In DUMBO, a tradition of literary sparring is getting bloody.
Brooklyn novelist and occasional amateur pugilist Jonathan “Herring Wonder” Ames will this Tuesday trade in a chewed-up pen for a pair of cherry-red boxing gloves and take on a writer 11 years his junior (and from Canada!) in a long-awaited writer-on-writer boxing match at the world-famous Gleason’s Gym on Front Street.
The bout will pit the prolific 43-year-old Cobble Hill fiction and essay writer against 32-year-old Craig “The Crippler” Davidson, author of “The Fighter,” a novel about a sheltered young professional who falls into the bloody underworld of bare-knuckle boxing.
Both authors admit that the bout is a publicity stunt hatched worlds away from the Aqua Net and gold chains of Don King, in the air-conditioned office of Davidson’s publisher, Soho Press.
However, that doesn’t mean that the writers aren’t in for the blood — or the masochism.
“[Davidson] is muscular and lanky. I wish it was over and I had done well,” said Ames, speaking to a reporter while pummeling a Gleason’s punching bag.
For his part, Davidson claims to be “in the best shape of [his] life.” He added that he considered Ames “dangerous,” but not in the same league as his last foe, a Canadian poet.
“I have already fought a bear and now I am fighting a wolverine,” he explained.
Gleason’s Gym owner Bruce Silverglade, said that he was pleased to host the exhibition, but warned that the gap in ages may hurt hometown hero Ames.
“In 11 years, your reflexes slow tremendously,” he said. “His ego may tell him that he can beat this guy, but physiologically…”
Ames has twice broken his nose while boxing (and three more times if you include non-sanctioned shinanigans). This time, the writer plans to protect his proboscis with special headgear that he describes as a cross between “a catcher’s mask [and] something that Hannibal Lecter would wear.”
Tale of the tape
| Name | Jonathan “Herring Wonder” Ames | Craig “The Crippler” Davidson |
|---|---|---|
| Record | Published six books. A graphic novel, “The Alcoholic,” is due out in 2008. | Published two books, including “The Fighter.” |
| Weight | 157 | 160 |
| Height | 5-foot-10-1/2 | 6-foot-1 |
| Age | 43 | 32 |
| Waist | 32 inches | 33 inches |
| Reach | “Then I remembered I was Spider-Man and kept up my pursuit,” he wrote in the 2007 essay, “My Career as a Boxer Lifetime Record 1–4.” (Published by McSweeney’s) | “I can feel these two big vascular bundles on either side of my hip,little berries under there pumping blood.” (From the publicity material for “The Fighter”) |
Craig Davidson vs. Jonathan Ames, Tuesday, July 24, Gleason’s Gym (77 Front St., between Washington and Main streets in DUMBO), 8 pm. Call (718) 797-1050 for info.
