There is a curious fashion at the moment for writing about boxing in highbrow terminology - a genre or sub-genre which has produced some pretentious sludge, but this volume is not in that category. McRae, a South African, genuinely does understand the sport and his word-pictures of Mike Tyson - hugely gifted but self-destructive - the astonishing middleweight Roy Jones, the new star Oscar de la Hoya and other ring notables are shrewd and realistic as well as being excellently written. On Boxing, by Joyce Carol Oates (Bloomsbury, £6.99 in UK), has less substance and rather more pretension, in spite of the writer's much higher reputation. Almost inevitably, Mike Tyson comes into it a lot - more than any other champion since Mu hammed Ali, Iron Mike has the knack of begetting "copy".
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