Nothing to lose...When nineteen-year-old Tommy Carter throws away a promising career as a professional boxer to work for local villain Davey Abbott, everyone thinks he's made a huge mistake - collecting debts and working in strip clubs is no life for a young lad just starting out in life. Everything to gain. A brutal fighter, Tommy quickly earns a reputation for himself - feared and respected by everyone - and becomes Davey's trusted right-hand man. But when Davey is murdered Tommy is shocked to learn that Davey has left his business empire to him - Tommy's the boss now. No one believes Tommy will succeed. But there is only one rule Tommy lives by...always back the underdog. Because Tommy is on the way up. This book was previously published as Barking Boy. Another gripping gangland read by Kerry Kaya. Perfect for fans of Kimberley Chambers, Martina Cole, Heather Atkinson and Caz Finlay.

No sport offers more allure and repulsion than the inviting and abrasive world of boxing. Starting on the mean streets of 1950s Chicago, this collection of essays moves into a close reflection of the boxing world up through the glitz of today's boxing circuit.

For Ted Sares, boxing is more than a sparring match between two combatants violently punching each another. It is a visceral experience that reaches in all directions, from his childhood memories of visiting the Chicago rings with his father to today's all-out-fight demeanor of Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. At the same time tender and brutal, triumphant and tragic, in the end these pieces are about the last man standing and the hope for fair judgment between the victor and the defeated.

"Boxing Is My Sanctuary" is a collection of essays that explores both sides of a sport that is colored with paradox. Between the violent and affectionate, the barbaric and the civilized, Sares finds a ringside refuge in the midst of the sights, sounds, and smells that define boxing.

At the pinnacle of his boxing career during the 1960s and early 1970s, Muhammad Ali seemed to be a cultural symbol of the times. He has been viewed by some as a hero and by others as a rebel, but either way he is arguably the most famous American in the world. This worldly admiration was perhaps best illustrated with his lighting of the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Ali's life is described from his birth to the present, with an emphasis on his career through 1975. The work covers such topics as his various boxing matches including "The Thrilla in Manilla," his religious conversion to the Nation of Islam, the Vietnam War, and his efforts to promote world peace. A timeline provides key events in Ali's life, and the work concludes with a bibliography of print and electronic sources for additional research.

This book presents a sweeping view of boxing in the United States and the influence of the sport on American culture. Boxing has long been a popular fixture of American sport and culture, despite its decidedly seedy side (the fact that numerous boxing champions acquired their skills in prison or reform schools, the corruption and greed of certain boxing promoters, and the involvement of the mob in fixing the outcome of many big fights). Yet boxing remains an iconic and widely popular spectator sport, even in light of its decline as a result of the recent burgeoning interest in mixed martial arts (MMA) contests. What had made this sport so enthralling to our nation for such a long period of time? This book contains much more than simple documentation of the significant dates, people, and bouts in the history of American boxing. It reveals why boxing became one of America's leading spectator sports at the turn of the century and examines the factors that have swayed the public's perception of it, thereby affecting its popularity. In Boxing in America, the author provides a compelling view of not only the pugilist sport, but also of our country, our sources of entertainment, and ourselves. Includes information from the early "bare knuckles" era of boxing up to modern-day stars and matchups, presenting the history of boxing in a chronological fashion