The sickness at the heart of boxing

There is a lot of death in the latest, and potentially last, book on boxing by the South African journalist Donald McRae. In less than two years he loses his sister, both his parents and his mother-in-law. To cope with the trauma he returns to the sport that has sustained his life and work for 30 years. But when he reimmerses himself in boxing he does not like what he sees. He finds a sport where bouts are controlled by gangsters; where famous boxers dope and lie about it; where fights still have inadequate safety protocols; and where the centre of power has shifted from Las Vegas to Riyadh, lured by Mohammed bin Salman’s money. Each of these trends, McRae believes, knits boxing and death closer together. ‘I want boxing to sweep me away from real life,’ he confesses. Instead, its sickness brings more tragedy to his door.

Boxing’s lack of structure makes it a challenging sport to write about. There are no seasons to tether it. Career arcs are wildly unpredictable. In The Last Bell, McRae adds to these complications by mixing the narratives of two sets of boxers. Leaning on his material as a ringside reporter for the Guardian, he tells the stories of the biggest names of the past decade: Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua and Canelo Alvarez. His accounts of their bouts are characteristically riveting. But he also gives space to a second group of fighters. These are men McRae is drawn to as people, and their trust in him results in an unusual and fascinating level of access.