JOHN WIGHT writes about the shared love of the ring that strengthened two icons in their struggles against racism and injustice
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Boxing will miss George Groves more than the Brit will miss the sport
F1 admits pit-lane measurement discrepancy as Russell fumes over penalty fallout
GEORGE GROVES’S announcement calling time on his professional boxing career at the age of 30 is in keeping with a fighter whose career stands as a monument to a fierce independence of will, spirit and mind.
The Londoner and avid Chelsea fan can retire satisfied that he does so as one of the bravest, toughest, most skilled and eminently watchable practitioners of the noble art these islands have ever produced.
From his debut as a pro in 2008, Groves exuded the aura of a young man in boxing but not of boxing. In other words, he was never less than self-possessed, emitting a quiet, steely confidence that manifested in the aura of a fighter who seemed to exist on a different psychological and emotional plane than his peers.
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When Patterson and Liston met in the ring in 1962, it was more than a title bout — it was a collision of two black archetypes shaped by white America’s fears and fantasies, writes JOHN WIGHT