Boxing in the Catskills: Review of Ringside in the Mountains

Ringside in the Mountains

Evan Haiman

Baker Street Productions, 2025

Capturing the nostalgic oasis of the Catskill Mountains, the documentary Ringside in the Mountains chronicles the evolution of training in the resort area of Sullivan County, New York. Over twelve rounds of information, the impact of such legendary boxers as Barney Ross, James Braddock, Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and Muhammad Ali on the "Borscht Belt" is highlighted throughout the 55-minute film.

Hotels such as Grossinger's, Kutsher's, and the Concord were relics of a bygone era, primarily catering to New York City's vacationing Jewish population. The fighters loved staying at the hotels for two reasons: they were treated well and because of the environment. The combination of the cool mountain air and the isolation, which didn't allow for fighters to get in trouble, enhanced their preparation.

The best part of the film comes at the end when three living legends -  Roberto Durán, Ray Mancini, and Gerry Cooney - share anecdotes from their experiences up in the mountains. A former lightweight champion, Mancini chuckled as he called himself "a token Jew" because he absolutely loved the kosher food served at the hotels. Cooney, a heavyweight, on the other hand, could only eat so much of it because he craved diversity in his cuisine.

Featured in "Round 4," Barney Ross, the three-division world champion, was one of the first to use the Catskills as a home base for his training camp. Historian John Conway gives a great story about Malka Grossinger learning to embrace Ross after initially being suspicious of his profession. However, another pundit - one recently inducted into the Hall of Fame - misrepresents Ross's origin story by claiming he learned to fight as a newsie. Many boxers of Ross's era did indeed learn to fight by protecting their corner in order to sell newspapers, but Ross doesn't appear to be one of them. Barney helped out his father's tiny grocery story until the elder Ross's murder. Douglas Century mentions in his biography of Ross that Barney subsequently "went to work at a variety of low-paying jobs - a movie-house usher, a stock boy at Sears, Roebuck, as a Maxwell Street 'puller,' finagling customers into a dry good store," (pg. 16). He learned to fight by joining one of the many gangs that operated in Chicago at the time.

One misguided anecdote aside, Ringside in the Mountains provokes fond memories even if they're not our own. My grandparents traveled annually from the Bronx to vacation in the Catskills with an army of their friends. Many other Jews with ties to New York have a similar family history. It was a delight to see how their getaways contributed to the careers of some of the best boxers of all-time. Fans of Jewish boxing will enjoy this film.