Mike Silver

Mike Silver is an internationally respected boxing historian and author. His interest in boxing began at the age of 14, around the same time he started taking boxing lessons at the fabled Stillman’s gym in Manhattan. Mike trained alongside many stars of the golden age of televised boxing including Dick Tiger, Emile Griffith, Rory Calhoun, Gaspar Ortega, Joey Archer, Alex Miteff and other established professionals. It was at Stillman’s that Mike acquired a profound respect for what it takes to achieve success in the toughest of all professional sports.

Mike’s first book, The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science, won two awards for boxing journalism from the American Association for the Improvement of Boxing and the Boston Veteran Boxers’ Association. It is considered “a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what happened to boxing” (Bob Mladinich, The Sweet Science.com), and “the most thoughtful, fact based comparative analysis of the state of boxing and boxers ever written” (Harry Shaffer, Antiquities of the Prize Ring.com). His second book, Stars in the Ring: Jewish Champions in the Golden Age of Boxing was described as “an achievement unlikely to be equaled” by Publishers Weekly.

Mike’s articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The Ring magazine, Boxing Monthly, and various boxing websites. He has been an Inspector with the New York State Athletic Commission; a boxing promoter; a historical consultant and on-air commentator for 19 televised boxing documentaries; a curator of the “Sting Like a Maccabee: The Golden Age of the American Jewish Boxer” exhibit at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Piladelphia (2004); and a co-curator of the San Francisco Jewish Film festival’s centerpiece program, “Jews, Boxing, and Hollywood” (2007). He continues to research and write about the sport as a member of the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO).