This book was a complete impulse buy sometime around Christmas, inspired mainly because of a conversation at work about the best boxers of all time. I am aware of the greats involved in this book such as Duran, Hearns and Hagler, but apart from youtube, I've never seen their fights. Boxing seems to be in a really bad way recently and it seems the industry doesn't know who to blame. Some point fingers at the rise of MMA but in my opinion boxing has lost its way due to boring fights and fighter who always play it safe. I wanted to read about a great period in boxing history from the mouth of one of it's best known fighter.

The book starts with a short section on Leonard's early life and then gets straight into the nitty gritty of his boxing life as an amateur. He covers how he got into boxing at an early age and how, once he realised he was good at it, his only aim was to box in the Olympics and try to win the gold medal. He is very honest in that he has no intentions of carrying on boxing past the Olympics and had been aiming to rely on his education to get a normal job. However, a few family issues meant that by going pro he could take care of matters instantly rather that see them suffer. It was at this point that he made a very important decision after taking some advice from Muhammad Ali, not to let anyone own him.

This one decision made it possible for him to largely control who he fought, where they fought and meant that he took the majority of the prize fund instead of losing it all to a manager. There are a few people in his life that he credits with helping him make these decisions, people that in retrospect are the polar opposite of him and his upbringing. He talks with great respect and eloquently about his opponents conveying his emotions at the time of the fight and those he feels in the present day looking back. He also talks about his infractions where his personal life is concerned but I feel that he doesn't reveal everything there is to say. He accepts the responsibility for what happened but you can almost sense a 'but' in the air.

This was an enjoyable book that did what I wanted it to do. ( )

This one isn't my normal kind of book, but I read it in order to prepare for my interview with the author. Leonard’s path to the ring makes for a great story. I hadn’t realized he was an Olympic gold-medalist and that he’d battled addiction throughout his career. It was interesting to learn more about the boxer's life, but it wasn't something that will stick with me. ( )

A completely honest tale from an all time great fighter. I'd highly reccomend it to anybody interested in boxing or competitive sports in general ( )

This book has a lot in common with Andre Agassi's book, and the two athletes have a lot in common as well. You may not think it, seeing as tennis and boxing would appear to be at the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, but in fact, as individual sports whose elite athletes depend on intelligence and psychology to get the edge that makes them win, you can see the similarity. This book may not be quite as introspective and confessional as Agassi's, but it's good anyway. ( )