Andrew Rihn
@andrewrihn
Multi-genre boxing writer Author of Revelation: An Apocalypse in Fifty-Eight Fights
Michael Dokes’ legacy is a complicated one, offering few (if any) easy lessons. It’s a story of undeniable talent and potential, but also relentless pain and abuse. Here’s Dokes at just 16, flexing his fashion but with a quote that foreshadowed more than they could have known.
Dokes is buried in Section 41 of Akron’s Mount Peace Cemetery. (Note the arrow for Dr Bob. He was a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and his grave is a popular site of pilgrimage for members of AA.)
Dokes was paroled in 2008. He died in of liver cancer four years later, in 2012, living in Akron.
Dokes has said his drug use, especially cocaine, began as a teenager, and it followed him throughout his live. After retiring from the ring, he was convicted in 2000 for a horrible assault on his girlfriend.
His pro career came in fits and starts, including a few moths holding WBA heavyweight title. By the end of his career, he had shared the ring with Gerry Coetze, Mike Weaver, Tex Cobb, Jimmy Young, Riddick Bowe, Donovan Ruddick, and Evander Holyfield.
He was also becoming known for a mature yet flamboyant presence. As a teen, he adopted a bright, even garish fashion sense.
As a teen amateur boxer, Dokes’ speed and skill immediately drew attention. He eventually took silver at the Pan American games but failed to qualify for the Olympic team. Nevertheless, people saw something special in the young Dokes.
Dokes died of liver cancer on this day, Aug 11 2012, the day after his 54th birthday. He was a celebrated amateur, and beiefky a world heavyweight champion as a pro. Outside the ring, he struggled with drug addiction and was convicted of domestic violence.
At last — finally acquired the novel You Must Remember This. Alongside the short story Golden Gloves (collected in Raven’s Wing) and the more recent novel A Book of American Martyrs, I believe I have the entirety of Oates’ boxing fiction. Am I missing any?
With the announcement of my upcoming novel, I am now officially a triple threat — poetry, nonfiction, and fiction.
Looking at the advanced copy of my debut novel, and I just love this cover art so much! Garish and beautiful and a little grotesque — just right for my pulp throwback story. Out November 2026, Cornerstone Press.
We’re passed the halfway mark of the book. I’m impressed by how willing Gardner is to keep his two protagonists, Billy and Ernie, separate after their chance encounter early in the book. Ernie is now married, but feels not fully understood by his new wife. #HittingTheBooks
#HittingTheBooks These three chapters really cover the scope of alienation in the book. Ernie loses a fight, and we get insight into Ruben Luna. Billy Tully works in the tomato fields. And we see the frustrations at play in Ernie’s relationship with his girlfriend Faye.
There’s some beautiful writing in these chapters. Note all the verbs Gardner layers in this paragraph between the rounds of Munger’s fight. And this description of Tully’s paralyzing fear of a “crisis beyond his capacity” lands pretty strikingly.
Leonard Gardner’s Fat City, Ch 7 & 8 feature an optimistic car ride to a fight in Monterey, and a desolate right back after defeat. Ch 9 follows Tully into the California onion fields, with similarly optimistic/desolate bus rides there and back. #HittingTheBooks
COVER REVEAL! [please clap] Northeast Ohio may be sniffed out with smoke blowing down from Canada, but here’s the cover for my novel Aboard the Old Buoy, featuring incredible work from Mike Corrao It’s available for preorder-order now; I’ll post the link below
“Losers Have Dreams, Too” Clippings taken from contemporaneous reviews of the novel FAT CITY, 1969-70. #HittingTheBooks
#HittingTheBooks CH 4, 5, & 6 read as brief vignettes, all leading up to Ernie Munger’s first fight. We see him out running, and at home covering bruises with makeup. Cut to manager Ruben Luna in a discussion mostly about bodily fluids, and finally Ernie on a date with Faye.
My essay The Boxing Match: Sketches, Shadows, Spectacles is available online from The Cleveland Review of Books clereviewofbooks.com/vol-4-point-1/
The first three chapters move swiftly, just 22 pages in total. The presents saturated with adjectives and vivid descriptions of a decayed Stockton. Look at this description of the gym that opens CH 2 — see how it mirrors the description of “the company of men” who occupy the gym.
FAT CITY by Leonard Gardner introduces us to Billy Tully, an ex-fighter without much going for him. He meets Ernie Munger — just 18, naturally athletic, with a lot of potential. Tully connects Munger with Ruben Luna, a manager who also sees that potential. #HittingTheBooks
Last year I wrote about this fight, which pitted two all time greats against each other. No footage is known to exist, so I relied on round-by-round newspaper reports. They’re such interesting reads, and I’ve compiled them into a free online pamphlet. Link below. 🔗
Ding Ding Ding! Announcing Round Three of #HittingTheBooks Excited to be reading Leonard Gardner’s 1969 novel FAT CITY Post about it. Take pictures. Make videos. Comment, like, share. Open to anyone and everyone.
I didn’t really live up to my end of the bargain for #HittingTheBooks this time around. But I’m eager to get into the next boxing novel. Anyways, here is the last page of THE PROFESSIONAL — appropriate that it ends in dialogue, as so much of the novel is spoken conversation.