By Geno McGahee
Boxing is a sport that is always struggling for legitimacy. Unlike many other sports, there are no playoffs and no oversight of ranking systems or championship organizations. The criminals thrive in the environment and it had led to many scandals and black eyes for a sport that has more than its fair share.
In SLAUGHTER IN THE STREETS: WHEN BOSTON BECAME BOXING’S MURDER CAPITAL by Don Stradley, the connections between boxing in the 1920s through the modern times and the mob are uncovered. Stradley does a great job in telling the story, giving the facts, and being uniquely descriptive. The visuals painted by Stradley are remarkable and bring you right into the dark side of the sport.
The city of Boston could have been the rags to riches story for a lot of promising boxers, but the mafia bosses that ran the sport and the city were too powerful and many promising young fighters fall victim and some even lose their lives. There are a lot of sad stories, but we also see the journey of the mobster and how their fate is often sealed by the law or by another rival that saw benefit in their demise.
SLAUGHTER IN THE STREETS: WHEN BOSTON BECAME BOXING’S MURDER CAPITAL by Don Stradley is as advertised and more. The book chronicles the involvement of mobsters in boxing and the terrible conditions that the fighters went through to get into and stay in the sport. It also shows the foundation that the sport was built on and why the sport of kings can’t find and maintain the legitimacy that Football and even the UFC has. This is an education for the reader and I highly recommend it.
