"It is a sanctuary for all brands of racketeers, a Rota Fortuna powered by an immiscible concoction of money and blood. With his typical acuity, John Schulian christened boxing “the cruelest sport,” and even the uninitiated appreciate the aptness of this title. What does it say about a sport that its most revered practitioners-among them Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali-are as much icons of suffering as they are of success? That the path to stardom emerges from shadowy flesh-peddling, scavenging, and exhuming? Boxing at its worst seems almost unimaginably cruel."

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