Woozel, Boxing, and Me
By Tom Donelson

September 4, 2006 - Woozel, Boxing, and Me is Rusty Rubin's most recent book. Over the past two years, the industrious Mr. Rubin has written three books. (I should forewarn the readers that I co-authored Mr. Rubin second book, Billy Soose, The Champion that Time forgot. I also contribute to Mr. Rubin magazine.) This is Mr. Rubin best book for it gives us an insight in the world of boxing as well Mr. Rubin own personality.

Throughout the book, we view Mr. Rubin own odyssey and his relationship with Susiey "Woozel" Walker, a close friend. Rusty details his own health problems that and his own journey recovering from heart ailments that nearly killed him and the road back to health. Yet through all of this, Rubin own optimistic view of life never changed. For Rubin, his writing was his life but it was a career that never made him rich. Rubin never measured his wealth in money but in the friends that he made.

This book is two books in one. It is a story of a relationship between two close friends and it is a book about boxing. Rubin relays his own view on boxing and add contribution by many of his friends.

Rubin originally viewed this a book as a book containing funny stories on boxing, but he expanded it to more serious views on the sweet science. On the humorous side, He tells the following story about Lou Duva, a good friend. Working the corner of Evander Holyfield, Duva was angry at his fighter, who just fought a bad round. Duva threw water on Holyfield and yelled, "Do you know what the hell you're doing out there?" Holyfield answered yes and Duva screamed, "Good, now don't do it again?"

On a more serious note on judging, Mr. Rubin writes, "But to say a fight has been corrupted, because a judge is either inept, as in the first case, or perhaps influenced by the crowd, as in the other, is simply something cannot be proven. There is absolutely no doubt , in my mind that it's very hard to block out the crowd noises, when scoring a fight." This is a typical Rubin, for he understands that judges are human and for most part do a thankless job. However, he understand that bad decisions such as the first Holyfield-Lewis went gone long way to arouse suspicions of fix fights and did the sports a disservice.

Rubin tries to see both sides of an issue and usually give the sport the benefit of the doubt. Some would consider this a fault and in this day and age of shock journalism, Rubin refuses to get into the national screaming contest. He is from an older school of journalism, where facts do matter.

Another aspect of the book is that he invited many of his friends for their own humorous stories and view on the sport. The best of the lot is Derek Callahan. Mr. Callahan asked the rhetoric question, "History has recorded the winners. After Sullivan there was Jack Johnson, to Jack Dempsey, to Joe Louis, and so on. Even generations get skipped because only so many champs are remembered. The tough fighters who never win a title? Forget it. But over the years there have been fighters and events, insignificant to history, but good reflections upon their trade." Good question for there have been many great fighters never given the opportunity to fight for championships or simply came up short in the big moment.

Even today in the era of multiple championship belts, there are many good fighters who are known to the public today but without a championship belt; they will be forgotten commodities after their career ends. Callahan question has us thinking about the fate of the vast majority of fighters who never will make the history books and are soon forgotten.

About trainers, Mr. Callahan wrote, "Trainers forge a bond with their fighters and instill in them the idea that no good will come unless he knows that journey, the one that begins with a single step, is a damn hard one. It can't be made without fighting and without getting fired up. Now matter what." This quote shows that within boxing, the most important bond is between the fighter and his trainer while at the same time showing the tough road that all fighters from those club fighters working for peanuts to the championship elites must hoe.

Rubin own personal story and his relation with Ms. Walker demonstrate another aspect of the writer life. Susiey "Woozel" Walker proved to Mr. Rubin soul mate and closet friend. Rusty Rubin's second wife introduced Walker to Rubin and they began a love affair after his divorce. Walker brought a wicked sense of humor and a love for boxing to the relationship. Yet, this love affair eventually evolved into a friendship as Ms. Walker turned down marriage proposal from Rubin and both settled for friendship. As Rubin notes, Ms. Walker had her difficulty with bad choices in men and love for the nightlife. Rubin loyalty to his friend is simply symbolic of his loyalties to others as well. Even as Ms. Walker fought her last battle with cancer, Rubin and his present wife, Lois, cared for Susiey. The story is a story about love, life and death as well as friendship.

The real lesson of this book is a man or woman can be measured by friendship and loyalty of close friends. For Susiey Walker, she was blessed with a great friend like Rusty Rubin but Rusty Rubin would argue that he became richer because of his relation with Susiey Walker.