A lot of crowd-pleasing heavyweights have written about boxing - Hemingway, of course, Mailer and, among others, Budd Schulberg, Irwin Shaw, Louis L'Amour, Ring Lardner, Damon Runyon, even O. Henry, and, perhaps surprisingly, Joyce Carol Oates - for reasons that range from existentialist allegory to macho meditation.

The late F.X. Toole, who for years was a trainer and "cut man" (the ringsider charged with stanching the flow of blood), was 70 when he published the short story collection "Rope Burns," that became the Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby." He died before he finished this debut novel, leaving it to be completed by a friend and a freelance editor.

Based on the final text, it seems Toole just wanted to give fight fans - and others - a pulpy soap opera. This is no bad thing; as a sport, hell, as a racket, boxing is sweat-drenched melodrama with villains galore, champs, washed-up bums, weary but wise counselors and desperate dreamers.

This is a story about relationships and redemption, a familiar theme in boxing fiction, revolving around a grief-stricken one-time contender and sometime trainer, Dan Cooley, and Eduardo (Chicky) Garza, a promising but raw welterweight. Eventually, they will find and save each other.

"Pound for Pound" has some knockout virtues, among them a fine-tuned sense of the ring and its language. Too, it juggles a large, colorful cast with entertaining ease.

Call it a winner, on a split decision.

Originally published on July 31, 2006