James Louis Bivins: The Man Who Would Be Champion

by Jerry Fitch

Cleveland's Jimmy Bivins fought in one of boxing's toughest eras. He beat eight world champions in three different weight divisions, yet was never given a shot for any world title. Author Jerry Fitch tells the real story of his friend of 40 years, Jimmy Bivins, and details his fights with Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Charley Burley and many others.

106 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 2011

Reviews

[David Finger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Jerry Fitch has an easy and conversational style that makes you feel like you are sitting in a barber shop on Euclid Avenue listening to the old timers wax poetic about boxing’s glory years in Cleveland. And as fight fan who knew little about Jimmy Bivins, this short book was a tremendous introduction to one of boxing’s great uncrowned champions. Author Fitch, who knew Bivins personally, clearly has a passion for his subject and wants to do this great fighter justice in his book. His love for Bivins shined through each page. The only drawback with this book is it’s conversational style does give it the feel of being a rough draft. 100 pages (with nearly half of it being excerpts of newspapers and magazine articles as well as summaries of his notable opponents) don’t really give a full story. I for one was very interested in his career as a solider and the infamous brawl with the MPs that may very well have shortened his career. Admittedly, Fitch wrote this book late in Bivins’ life, and his ability to spend substantial time with the former fighter may have been limited (Bivins was 91 years old when Fitch wrote this book). But at the end there felt like so much more to Bivins’ story, and I wish we had a little bit more of the fascinating life of this uncrowned champion.