Book Review: Stepping into the ring
Legal Week Reports
August 24, 2005 at 08:03 PM
4 minute read
Wrecking Machine: A Tale of Real Fights and White Collars Author: Alex Wade Publisher: Scribner Price: £15.99
Honesty. It is not a word that would readily spring to mind when reading a book about boxing involving a large number of participants from the den of iniquity that is the City of London. Yet this book really inspires words such as honesty, integrity, nobility and respect. The book is a true and open account of the travails of the author, a young lawyer-turned-journalist who turns to white-collar and amateur boxing for redemption.
For the uninitiated, of which there are fewer by the day given the spiralling popularity of the sport, white-collar boxing is amateur boxing with a slight twist: the participants are largely middle class and often affluent. The legal briefs are set aside for boxing briefs, the trading circle is swapped for the boxing ring and the velvet crush for the canvas.
But what is it that seduces ex-lawyers such as Alex Wade and the growing number of white collars to step between the ropes and knock seven bells out of each other, albeit, in the case of white-collar boxing, without hurt or humiliation? For Wade, his motivation to practise the noble art was a life without direction, full of painful childhood memories related principally to his relationship with his father. The journey of endless, painful but rewarding physical training, sparring for the first time and then that seminal moment of stepping into a competitive ring for the first time provided focus to a meandering, possibly meaningless life.
White-collar boxing is Wade's shot at redemption and he wins his own title to become the undisputed champion of his own world when all he could previously see was a loser. The book succeeds in exposing many of the preconceptions of boxing; that it is an ugly, brutal sport inhabited by ugly, brutal people, Neanderthal men and women without wit, guile or respectability. The focus, direction, inspiration, physical and mental fitness, courage, bravery and respect engendered by boxing in an environment where hurt and humiliation is not the primary objective, facilitated by white-collar boxing, justifies this as a noble art.
This book inspires the reader to face their fears and live their dreams. In a world where faith, love and hope is increasingly quelled, the world of boxing provides a route to salvation. The arrogance and ignorance that can sometimes pervade professional life is obliterated by the challenge of actually stepping into the ring with an opponent who wants to hurt and humiliate you, and the only thing you have to defend yourself with is your self-respect and the pure will to survive in the fresh air of regulated hand-to-hand combat.
Just as Wade had (and maybe still has) continued reservations about putting himself into a position where he could get seriously hurt, it is overcoming those reservations by sheer willpower and physical training just to step in to the ring, regardless of the out-come of the fight, that is truly inspiring. This reader, for one, is highly tempted to find out more about the sport of white-collar boxing, not least because a lot of the misconceptions about boxing are stripped away through Wade's deft storytelling.
As a lawyer, the similarity of court advocacy to the jousting in the boxing ring is all too clear, but there is much more to it than that. A lawyer likes order and structure and guides their clients through the myriad framework of the law which, in many ways, is similar to the controlled aggression, strategy, tactics and will to win that is necessary to survive in the boxing ring.
The book is not only about boxing (this element will attract non-boxers and seasoned pugilists alike) but also how a young tearaway found direction in his life and a source of focus and stability. Respect for the self and others is the lifeblood of boxing, but is also a vital nutrient for a balanced professional life. White-collar boxing neatly entwines the two. Although this book is a voyage of masculinity, all of the principles and life elements nurtured by boxing apply equally to both sexes and there are several tales of highly determined and successful female boxers.
This is a real-life tale of a young man fighting his demons outside the ring by getting into the ring. So much can be learned about your life by just having the courage to step between the ropes. The rest is up to you.
Andrew Tarbuck is a senior associate at Norton Rose.
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