The Fighters by Chris Greyvenstein
The Fighters: A Pictorial History of South African Boxing from 1881
The Definitive, High-Stakes Centenary Epic and Master Archive of Ring Gladiators, Goldfield Battles, and Boxing Immortals
The Definitive, High-Stakes Centenary Epic and Master Archive of Ring Gladiators, Goldfield Battles, and Boxing Immortals
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: The Fighters
- Author: Chris Greyvenstein
- Publisher: Don Nelson Publishers (Sponsored / Commissioned by Sigma Motor Corporation), Cape Town
- Publication Date: 1981
- ISBN-10: 0909238626
- ISBN-13: 9780909238629
- Edition Details: First Edition, First Printing. Official Centenary Premium Release.
- Binding: Original publisher’s deluxe heavy-gauge cloth-bound hardcover casing with crisp spine titles and textured endpapers.
- Physical Format: Large Folio / Over-sized Hardcover (300mm x 215mm), 448 pages. A massive masterwork compiled with nearly a quarter-of-a-million words and densely illustrated with hundreds of rare, historic archival photographs, ring blueprints, and statistical bout records.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Used - Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Boards: The massive hardcover casing is in an excellent, collector-grade condition. The cloth boards remain perfectly flat, uniform in color saturation, and defensively sharp-cornered. The binding is completely unyielding, and the spine remains perfect, showing zero linear shelf-lean, sagging, or internal structure degradation under the weight of the heavy 448-page text block.
- Interior: The internal text block is exceptionally clean, bright white, and tightly bound. All 448 pages are entirely intact, crisp, and immaculate. The leaves are completely free of traditional user highlighting, underlying annotations, library processing stamps, owner name inscriptions, or dog-ears. A beautifully maintained copy that has clearly been looked after thus far.
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The Dust Jacket: Used - Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Condition Detail: The original illustrated gedenkstofomslag is whole, entire, and in beautiful shape, exhibiting only some very slight signs of minor shelf wear along the topmost edges from safe storage. It comes fully protected with a premium Cellophane cover, which guards against future handling while presenting an immaculate, high-gloss display profile on a collector's shelf.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1981 to celebrate exactly 100 years of ring heritage, The Fighters stands as the absolute "holy grail" and most comprehensive historical record of South African boxing ever produced. Written in a dramatic, narrative-driven prose style, author Chris Greyvenstein reconstructs the thrilling, high-stakes trajectory of the professional arena, charting its evolution from raw, dust-choked mining camp slugfests to multi-million rand modern global heavyweight championship spectacles.
The narrative profiles the bold, the brave, the triumphant, and the tragic across a quarter-of-a-million words. Greyvenstein brings to life early pioneers like James R. Couper—the soft-spoken Scot who ruled early Johannesburg—and Barney Malone, who spent nearly a year as an invalid after winning an extraordinary bare-knuckle battle in the 212th round. It tracks the subsequent golden eras of international invaders heeding the call of gold, beginning with Kid McCoy, and archives the exact ring blueprints of legends like Jim Holloway, Laurie Stevens, Willie Smith, Ben Foord, and the iconic Toweel brothers. Spanning down to modern icons like Gerrie Coetzee, Kallie Knoetze, and Peter Mathebula, this scarce antiquarian masterpiece serves as an indispensable primary historical archive capturing combat sports culture at its absolute zenith.
Author Profile: Chris Greyvenstein
Chris Greyvenstein was a monumental titan of South African sports journalism, a widely revered rugby and boxing historian, and one of the most popular non-fiction authors in the nation's history. Celebrated for his inimitable, cinematic storytelling style and meticulous investigative depth, Greyvenstein authored numerous best-selling masterworks—most notably the legendary Springbok Saga, which became the most widely published and read sports book in the country's history.
Greyvenstein’s profound insider relationships with elite trainers, international promoters, and the fighters themselves allowed him to cut through standard sports clichés. His expert handling of technical ring mechanics, historical fight contracts, and deep archival cross-referencing ensures that his visual anthologies serve as an authoritative, definitive primary historical record of South Africa’s rich athletic heritage.
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