Book Review: I Fought Them All By Martin Mulcahey, MaxBoxing (Sept 28, 2011) Special to Doghouse Boxing - Tweet
Often times, the greatest boxing stories are not
about the fighters who achieved their goals and became world champions but
those who tried just as hard and came up a little short. Yes, Lennox Lewis is
considered a great heavyweight champion but did he ever survive a shipwreck?
Gene Tunney was an erudite champion who quoted William Shakespeare so I don’t
see him getting on the bad side of Wild West gunman Wyatt Earp. “Sailor” Tom
Sharkey never became the World Heavyweight Champion, mostly because it was much
harder in his time when there was only one recognized title. Greg Lewis’ book
is perfectly titled I Fought Them All,
imbuing what made Sharkey a heavyweight of historical significance. No, Sharkey
never held the World Heavyweight Title but he certainly led a life many
champions would envy.
If Tom Sharkey were not real, it would take the
imagination of a Charles Dickens to conjure him up. Before reading this book, I
would have said F. Scott Fitzgerald or John Steinbeck, since I had been under
the false assumption Sharkey was born in America because of his service in the
US Navy. That is not the case and this biography provides great narration,
tracing Sharkey’s lineage from the docks of Dundalk, Ireland to the heart of
New York City where he would gain worldwide fame. The tome could have earned the
byline ‘A man and his times’ as atmospheric descriptions and attention to
detail vividly bring the era to life with personas like Wyatt Earp and King
Edward VII making appearances. Those who enjoy Victorian era-themed prose of a
writer like Anne Perry will be duly rewarded as hardcore pugilistic fans will
be by opinions of Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Nat Fleischer and many other
revered boxing observers.
A quick history on the subject: Tom Sharkey is the
son of James Sharkey, a signalman for the Great Northern Railway Company, and
Margaret Kelly. Instead of following his father on the rails that led inland,
Tom headed quayside working the docks in his early teens before sailing the
world (England, South Africa, India, China, Australia, California, the
Caribbean, and even the Arctic seas) and ultimately enlisting in the US Navy at
age 19. By this time, Sharkey already had the famous battleship tattoo across
his chest, endured shipwrecks, and engaged in fistic encounters aboard vessels
that rivaled future ring exploits for action, surpassing them in brutality.
Sharkey went on to gain fame and fortune in the ring, labeled a “Ring Immortal”
by the New York Times, fighting the
first four heavyweight champions under the Marquis of Queensberry rules. At age
31, Sharkey left the ring (with the equivalent of 10 million dollars today) for
what should have been a life of leisure.
However, life threw many curveballs to Sharkey before,
during, and after his ring career, which co-authors Greg Lewis and Moira
Sharkey adroitly detail.
Yes, Moira’s last name is Sharkey and Moira is also
married to co-author Greg Lewis, making this a familial project. Blood ties are
what sparked the book, which took years of painstaking research and insight to
complete for the duo. Lewis told the Dundalk
Democrat, "[Moira] is distantly related to Tom and had read a lot
about him over the years but there was no biography on him so we thought it
would be interesting to do one,” adding, “It wasn't easy though. It took three
years of research and it was difficult to get information on him because there
was very little about his private life when he was younger because he had left
Ireland very long ago and that meant we had to get a lot of help in
America." To their credit, the team makes use of a multitude of quotes and
references many articles without letting them tell the story alone. The pair
supplements quotes with an understanding of local history, the era’s social
mores, and well-earned intuition.
Readers of Maxboxing will be most interested in
Tom Sharkey’s bouts with fistic legends John L. Sullivan, Jim Corbett, Bob
Fitzsimmons, Jim Jeffries, or lesser known but equally dangerous Joe Choynski,
Gus Ruhlin, Kid McCoy, and Peter Maher. All are given proper coverage. In fact,
an entire chapter is dedicated to Sharkey’s second fight with Jim Jeffries (Ninety-nine Minutes of Hell), a classic
that became one of the earliest filmed heavyweight title fights in 1899. The
authors did well selecting Sharkey’s most important battles, tough picks since
Sharkey stopped 34 of 37 victims, and scaling down the compelling but less
historically relevant. At the epicenter of Sharkey’s ring career is an
astounding 50-year rivalry with Jim Jeffries, which morphed into a friendship
outside the ring much like that of the late Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward in
recent times. It started after their 25-round world title fight at Coney Island
and lasted until the men died weeks apart in 1953. Upon hearing about Jeffries’
death, Sharkey stated, with classic Irish wit and irony, “Well, I finally beat
him.”
The initial impression the physical book presents
is fantastic. A solid spine, tight page binding, sturdy hardcover, quality
bright white paper, attractive cover, and 23 pictures that flesh out and
provide a proper visualization of the subject. I mention this because in the
last decade, with the proliferation of self-published or other mass publication
paperbacks, some books give the first impression of amateurishness and are
unfairly cheapened by the “quality” of production. I asked the author about
this, “Although we set up our own publisher, we have experience of working with
publishers. We used a designer from a publishing house and a printer too so we
tried not to cut back on quality.” This book does not suffer any bad initial
biases; on the contrary, it emits quality from the first opening crack of the
hardcover until its final satisfying closing.
I am not alone in my admiration of this book, with The Ring magazine’s Pete Ehrmann and
Tracy Callis adding to the chorus of praise. Ehrmann calls the book, “Hugely
entertaining and exquisitely researched. Revelations about Sharkey’s private
life are eye-popping.” Ehrmann ended his review succinctly with, “It’s a great
contribution to ring history.” Callis, an influential International Boxing
Research Organization member and widely respected voice inside boxing history
circles, is effusive in his praise. “Whether one is a boxing historian
interested in great detail or a casual follower of the sport, the book is a
must-read about one of the ring's top old warriors. A fighter of the Tom
Sharkey caliber should have a book written about him. Greg Lewis and Moira
Sharkey have done a splendid job." The book has also received positive
reviews in Irish periodicals and has been praised on various boxing websites.
Especially appreciated by myself is the extensive
bibliography (the first I have seen to include websites) and the index of
people and places that follows is indispensable for boxing historians. While
not necessary for the casual reader, the bibliography and index assures this
volume finds a place as an essential addition to any respectable library on
early 20th century boxing. These are small things as a whole but are
valued and often overlooked by works of lesser quality. There are also 18 pages
of author notes which give further insight into Sharkey and the writing process
of the authors. Lewis boils his work down to, “It’s the story of fighters,
trainers, promoters, gamblers, and police officers. Of winning a fortune in the
ring, and losing it outside, and of friendships forged by knuckle and glove.”
In all, there are 336 pages of standard typeface to devour. I Fought Them All has earned a spot on
my top shelf of heavyweight biographies.
Anyone interested in purchasing I Fought Them All is advised to visit
the website established to make it easy to purchase the book in both the United
Kingdom and America, http://tomsharkey.blogspot.com/.
