wil haygood discusses his book is dave zirin, author of "a people's history of sports in the united states >> host: welcome to "after words." i'm dave zirin, i'm the sports editor for the nation magazine, and i'm absolutely thrilled to be interviewing a man who has written a tremendous biography about the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of the 20th century. that boxer's name is walker smith jr. better known as sugar ray robinson, and the author is wil haygood. how you doing, sir? >> guest: i'm good. great to be here. >> host: it's good to have you. >> guest: i really do think this book is a tremendous ak450e6789, so congratulations right away. >> guest: thank you very much. thank you. >> host: you are not a sports biographer by trade. >> guest: right. >> host: why did you decide to spend five years of your life writing about sugar ray robinson? >> guest: well, i had written two previous biographies, one of adam clayton powell and the other the entertainer, sammy davis jr. so i started thinking, if i could find another subject that interested me, i'd have a trilogy. three major biographies.

dave zirin, thank you very much.aving you here in the city. >> my privilege, alex. >>> today's top stories are coming your way in just a moment, including the big freeze blanketing more than half of this country. so, when will the cold ease? >>> and it's motoring madness. a guy goes through the sun roof in a display of dangerous and just flat out stupid driving. yeah. 90 miles an hour, too. did we tell you that? you're watching "msnbc saturday." [ female announcer ] swiffer dust & shine is the only furniture polish with febreze freshness. so your furniture is "swiffer clean"... and your home is "febreze fresh." [ doorbell rings ] you may never go back to your old furniture polish. ♪ swiffer gis cleaning a fresh new meaning.

this has been "after words," i'm dave zirin. the book is called "sweet thunder." you need to buy it because it will teach you something not just about boxing, but about this country. .. legislation, that's extended until the year 2022. that's a fact. at least the fact is, that's what the welcome back to washington. it's great to see you i think i met you halfway during your career like nine years ago or eight years ago shortly after 9/11. it's amazing to see what you've done. the success of "three cups of tea" and now a new book and i want to talk to you about the new book today and i guess my first question for you is "three cups of tea" is still a smashing success. i think it is still number four on the bestseller list and now a new book. why a new book so soon? >> well, thanks marianne. first off it's great to see you i often think back to when we first met. we were in montana. i gave a little slide show. you were thinking -- sitting on i think there were five, six people there. you were sit on a couch. you had a baseball cap on and you had some very timely que