“…with bleeding kidneys…”
“He went to the hospital with bleeding kidneys. And me, I went dancing with my wife.”
– George Chuvalo, Canadian boxing champion
Before you read boxing its last rites, stop and sift through these stories to discover what the sport has meant to this city. Its mix of local heroes, all-time greats who have competed in Toronto, and the local, long-closed venues like Maple Leaf Stadium and Mutual Street Arena that kept this sport alive. Regent Park’s Larry Gains is entwined in the city’s boxing history, but so is international hero Muhammad Ali. And so are the hardscrabble gyms, local rivalries, international politics, and structural racism that all underpin boxing’s evolution. The sport is often written off as dead, but a glance at its history helps reveal why it keeps surviving.