Manly Art: They Can Run--But They Can't Hide

By George Kimball

This compilation of boxing-related commentary, criticism, reportage, and analysis represents the decade's best from award-winning sports journalist George Kimball. With selections culled from a wide array of publications including Boxing Digest, the Irish Times, ESPN.com, and TheSweetScience.com, this is a hard-hitting look at the current state of the sport. Kimball pulls no punches as he dissects the triumphs, defeats, and mistakes of the major figures in boxing from yesterday and today—including Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Manny Pacquiao, Oscar de la Hoya, and dozens more—bringing all the controversies and personalities vividly to life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: Apr 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781590135945

Book preview

Reviews for Manly Art

[varielle_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

George Kimball is a dying breed. At a time when extreme sports and kick boxing have overrun the popularity of boxing, afficionados of the sport, who can truly write, are all but gone. Those sports have none of the structure and discipline required of a professional boxer. A. J. Liebling and Kimball are kindred souls. Kimball can speak articulately to the current state of the sport and toss in historical references to fights that happened seventy-five years ago. He is not only an admirer of the men with the stamina to succeed, but comprehends the politics, sociology and the business behind the fading sport of boxing. A must read for fans. Those who aren't fans might be drawn to it, but more likely will be befuddled by the boxing establishment and mystified by the allure of the sweet science.

[nbsp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a compilation of Kimball columns that appeared in various boxing publications. Topics include the obvious and the obscure and afford the reader insight not available to the regular armchair boxing fan. It's like Entertainment Tonight, the Boxing Edition. So much fun to read especially leading up to Manny v Mosely. Thanks so much, Early Reviewer program, for including me for Manly Art: They Can Run But They Can't Hide by George Kimball!

[jrgoetziii · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Extremely informative across a variety of time periods and places, but Kimball isn't clear from the beginning as to his organization and there isn't necessarily a coherent order within each section. It seems like he's putting together many different fragmented pieces in the form of articles he's written for various websites and trying to make a whole of them, which is an interesting and different method (much like Safire's On Language), but I'm not sure that's the best presentation for this kind of book.

[nvgomez_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

George Kimball is the encyclopeia of boxing personified. The articles in this collection are full of wonderful information. That being said, I felt that his writing style is difficult for the reader. Even for a boxing fan such as myself, his long sentences (and I mean, they seem to go on forever) lost me often. At times I could not remember how the paragraph started as I was ending it.It was increasingly boring as it progressed. I was happy to have finished it only because it meant I would have to read no more. If you want to read about boxing, and be entertained as well as educated in its rich history, On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates, The Sweet Science by AJ Lieling, Cinderella Man by Michael DeLisa and The Fight by Norman Mailer will do a better job. They would also be more of interest to the general reader. The Manly Art is a challenge for the avid fan and is sure to put a general reader to sleep.There was no pattern to the collection of articles. Certainly there was no timeline followed in this writing. However, in Kimball's defence, it is, as I stated, a collection of articles, not a thoroughly thought-out historical account. I give it 3 stars (The third, becasue I love the sport).

[dre2131 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of early reviewers March batch - It took me ahwile to get into this book as some of the first articles didn't really catch my interest - in general, the texts contained in this book are hit or miss, with most of them being a hit - it was interesting to hear some of things going on behind the scenes of some classic fights that I only had a chance to view as a spectator - getting the sports writers' perspective on press conferences, training camps, and the fights themselves is always very interesting - My favourite part was the last one, where he discusses the last great heavyweight rivalries between Ali, Frazier, Norton and Foreman -

[jackmo77 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Boxing books aren’t going to make the bestseller lists these days. The sport has been dying a slow death in the United States amidst a myriad of alphabet soup boxing organizations, the lack of a good American heavyweight boxer(s) and the encroachment of MMA. But George Kimball’s book, Manly Art: They Can Run – But They Can’t Hide, is worth a read even if to remind you that, like reading an old flame’s love letters, there was a reason you cared about it at one time. Kimball’s book, with one exception, is a series of essays he’s written for newspapers and websites on boxing events in the past 10 years. My favorites were the section on boxing history and the section on boxing deaths. Kimball shines in putting events in perspective.But the book’s best part is a large essay at the end of the book on the four great heavyweights that dominated boxing in the 1970s: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Ken Norton. The four figured in 10 epic battles in a six-year time span. Kimball goes through the rise to prominence of each boxer then details their battles. For someone who grew up during this time frame, it was a great reminder of what boxing was.

[derob005 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Kimball definitely knows his boxing! I enjoyed the book for the most part but felt it was full of depth for the boxing novice with little knowledge of the subject. I did enjoy the essay format and think it played well for the structure of the book!

[jsewvello · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had previously read another book by George Kimball’s, “Four Kings”. That was a great read and so was this book, “Manly Art.” Kimball is definitely an expert on boxing. I enjoyed all of this book, especially his chapters about Howard Cosell and Ali, Frazier, Foreman, and Norton.

[charlesboyd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

George Kimball’s Manly Art, (They can run, but they can’t hide) contains a collection of Mr. Kimball’s columns on boxing. If you want information that you might not have known about boxing and its personalities, this is the book for you. He knows his stuff, no doubt about it. He’s done this forever, he knows major figures in the fight game--fighters, promoters, hangers-on--, and he’s an “award winning sports journalist.” So, why did I find this a tough book to get through? Sad to say, it’s as much about Kimball as it’s about boxing. He’s smarter than anyone else, knows more about boxing than anyone else, and knows who in the boxing world doesn’t deserve to live. He doesn’t say any of this outright, but the implications are strong in pretty much every column. Jose Sulaiman, decades-long president of the WBC, World Boxing Council, is one that Kimball thought the world would better off without. I don’t know that much about Sulaiman, but even if he’s a bad person, this type of comment seems inapposite to me.Kimball never met a long sentence he didn’t like, or like to write anyway. It isn’t uncommon for paragraphs in his columns to be a single sentence. Long sentences are fine. Sometimes. Short sentences are fine. Sometimes. Good writers use both. Kimball rambles on, and on, and on, and….well, you get the point.There’s no index in this book, a minus, and no photographs, a big minus. I’d recommend reading this book, despite the minuses, solely because the information is worth working for. But I’d also recommend checking it out of your local library rather than buying it. Maybe then, if you like it, buy it. Any book by David Halbertstam about baseball is a lyrical homage to baseball, even if he had to expose a darker side of the sport. I’d hoped that Manly Art would be the same thing for boxing. Didn’t happen.