Hands are the most accessible, effective and natural tool available for use in self defence situations. This manual takes the reader step by step through the moves and techniques required to become competent in real punching. These moves can be used to compliment other forms of martial arts, or used alone in close-range self defence. Topics covered include sparring, stances, the jab, the cross, footwork, defences, "cheeky" shots and hooks.

Kicking ass and taking notes-what it's like to be a woman in the ring. Alison Dean teaches English literature. She also punches people. Hard. But despite several amateur fights under her belt, she knows she will never be taken as seriously as a male boxer. "You punch like a girl" still isn't a compliment - women aren't supposed to choose to participate in violence. Her unique perspective as a 30-something university lecturer turned amateur fighter allows Dean to articulately and with great insight delve into the ways martial arts can change a person's - and particularly a woman's - relationship to their body and to the world around them, and at the same time considers the ways in which women might change martial arts. Combining historical research, anecdotal experience, and interviews with coaches and fighters, Seconds Out explores our culture's relationship with violence, and particularly with violence practiced by women. "An important addition to women's martial arts scholarship, Dean provides personal insight into the radical space women occupy in sport fighting. Seconds Out is a must-read for all fighters looking for mentors in the complicated world of martial arts." -L.A. Jennings, author of Mixed Martial Arts: A History from Ancient Fighting Sports to the UFC "Dean brings a fresh new female voice to the topic of combat sports." -Trevor Wittman, renowned MMA trainer, UFC analyst, and founder of ONX Sports "Trained in the discipline and art of both fighting and literature, Dean combines both with style. She honors the fighters, writers, and historians who have come before her and definitively ends the idea of women fighters as a novelty. Seconds Out is a must-read for anyone who feels the call of the bell and reverence for a good fight." -Sue Jaye Johnson

From his status as Heavyweight Champion of the World to his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali is a celebrated icon known the world over for his athletic championships and his civic and humanitarian enterprises. Ali has been both underdog and champion, villain and prince, playboy and staunch Muslim, exalted hero and reviled conscientious objector- the very spirit of the 20th Century, (Norman Mailer). Organized by decade and illustrated with sixteen pages of classic photos, "The Muhammad Ali Reader" tells Ali's story in more than thirty essays from a stellar array of authors, athletes, and social commentators, including A. J. Liebling, Tom Wolfe, George Plimpton, Norman Mailer, Pete Hamill, Gary Wills, Hunter Thompson, and Joyce Carol Oates. Floyd Patterson defends Ali's right to criticize the Vietnam War; Malcolm X explains how Ali went from entertainer to threat with his declaration as a man of race; Ali shares some intimate and definitive thoughts in a Playboy magazine interview; and Gay Talese gives us a front seat on a 1996 ride to Cuba where Ali meets up with Fidel Castro. Fascinating and diverse, this collective portrait reveals the many facets of the awe-inspiring, controversial, and beloved man and legend known to all as The Greatest: the one and only Muhammad Ali.

Jock McAvoy was influenced by his poor 1930s background. A ferocious fighter, a special kind of person who fought hard to give his family a better standard of living. Many older boxing journalists believe that the romance of the ring and its hungry exponents rest, almost entirely, in the years gone by. The 1930s were, without doubt, the greatest period in British boxing history. On the social side, this period was hard and desolate: there was no welfare state, conditions of employment for this generation were oppressive, everyone worked for wages that allowed no margin for illness. If a man didn't work, he and his family went hungry. Man was at his best when up against it and thousands fought to put food on the table for their families. "McAvoy: Portrait of a Fighting Legend" lays not only a man but an era to rest.

Olympic gold medalist. Two-time world heavyweight champion. Hall of Famer. Infomercial and reality TV star. George Foreman’s fighting ability is matched only by his acumen for selling. Yet the complete story of Foreman’s rise from urban poverty to global celebrity has never been told until now. Raised in Houston’s “Bloody Fifth” Ward, battling against scarcity in housing and food, young Foreman fought sometimes for survival and other times just for fun. But when a government program rescued him from poverty and introduced him to the sport of boxing, his life changed forever. In No Way but to Fight, Andrew R. M. Smith traces Foreman’s life and career from the Great Migration to the Great Society, through the Cold War and culture wars, out of urban Houston and onto the world stage where he discovered that fame brought new challenges. Drawing on new interviews with George Foreman and declassified government documents, as well as more than fifty domestic and international newspapers and magazines, Smith brings to life the exhilarating story of a true American icon. No Way but to Fight is an epic worthy of a champion.

What is it about boxing that charms and bewitches us? John Wight looks for the answer as he delves into the world of beautiful brutality. Showing that boxing is fundamentally tied to the human condition, he pulls back the curtains of his own masculinity to reveal the insecurities, life experiences and vulnerabilities that first drew him to the sport and have informed his engagement with it over a 20-year period. While relating his experiences in boxing gyms on both sides of the Atlantic, Wight reflects on the sport's origins, analysing some of its most memorable moments and characters. Through Wight's compelling memoirs we encounter some of modern boxing's most fascinating figures, among them Freddie Roach, Manny Pacquiao, James Toney and Scotland's IBF junior-welterweight world titlist Josh Taylor. Straddling the line between nobility and barbarity, boxing operates on a different moral and spiritual plane than other sports. This Boxing Game explores why and how.

LaVern Roach, a skinny kid from the small town of Plainview, Texas, rose from obscurity to become one of boxing's most popular figures during the 1940s. Roach's rise to prominence occurred during an era when boxing shared the spotlight with baseball as the nation's top two professional sports. As a result of Roach's death- which marked the first nationally televised fight during which a boxer died from injuries received in the ring-the sport of boxing came under closer scrutiny by the general public than ever before. West Texas Middleweight is the story of Roach's all too brief journey from a West Texas amateur, to enlistment in the US Marines, where he captained the nation's most successful military boxing team, to becoming a Madison Square Garden main eventer. He received the distinction of being named The Ring Magazine's "Rookie of the Year" for 1947 and was considered a top ten contender for the middleweight championship of the world. This book chronicles Roach's road to his final fight-and it explains why, as noted by legendary boxing trainer Angelo Dundee, "boxing changed because of LaVern Roach."

Darren and Gary Barker were the Fabulous Barker Boys. As amateurs, Darren won a Commonwealth Games gold medal while Gary, four years younger, won a Junior Olympic Games title.Then sadly, cruelly, Gary's life was cut short in a car accident when he was just 19, devastating the Barker family. Darren could not face boxing again.Inspired, however, by a brilliant therapist and mentored by a sympathetic trainer in Tony Sims, who had his own story of tragedy and loss, Darren got back into the ring and worked his way up to a world title shot. After first losing to the legendary Argentine, Sergio Martinez, and undergoing two hip operations, Darren finally returned to Atlantic City to wrest the IBF world title from the Australian Daniel Geale. A DAZZLING DARKNESS is written in collaboration with Ian Ridley, Sports Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards 2007 and author of the best-selling Addicted, the autobiography of the former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams. It is story of triumph out of tragedy, hope from despair, achievement from adversity.

Conor McGregor's trainer tells the amazing story of his long road to success in the world's fastest-growing sport Growing up in Dublin, John Kavanagh was a skinny lad who was frequently bullied. As a young man, after suffering a bad beating when he intervened to help a man who was being attacked, he decided he had to learn to defend himself. Before long, he was training fighters in a tiny shed, and promoting the earliest mixed-martial arts events in Ireland. And then, a cocky kid called Conor McGregor walked into his gym ... In Win or Learn, John Kavanagh tells his own remarkable life story - which is at the heart of the story of the extraordinary explosion of MMA in Ireland and globally. Employing the motto 'win or learn', Kavanagh has become a guru to young men and women seeking to master the arts of combat. And as the trainer of the world's most charismatic champion, his gym has become a magnet for talented fighters from all over the globe. Kavanagh's portrait of Conor McGregor - who he has seen in his lowest moments, as well as in his greatest triumphs - is a revelation. What emerges from Win or Learn is a remarkable portrait of ambition, discipline, and persistence in the face of years and years of disappointment. It is a must read for every MMA fan - but also for anyone who wants to understand how to follow a dream and realize a vision. 'For anyone interested in following their dream to the end of the line' Tony Parsons 'It kept me up well past my bedtime' Sean O'Rourke, RTE Radio One 'Remarkable' Irish Times 'Kavanagh is open and honest about his upbringing ... The journey hasn't been easy, but Kavanagh's inbuilt determination has carried him all the way' Irish Examiner

Growing up on one of Scarborough's toughest estates, Paul Ingle pulled on his first pair of boxing gloves at the age of seven. Known by fans, foes and friends as 'The Yorkshire Hunter' he fought almost 200 times as an amateur, representing his country in every major international tournament and, in November 1999, beat Manuel Medina for the IBF featherweight world title. Months later, in front of a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden, Paul came off the canvas and stopped Junior Jones in an eleven-round epic to add the IBO belt. In December 2000, he fought Mbulelo Botile in what ought to have been a straightforward defence. But then, knocked down in the twelfth, Paul was rushed to hospital where he had emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. The Yorkshire Hunter tells the story of an endearing and enduring man who never left his roots. With a foreword by Kellie Maloney, this is the tale of a fighter whose fiercest battle came outside the ring.

March 2016: following a brutal title fight with Chris Eubank Jr, former British champion Nick Blackwell ended up fighting for his life in a coma. That night, victory was no longer important; boxing was no longer a sport. Elliot Worsell, journalist and lifelong boxing fan, had been ringside and in the dressing rooms at Wembley, and what he saw and heard would transform his view of the sport he loves and force him to question his own complicity. In Dog Rounds, Worsell goes in search of boxers who have killed in the ring. Spending time with these pariahs and returning to the venues in which tragedies occurred, Worsell reveals the extent of the devastation left behind. In doing so, he uncovers an incredible story of guilt, forgiveness, obsession and violence.

There has always been a great boxing tradition in Newport and the valleys of Monmouthshire, but recently the area has excelled itself. Over the last two decades, no fewer than four world champions have been groomed in local gyms. Robbie Regan, Gavin Rees, Nathan Cleverly and the incomparable Joe Calzaghe may be the stand-out achievers featured in this book, but they are far from the only stars remembered here. Johnny Basham and the `Maesglas Marciano', Dick Richardson, lead the way for the city on the Usk, while there are many others who have worn the Lonsdale Belt or claimed Commonwealth Games medals. And the changing face of boxing is epitomised by Ebbw Vale girl Ashley Brace, the first woman to top a professional bill in Wales - and the first to win an international title. Some 70 boxers are pictured and profiled. Any fight fan, whether a `Gwentie' or not, will enjoy this book.

On a hot summer's night, in June 1985, in one of the most emotionally charged fights of all time, Barry McGuigan beat Eusebio Pedroza to become the featherweight champion of the world. An epic battle that lasted a full 15 rounds, it remains one of sport's greatest moments - watched by 27,000 spectators ringside and by a further 20 million on television around the world. Raised in the border town of Clones, Co. Monaghan, at the height of the troubles, Barry McGuigan united people across sectarian and religious divides during a difficult time in the country's political history. A Catholic, Barry married his Protestant childhood sweetheart, Sandra in 1981. An Irishman, he fought for the British title, wearing boxing shorts in the colours of the United Nation's Flag of Peace - and in place of a national anthem his musician father, Pat McGuigan would often sing a heartfelt rendition of 'Danny Boy' before a fight. Engaging and intelligent, McGuigan is a renowned and revered figure in the boxing world and beyond. In this candid autobiography, The Clones Cyclone shares his stories of extraordinary professional triumph and devastating personal tragedy.

Tom Lotta was army lightweight champion 1944-1945. Tom fought 48 times, losing twice on decisions. One of those losses was to Joe Brown who later became the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. Tom wrote this book to introduce basic boxing skills that are concise enough and simple enough for youngsters. This book is also the official instruction manual for the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame.

The knock-out Sunday Times bestseller from BBC Sport Personality of the Year nominee, the People's Champion and Gypsy King: Tyson Fury ________________________________________ PICK YOURSELF UP OFF THE CANVAS. TRANSFORM YOUR BODY AND MIND. MAKE YOUR COMEBACK. ________________________________________ 'Tyson's story ranks as one of the greatest comebacks ever. Not just in sport.' Telegraph 'Full of tips on getting physically and mentally fitter ... a great antidote to battling lockdown blues.' Evening Standard From weighing twenty-eight stone and fighting a deep depression, to his amazing return to heavyweight champion of the world, Tyson opens up and share his inspiring advice and tips on diet, exercise regime, and his incredible journey back to a healthier body and mind. Frank, accessible and inspiring, The Furious Method is a feel-good and motivating tonic, full of inspirational advice for readers on how we can all improve our physical and mental health. And how we can all create a champion mind-set. Whatever your starting point or past set-backs, Tyson will show you how you can make your own comeback and start living your life to the fullest - fighting fit, mentally restored, and stronger than ever. ________________________________________ 'King of the ring ... king of how to make a regime work for you. [Passes] on the message without preaching, without lecturing' Chris Evans 'It's a very positive book, it's got some incredible things in here ... [this] book will help so many people' Roman Kemp 'A number of very useful tips ... A great example to anyone' Phillip Schofield 'It's a very open, honest book ... I think the advice in it is great.' Susanna Reid 'It's a great read ... a great book' Piers Morgan 'There's great humour in the book ... This is my favourite interview we've ever done' Holly Willoughby 'Inspirational ... must-have gift for Christmas' Alan Brazil 'The Furious Method is a feel-good and motivating tonic, full of inspirational advice for readers on how we can all improve our physical and mental health.' The Sportsman

Distinction Earned highlights the accomplishments of significant Cape Breton fighters like George "Rockabye" Ross (about who MacDougall has also penned a play), Tyrone Gardiner, Blair Richardson and Francis "Rocky" MacDougall and trainers like Johnny Nemis. Between 1965 and 1967 five national boxing champions in different weight classes were from Cape Breton. Paul MacDougall has collected dozens of interviews from participants, enthusiasts and their heirs, from which has evolved this account of an amazing sporting record. The book's title is taken from a citation of Cape Breton boxers at a Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame investiture.

In "Scientific Boxing and Self Defence," Canadian Heavyweight Boxing Champion Tommy Burns shows the reader the techniques that made him a success. "Scientific Boxing and Self Defence" includes details on the scientific basis of boxing, ring strategy and tactics, diet, and proper training and conditioning.