RINGSIDE By Doug Fischer WITNESSING GREATNESS
January 2026 Volume 103, No. 1
Founder Nathaniel Fleischer (1888-1972) Owner His Excellency Turki Alalshikh
Editor-in-Chief Douglass Fischer Managing Editor Tom Gray Senior Editor Brian Harty Creative Director Lamar Clark Controller Deborah L. Harrison
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N ot long after I moved to Southern California, more than 30 years ago, I was honored to get to know two former contenders of boxing’s golden age – Ray Barnes and Paul Andrews – as I made my way through the many boxing gyms in the greater Los Angeles area. Barnes, a Ring-rated middleweight in the late 1940s and early ’50s, went 10 spirited rounds with Sugar Ray Robinson in 1950. Andrews, a Ring- rated light heavyweight and heavyweight during the mid-1950s, dropped Ezzard Charles in a hotly contested 10-round split-decision loss in 1955. They faced other future Hall of Famers – Barnes fought Cocoa Kid, while Andrews took on Harold Johnson (twice) and Joey Maxim – but I was most delighted by their tales of sharing the ring with two of the all-time pound- for-pound greats. Robinson carried an unfathomable 108-1-2 record into his fight with Barnes. Charles had taken
Lunch with Larry Merchant is always a boxing history lesson.
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Rocky Marciano to the brink in back-to- back brutal title bouts the year before he fought Andrews. What was it like facing a living legend? I had to know, and they had no problem telling me. Barnes and Andrews are no longer with us and I miss our conversations. These days, the oral history of the golden age (and subsequent decades before my time) is passed on to me by those who witnessed it from outside of the ring – Larry Merchant, Doug Krikorian and Dave Schwartz. Merchant, who will be 95 in February, made a name for himself as a sports columnist during the 1950s and ’60s. He was ringside for legendary bouts involving Robinson, Kid Gavilan, Emile Griffith, Nino Benvenuti, Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston and other Hall of Famers long before his 35-year stint
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