called 'sports books' tend to be fairly pedestrian affairs. They are usually crawling, ghost written eulogies or serial anecdotes, riddled with 'at the end of the day' type cliches. Urgh! But in 'Looking for a Fight' David Matthews has transcended the sports genre to create, in my mind at least, the most entertaining, illuminating and engaging book I've ever read on boxing, or any sport for that matter. Matthews tackles the murky world of the fight game (and his own personal struggles) with an intelligence and wit rarely seen in contemporary sports writing. In fact, to saddle Looking for a Fight with the epithet 'sports book' is a disservice to Matthews whose gritty, almost noir-ish style makes this a thrilling, pacey read.

I've always found hardbacks poor travelling companions but I had no difficulty reading this 300-odd page book from cover to cover during the course of a six-hour transatlantic flight.

Beginning with a simple 'what if?' premise, and the desire to understand the physical and mental workings of the professional boxer, the author takes us on a two-year roller coaster ride, which from start to finish illustrates the best and worst of the human condition.

This is a must read; not only for fans of boxing, but anyone interested in human struggle, triumph over adversity and man's pursuit of happiness.

Unlike many sports books (there's that term again) which seek to bolster their narrative (and sales) with endlessly repeated stories of superstar heroics or celebrity failings, Looking for a Fight tells it as it is: in the raw, from the bottom, warts and all.

If Roy of the Rovers simplicity is your thing then this is probably not the book for you. The language for one is relentless in its accuracy of the gym and the street: Matthews is a colourful and brutally honest writer. But if you can appreciate the style and intelligence of Hemmingway, Mailer or Damon Runyon Looking for a Fight should certainly grace your bookshelf.

Motivational reading
This is an inspirational book whose appeal is by no means limited to fight fans and boxers. Essentially it's the journey process of one man who decides to cast aside the drudgery of his meaningless and unchallenging day to day existence, in order to undergo a physical and mental transformation, to test his personal limits and learn about himself.

Along the way he learns and divulges with great linguistic skill a number of other things about the world of boxing, about his relationships with his girlfriend, his father and his daughter. He comes face to face with brutality and poverty and he deftly and shamelessly reveals his fears and insecurities bareing his soul throughout with humility and a great deal of humour.

Matthews' time as a journalist has obviously instilled in him acute social observation skills and his depictions of the gym, the characters that revolve around and within it and the world in which it resides are vivid and colourful - invoking a true sense of the shadowy culture that surrounds professional boxing, without making it seem inaccesible or out of reach and thus irrelevant.

Chances are, if you're reading this review and considering buying the book it's because you're into boxing anyway, but there's very little in this book not to recommend to a complete boxing novice also. It is a classic "believe in yourself and anything's possible" tale without a hint of corniness, and as such it's a very rare thing!

It's a knockout!
Looking for a Fight is the debut from boxing fan, former crime correspondent, freelance journalist and part-time lecturer David Matthews. The book charts David's journey into the boxing world, his experiences and interactions whilst completing a two year training programme and ultimately the results of his one professional fight.
Throughout the story we are presented with the comittment, motivation and character of those people he works with and competes against. Not only is it a factual study into the heart of the sport but it is simultaneously a voyage of self-discovery, a final fling, a boy's fantasy reborn as a man's quest for glory.