Understanding Nat Fleischer, The Man Who Saved Boxing
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
The great boxing journalist and historian, the late Nat Fleischer, died in 1972. Since his passing, subsequent generations of sports journalists have systematically attacked his reputation. Fleischer spent more than half a century at ringside and authored 57 books. He founded Ring Magazine and the Ring Record Book.
When the Frawley Law was repealed in 1917 in New York, boxing was banned. It took Nat Fleischer three years of lobbying the New York State Assembly and Senate, flooding them with pamphlets, at the insistence of the late promoter Tex Rickard, to get the Walker Law passed which reestablished legal boxing in New York State. The future of boxing as a professional sport foe the general public had been saved for posterity. The Walker Law of 1920 promoted better safety and established the New York state Athletic Commission.
Nat Fleischer was on intimate terms with every heavyweight champion from James J. Corbett to Joe Frazier. He saw every heavyweight champion fight from the front row at ringside, a claim nobody else in history can make in his time and even today, living history.
Fleischer’s unique perspective demanded respect, but his writing style and ratings of fighters did not survive the test of time for many boxing critics.
Fleischer had the motivation, passion and interest not just to follow boxing, not just as a referee, judge, writer and historian of the pugilistic art, but as a man of opinion. It is so easy to criticize others. Fleischer was there at ringside for over half a century. So what if some of his opinions and his style of writing no long pass the litmus test of some boxing writers today. Fleischer saved the sport. It is easy to criticize. Fleischer loved the sport of boxing, for better or for worse. He stayed with it, and should be remembered for his passion for the sport, and not the criticisms of those who would attack a man who can no longer defend himself. Nat Fleischer should not have to defend his reputation. He saved the sport. The boxing writer should also have freedom of the pen. That’s what makes boxing and all of sports interesting. Not everybody agrees. That’s life.
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