Keeping up with the Rafael's

            Boxing’s coverage has dropped from the glory days when every newspaper had a boxing writer. Online focus offers an outlet for writers like Patrick Connor, a staff contributor for boxing site Queensberryrules.com who got his position through determination and networking.

            Connor was simply a fight fan moderating online message boards when at a fight viewing he stumbled across Douglass Fischer, the editor of boxing’s most venerated publication, “The Ring.” In 2004, Fischer told Connor to pursue writing.

            “For whatever reason, that kind of stuck with me that he was so encouraging,” Connor said over the phone.

            Over the years, Connor’s writing moved closer to influential eyes.

            “I remember I Tweeted [sportscaster] Al Bernstein,” Connor said. “He got back to me later that day and said, ‘That was really good.’”

            Still, Connor knows his work is heavily scrutinized. Much of the sport’s audience has moved to the more modern mixed martial arts scene. The boxing literature world has gotten smaller but more demanding for a niche audience. ESPN's head fight analysts Dan Rafael and Nigel Collins are tough names to compete with.  
           “I think there’s, in many ways, a higher standard now,” Connor said. “It’s tough to make a direct comparison from the days when boxing was the sport to now when boxing is just a sport.”

DJ: I’m interested in how, how’d you get your start writing about boxing?

PC: Well, it’s funny that you ask that today, because it’s the day before I’m going to have Doug Fischer on our show. Basically what happened was, I was just a fan of boxing. I was just a fan and I started out hosting on the MaxBoxing message board among a couple others and I started moderating.  And then that turned into, y’know, do you want to be an admin? Yeah, sure.
     And that actually kinda got me into contact with a lot of other boxing people because I used to do interviews in the chatroom of the MaxBoxing message board. I got my name out a little bit but then I kinda just dropped off the map as far as boxing is concerned. But the reason, one of the reasons I started writing was because years back I was at somebody’s house watching a fight and Steve Kim and Doug Fischer were there. I was talking to both of them and I expressed interest in writing about the sport and becoming a writer. And Steve was a little more hesitant to be, I don’t want to say supportive, but he was kinda like, “I’m not so sure you want to do that,” but Doug was like, “Yeah, you should do that, if that’s really what you want to pursue.” He knew me, he knew some of the work that I did because I used to do interviews and cover a couple of fights.
     For whatever reason that kind of stuck with me that he was so encouraging and also at the same time, at that time, Steve Kim Doug Fischer were a couple of the only, I don’t want to say they were famous, of the highly read, well read, well respected boxing writers at that time. It’s really blown up in the last five years, but before that it was fairly limited. So it was really cool to hear encouragement from someone like that who said, “Yes, get into it.” And that’s just kind of how it started. I want to say I wrote my first article in 2004 or something like that, I probably must’ve been 21 or 22.
     When I did that it wasn’t very good. I’d never really done it before. I didn’t really know what I was doing.  I’ve never taken a journalism class, I didn’t major in journalism or anything like that. It wasn’t good. The information was good but the writing wasn’t good. I just kept doing it more and more and when I kind of dropped off the map I stopped completely. Then once I started getting back into it again I was given the opportunity to write for a site called Boxing Bulletin. It was around for a couple years and run by a couple guys who actually run The Cruelest Sport. They kind of gave me an opportunity to write something when I wanted to. And I wanted to and I did and thought, “Oh, well, maybe I’m not so bad.”
     And kept writing and just got more practice. I just think that at the Queensberry Rules and under Tim Starks in particular I’ve probably grown more than any other time just because I’ve written more and read more and done more research and Tim offers a lot of encouragement and taught me a lot about writing.

DJ: What kind of encouragement to you get from other people in the boxing writing scene as far as Doug Fischer, any of those other old-school ring aficionados?

PC: Well, I remember maybe about a year and a half, maybe two years ago I wrote a piece on the Daniel de la Groza-Paul Banky trilogy. It was just kind of a chronicling about how I felt it was an underrated trilogy. I remember I Tweeted Al Bernstein and I said, “Hey, I remember you called two of the three fights. I figured you’d want to read this because I wrote it. Here it is.” And he got back to me later that day and said, “That was really good.” And for me, it was like “Hey, Al Bernstein said something I wrote was pretty good!” So it was one of those situation where you try not to act star struck or walk with your held too high. But at the same time, to hear encouragement from someone who’s been around the block is nice.

DJ: How has the literary landscape of boxing writing changed in the face of a more narrowly defined viewership, a smaller viewership?

PC: Well, it’s tough to say. I think that, speaking from my kind of boxing history background, I think that a lot of the older writers who were around, there have been a few eras in boxing history, especially since about 1900, where not only the fighters were considered the best or better or tougher than they are now, but also the writers were held in very high esteem. Guys like Jack Duddy, Damon Runyon, who were big names not only in journalism but also were known for having a lot of opinions about boxing.       So the point is just that the change is that, I think, there is a much bigger chance for other writers to get their work out and be seen by more people. But also, I  think there’s in many ways a higher standard now. Because a lot of people, a lot of those type of guys, and I don’t want to name names or anything or be disrespectful, but even fans look down on guys that they consider bloggers or small time or whatever what you want to call it. It’s tough to make a direct comparison from the days when boxing was the sport to know when boxing is just kind of a sport.