Sting Like a Bee : The Muhammad Ali Story

by José Torres, Bert Randolph Sugar

Climb inside the ring with a world-champion boxer for a behind-the-scenes look at Muhammad Ali Writers have long been attracted to boxing. Hemingway, Mailer, Algren, Plimpton, Oates, and many others have stepped into the ring--at least in spirit--to give voice to an otherwise wordless sport, to celebrate that “sweet science,” and to bear witness to its romance and tragedy. In Sting Like a Bee, hailed by Norman Mailer as an “impressive event,” we are brought for the first time into the ring for a close-up look at the “manly art” through the eyes of Jose Torres, a man who was a great boxer himself. When former light-heavyweight world champion Jose Torres traded in his gloves for a typewriter, boxing finally found its eyewitness. In this classic book, Torres turns his well-trained eye on one of the most celebrated and controversial athletes of all Muhammad Ali. In this penetrating view of Ali and the world of prizefighting, told by a true insider and “boxing’s Renaissance man,” Torres delivers exciting and explicit accounts of all of Ali’s major fights with the cool authenticity of one who has lived it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous insight into the life and times of my all time hero Muhammad Ali.
Loved it from start to finish.

[Craig Strang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads says this book was published in 2001. The yellowed copy I read says it was published in 1971. José Torres, the author, is a former boxer, light heavyweight champion, and personal friend of Muhammad Ali. I found it fascinating to read about Ali from the perspective of a professional fighter. The book is not a description or observation but rather a view into the mind and experience of Ali. It reads almost like a first person account or even like fiction—portraying what Ali was thinking and feeling during his fights and in the preparation leading up to them. The book covers Ali’s early life and career, including the 1960 Olympics, his discovery of the Black Muslims, his name change, decision not to go to Vietnam Nam, being stripped of the title and trying to win it back. It’s an amazing, in-the-moment account of a chaotic moment in 1960s.

[Paul Kearney · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Boxers are liars if you don't lie you get hit'
Ali wasn't a crazy man, He didn't hit especially hard, He could be on the verge of quitting through pure exhaustion, He could have his jaw broke. But you'd never know it because Ali was the greatest liar of all time.
Jose Torres gives insights only another World Champion boxer could. Insights from someone who first studied Ali when strategizing how to beat him in the ring if the boxing gods aligned, They didn't for Torres v Ali, But they did in publishing terms and the reading public is all the better for it.

[Shane Mulcahy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers an incredible insight into the career of Muhammad Ali and the boxing profession in general. Parts I and III of the book are particularly enjoyable. I would certainly recommend this book for anyone with even a passing interest in the art of boxing.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Fighters lie to one another with class. This is the story of our lives. We lie. If we don't lie in the ring, then we get hit.'

Jose Torres was a top class boxer himself, a light-heavyweight champion of the world who at one stage may well have stepped up and faced Ali, but instead retired early after losing his crown and became a friend of The Greatest, following him around on the comeback trail in the early 1970s.

I think this may have been one of the first biographies written about Ali, and is still considered one of the best. It's certainly the first one I read, years ago, promising myself to revisit it again at some point because it impressed me so much.

Consisting of three parts, the middle section is a fairly straightened account of Ali's biography and career as a fighter, where all his professional bouts get a mention, including his extended run of contests in which he predicted the round in which he would KO his opponent.

But the strength of the book, as Norman Mailer asserts in his foreword, is the first and third parts, where Torres - usually from a ringside seat during one of Ali's fights, but also psychologically from inside the ring with his subject, talks directly to the reader about what it feels like to be a boxer in those ultimate moments of truth and lies.

Here are a few of examples of Torres's descriptions of Ali's opponents that I think illustrate well his intimate, non-writerly understanding of the sweet science:

'Bonavena's refusal to step back is a good formula; a good compensation for the stillness of his brain.'

'Frazier charges, slower than a tank, faster than the fastest turtle.'

And the best of the bunch:

'At the bell, both fighters looked at each other. Ali, satisfied for what he did. Quarry aware of what Ali couldn't do.
"Is that all yo have to offer, motherfucker?" Quarry's irish temper seems to say. "Let's see if you can take mine, motherfucker. You ain't nothing, motherfucker." It was the strongest word his face suggested. And it seemed to suggest it all the time.
Ali has more class. He's the fighter who has learned his lies perfectly. "I was testing your devil's white face", his face says. "Now I'm going to play with you. I', going to have fun with you." And he fakes a smile.'

If you like either Ali, or boxing, or ideally both, this book is essential reading.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the reason for titling this book as The Muhammad Ali Story was more to provide a hook for authors Jose Torres and Burt Randolph Sugar to hang their musings on, and maybe, who knows - to sell books, than to tell the Muhammad Ali story, because it's bare bones biography, and hardly even a story. It is an often brilliant exegesis on the sweet science primarily delivered by Jose Torres, Olympic medalist, and light heavyweight champion of the world with 141 Wins (29 knockouts), 3 Losses (1 knockout), 1 Draw. Torres's distinguished career out of the ring, but in the world of boxing included writing for Ring Magazine, and the Village Voice, and serving as president of the World Boxing Organization.

Norman Mailer, who wrote the forward, swears Torres wrote Parts I and III of this book without a ghost, and Sugar penned most if not all of Part II. Mailer also contends that Torres's parts make the book, and I'd have to agree. Torres uses his ink to take us deep into the world of fighting - training, pre-fight psychology, strategy, the how and why of punches and footwork, managing the dual spectres of fear and nerves, and the 1/1000 of a second timing that can make or break a fighter. Torres's style is easy and colloquial, and the guy knows of what he speaks.

The Sugar section, Part II, works off of interviews conducted by Torres, and spends time with the "life of Ali," and as interesting as it may be, it's not as fascinating as I and III.

I found "Sting Like a Bee...," to be the best fight book I've read, in terms of what happens in training and etc., and I recommend it highly.

[J.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess Norman Mailer put it best in the preface. about parts 1 and 3 "I thought the book a modest phenomenon for it was written by a man who had been a Light Heavyweight Champion" and indeed the first and third parts, parts that focus on the fights just after Ali's return to boxing and his first showdown with Joe Frazier, are very good. It is sometimes difficult to write about an event. For example, people who try to write about a concert, can't achieve it because the reader wasn't there, they can't relate to the musical experience. Of course it is just about impossible for a writer to "explain" a musical performance in any meaningful way because what the performance says to him says something different to someone else experiencing the same performance. I feel the same about sports books. but Torres has the experience of being a boxer (and champion) and understands the sport better than any sports writer ever could. The descriptions and analysis of the fights, written in present tense, re-create the suspense of those historic fights, as if the reader is experiencing them for the first time. unfortunately the second part of this book, although good, is not great and just rehash the same old Ali mythology. Overall decent, but if you know a lot about Ali, there are not many surprises.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is lean and mean, like the champion himself. Either champion, that is - Muhammad Ali or author Jose Torres, whose literary skills are as sharp as the perfectly timed jabs he threw as a light heavyweight champ. Written in 1971, and edited by Norman Mailer, this thin book ends after Ali's first fight with Frazier, yet it still manages to be the best and most definitive Ali biography. If you're only going to read one book about Ali, this is the best choice. Torres combined ring experience with close personal access to create a unique and peerless book.

[Daniel H · Rating 4 out of 5]

in this book ali is just a boy and he just now knows boxing exsist and the police officer gave him an application to take lessons and start learning the correct formations. at first he did not know that he was going practice on the punching bag, so instead he got into the ring and started throwing punches at whoever was in the ring. before you knew it he had his nose bleeding and some bruises by the other kid, finally someone ulled him out.

[Michael Alders]

jose torres just died last week-a very entertaining interview on Fresh Air.