Donald McRae is the writer of my favorite boxing book of all-time, Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing, which traces his journey through the sport from his earliest days through the mid-1990s. I've been lucky enough to trade correspondence with McRae ever since I turned the last page of that book. In my opinion, there is no journalist out there that does a better job of getting their subjects to open up, and McRae was able to capture some really personal moments with some of the sport's biggest stars.
The following story is the full-length version of what Don sent me when I inquired about him contributing to a monthly piece I'm debuting at RingTV called "The First Time". The idea behind the column is to take a different subject every month, and ask various boxing people about their first memories related to that. For this first column, I asked people about their first trips abroad for a fight. In the RingTV story here, I excerpted Don's story and have linked it over here, where you can read the full body of his recollection, which I highly recommend you do. I'd like to thank Don for this contribution, it was far and beyond what I expected given his always busy schedule. Without further to do, here is Donald McRae's trip to Tulsa to meet James "Lights Out" Toney.
