West Texas Middleweight

LaVern Roach, a skinny kid from the small town of Plainview, Texas, rose from obscurity to become one of boxings most popular figures during the 1940s. Roachs rise to prominence occurred during an era when boxing shared the spotlight with baseball as the nations top two professional sports. As a result of Roachs death which marked the first nationally televised fight during which a boxer died from injuries received in the ringthe sport of boxing came under closer scrutiny by the general public than ever before. West Texas Middleweight is the story of Roachs all too brief journey from a West Texas amateur, to enlistment in the US Marines, where he captained the nations most successful military boxing team, to becoming a Madison Square Garden main eventer. He received the distinction of being named The Ring Magazines Rookie of the Year for 1947 and was considered a top ten contender for the middleweight championship of the world. This book chronicles Roachs road to his final fightand it explains why, as noted by legendary boxing trainer Angelo Dundee, boxing changed because of LaVern Roach.