Pat Putnam ... at The Sweet Science

Pat Putnam has been covering boxing since 1960, since the day The Miami Herald executive sports editor Bob Elliott tapped him on the shoulder and said: "You are my new boxing writer." The next day Putnam showed up at Chris and Angelo Dundee's 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach, which a few months later would become the home base of a fellow named Cassius Marcellus Clay. "Five days a week for the next seven years it was Sweet Science 101," says Putnam. In 1968, Putnam moved north to Sports Illustrated, where he would cover boxing, as well as many other sports including those at six Olympics, for the next 27 years. In 1982, he won the Nat Fleischer Award "For Excellence In Boxing Journalism." After retiring in 1995, Putnam has done free-lance work for The Observer of London, Showtime, HBO, The New York Times, the Japanese boxing magazine Number, the Variety magazine Vlife, and America Presents, where, he says: "I made a star of Fred Sternburg."

Features by Pat Putnam

	[Nov 29, 2005] JohnsonJeffries (Part 4): Fight of the Century Johnson sparred cautiously. Jeffries stayed in his famous crouch, a fighting form that Jack Dempsey would copy during his own great career.

	[Nov 23, 2005] JohnsonJeffries (Part 3): Full House Johnson's training base was an armed camp. The champion had two pistols: one he kept in his pocket, the other near his bedside.

	[Nov 16, 2005] JohnsonJeffries (Part 2): Jeff Answers Call of the Wild Meanwhile, relaxing back among the fields of alfalfa, Jeffries read the sports pages, and thought about London's call of the wild.

	[Nov 8, 2005] JohnsonJeffries (Part 1): Prelude to Armageddon Few fights ever generated as much racial and religious rancor as Jack Johnson's mugging of beloved and balding old Jim Jeffries.

	[Oct 15, 2005] Willie Pastrano and the Witch Willie hated to train, at home or away, but especially at home. His dream was to make enough money to buy the 5th St. Gym and have it dynamited.

	[Sep 2, 2005] Benny Leonard: Ghetto Fabulous Ghetto Wizard Benjamin Leiner lived in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood on Eighth Street, hard by Second Avenue, on New York's Lower East Side.

	[Aug 2, 2005] Kirino Garcia Gutter to Great He was a petty thief, a street hustler, a panhandler, one of the thousands of cold-hearted lions that prowled the subterranean jungle of Ciudad...

	[Jul 11, 2005] The Z Bantams Zarate and Zamora Carlos Zarate ruled the World Boxing Council's 118-pounders. Alfonzo Zamora ruled the World Boxing Association's bantamweights.

	[Jun 30, 2005] Red Smith's 900 Words A fellow once asked Red Smith, the last poet laureate of sports columnists, why had he never written a book. "I guess," he said, gently, "after I...

	[Jun 14, 2005] Evil Eye Finkle: Two Parts Voodoo and One Part Fraud Evil Eye Finkle was at the height of his popularity in 1942 when he was served with a draft notice. He was 45 and thought it was a joke.

	[Jun 1, 2005] When J.C. Chavez Fought Macho Camacho More than one J. Chavez fought in LA Saturday night, but there was little doubt which of three the Mexican fans had come to see.

	[Apr 29, 2005] James Toney Was Something Special There's John Ruiz, the Rodney Dangerfield of heavyweight champions, wondering why he has to defend his title against James Toney.

[Apr 15, 2005]
Boxing Noir/WBC Exposed
Yogi Berra called it deja vou all over again. I had that feeling as I watched Marco Antonio Barrera turn a defenseless Mzonke Fana into a senseless piece of meat. More ...

[Apr 15, 2005]
Barrera-Fana and HBO-PPV
After vowing I would not buy the fight, there I was last Saturday night plunking down $40 to watch the HBO pay-for-view version of The Titanic. More ...

[Apr 3, 2005]
If Words Could Talk
When I landed my first newspaper job, my heroes, at least the ones that coaxed poetry from the keys of something called a typewriter, were Red Smith, Jimmy Cannon and Jim Murray. More ...

[Mar 6, 2005]
Boxing Classic: Jimmy Young vs. George Foreman
The last time I saw the late Jimmy Young fight, he weighed 237 pounds, most of it jiggling like something poured from a Jello package. More ...

[Feb 22, 2005]
Boxing Classic: Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns
I heard as much discussion on HBO about where Bernard Hopkins should be placed in the mythical pantheon as I did about the fight. More ...

[Feb 6, 2005]
Chavez vs. Randall: The Judges Get One Right
Special to TheSweetScience.com, this reprint from Pat Putnam recalls Julio Cesar Chavez's loss to Frankie Randall. More ...

[Jan 17, 2005]
Lennox Lewis-Frank Bruno: What If In Cardiff
It was the night that finally convinced me that if there was any more combat in my future, I would not want Lennox Lewis on one of my flanks. More ...

[Dec 21, 2004]
A George Foreman Christmas Past
Special to TheSweetScience.com, from the Pat Putnam Classic Series, this article originally appeared in Sports Illustrated. More ...

[Dec 6, 2004]
The Death of a Fabled Fight Factory: The 5th St. Gym
Special to TheSweetScience.com, from the Pat Putnam Classic Series, this article originally appeared in Sports Illustrated. More ...

[Nov 14, 2004]
King Rules Heavyweight Boxing Past and Present
Special to TheSweetScience.com, from the Pat Putnam Classic Series, this article originally appeared in Sports Illustrated. More ...