Larry Holmes: Against the Odds
An odd twist of publishing fate once again has former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes locked with and overshadowed by the presence of Muhammad Ali; David Remnick's superb biography of the Greatest,King of the World, was published at the same time. The image of his former sparring partner--the beloved, quick, and graceful Ali--haunted Holmes throughout his career, which is too bad, because Holmes was a terrifically skilled fighter who could both box and hit. Like so many boxing stories, Holmes's begins on the wrong side of the tracks; he fights himself out and up from there. Straight-ahead, hard-working, cautious at times, and free of attending glitz,Against All Oddsmirrors Holmes's style in the ring and out of it. Its strength is its candor. Holmes never could hide his emotions--or his petulance. His autobiography makes clear his respect for Ali, his hatred of Don King, and the angers that raged around his fight with Gerry Cooney. Indeed, rage is a character in itself. "It was the part of me that always scared me a little because I never completely accepted the fact that I had it in me," Holmes writes. Accept it or not, he rode it to the title, and, no small feat, held that title for seven years.--Jeff Silverman