These gentlemen do not hesitate to take a serious look at the major fights of today, weigh the important factors, and make a prediction as to how the contest will proceed and who will win. This does not mean they are always correct. Who is? But in addressing how each combatant will fight his adversary, they are usually on target. In selecting the winner, again they are correct an uncanny number of times. So, it is quite interesting to see what they have to say in advance of a match and also in assessing the outcome. Their study of boxing is not limited to the present either. While they focus primarily on boxers after the year 1930, they are well-read and extremely knowledgeable about the old-timers that preceded these men, even as far back a the bare-knuckle fighters. I have experienced some challenging debates with Tom and Frank regarding several men in boxing history and, in some cases, I am hard-pressed to produce a decent argument in response to some of the points they emphasize. I have followed boxing for over 57 years now, ever since I was a child, eight years of age. subject--magazines, books and newspapers (from as far back as 1820). I have read what sportswriters, coaches, athletes, boxers, and fans have to say. In conclusion, I must say that Tom and Frank write with as much authority and in-depth knowledge as anyone I have read and exhibit in their writing the keen observation and analysis that is often lacking in the work of many others. The book makes for a good reader on the subject of boxing with short and easy to read essays that serve to whet the appetite of a boxing fan. Tracy Callis

Each year, readers, writers, and critics alike look forward to Thomas Hauser's newest collection of articles about the contemporary boxing scene. Reviewing his 2019 collection, Booklist proclaimed, 'It's hard to think of another sports journalist who knows more about his or her sport of choice. As it does every year, Hauser's anthology laps the field. The man is a treasure.' Staredown continues this tradition of excellence with inside reporting from the dressing room before some of last year's biggest fights, in-depth investigations into corruption in boxing, and more. Hauser also moves beyond the norm to explore incidents like street fights and examine boxing's storied history in new and creative ways.

The champs and challengers, unsung heroes and eccentrics, tragedies and bizarre little-known tales from the history of boxing are all here. This unique assortment of articles comes from the popular Boxing News 'Yesterday's Heroes' column. In this compilation, Alex Daley has delved deep into the archives and interviewed ex-fighters to uncover some of boxing's most intriguing stories. British legends like Jimmy Wilde, Jim Driscoll, Ted Kid Lewis, Jock McAvoy, Benny Lynch, Freddie Mills, Randolph Turpin, John Conteh and Terry Downes all feature. As do American greats like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Harry Greb, Sonny Liston and Jack Dempsey. Read about the world champion who was sold to a boxing booth by his father, the boxer hanged for murder, the bareknuckle champ who became an MP and the fighter who started a mutiny. Boxing Nostalgia takes you on a journey through British ring history, from the bareknuckle era to the late 20th century, with stories that are often sad, staggering or downright bizarre.

Big city boy grabs scholarship to escape L.A. insanity to small-town America. Meets, wins, loses ?

This work brings a fresh perspective to the history of modern prizefighting, a sport which has evolved over several centuries to become one of mankind's most lasting and valued sporting attractions. With his primary focus outside the ropes, the author shows how organizers, publicity agents, and political allies overcame both legal and moral roadblocks to make fisticuffing a lively commercial enterprise. The book begins with the clandestine bare-knuckle fights in eighteenth-century London, and ends with the vibrant, large-scale productions of modern Las Vegas "fight nights." Along the way, he explains many of the myths about antiquarian prizefighters, describes the origins of slave fight folklore, and examines the forces that transformed Las Vegas into the world's leading venue for important fights.

From 1919 to 1927, Jack Dempsey was the heavyweight champion of the world. With his fierce good looks and matchless dedication to the kill, he was a fighter perfectly suited to the Roaring '20s. In A Flame of Pure Fire, award-winning and renowned sports writer Roger Kahn, a personal friend of Dempsey's, tells the extraordinary story of a man and a country growing to maturity in a blaze of strength and exuberance. With passion and precision, Kahn not only chronicles the thrilling, brutal bouts of the "Manassa Mauler" but also illustrates how the wild and raucous 1920s shaped Dempsey, and how the champ, in turn, left an indelible mark on sports and American history. An accomplished and insightful observation on how sports can measure a society's evolution, Roger Kahn finds the heart of America in the story of the most famous athlete of his time, the man John Lardner once called "a flame of pure fire, at last a hero."

"This is a surprising book, a terrific book. It's not about boxing, but about an odd, demanding world in which boxing is the thread, the key to existence. Wiley deftly broadens the delineation of this world and its people. Perceptive reporting is the foundation and perceptive reporting is rare enough. Wiley enhances it with clear, quick writing laced with humor and with a sensitivity that lends brilliance to this impressive work."-Robert W. Creamer, author of Baseball and Other Matters in 1941. "Ralph Wiley, with Serenity, has produced an original book about the ring. . . . He can dig beneath the surface and show us what really happened in a bout: why Thomas Hearns, with too much faith in his powerful right hand, lost to Sugar Ray Leonard in their first match. . . . Or why Roberto Durn was acting out of prudence, not cowardice, when he quit in his second fight against Leonard. . . . Yet the book is not really about boxing. Boxing in Serenity is what T. S. Eliot, speaking of plot, called the meat a burglar brings to distract the watchdog. The book is really about growing up in a world where you had to defend yourself physically to survive."-New York Times. "Wiley's rapport with boxers is profound."-Publisher's Weekly. "Wiley is one writer who really knows his way around a boxing ring. . . . He writes] with passion and understanding about complex, violent men and their oddly redemptive sport."-Booklist. Ralph Wiley is the author or coauthor of several works, most recently Born to Play: The Eric Davis Story.

"Personally, I've got a lot invested in reaching my stunning current age, and I'm damned if I'm going to hang on to that youthful crap. (I liked the idea of being a sixty-year-old so much I started claiming that age before I turned fifty-nine.) Parts of it, I don't like--the loss of energy that seems its inevitable accompaniment, for example--but when I consider how I used to boil that energy away as a younger man, and the things I boiled it away on, I am happy to accept a shorter tether and a more reflective way of going at things."


John Jerome, author of such beloved books as Truck and Stone Work, entered his sixty-fifth year with a number of goals in mind: to battle the debilities of age, to master them through understanding when he could not physically defeat them, and to keep a journal of these efforts. As he puts it, "It was time to start planning an endgame."

The result is a warm, compassionate, and honest look at the twelve months that led him to the gateway of old age--a survey of this time of life which ranges from strict physiology to expansive philosophy, from delicate neurosurgery to rough weather on a Canadian canoeing trip, from the despair and isolation of illness to the love and comfort of a sound marriage. The writing, in its clarity, grace, and humor, matches its author's spirit. "The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our time," Jerome reminds us. Reading this wise and funny chronicle of one man's--and everyman's--journey toward citizenship, senior division, will be time well spent, for young and old alike. It is that rare kind of book which comes to life as a companion, and even a friend.


From the Hardcover edition.

This collection of quotes is accompanied by family photographs and the stories behind the sayings by Ali's daughter and biographer, Hana Ali. A book of inspiration, humour, and Ali's inimitable way with words, it's a unique look at a unique and beloved person.

Fifteen previously unpublished boxing pieces written between 1952 and 1963.
Demonstrating A.J. Liebling’s abiding passion for the “sweet science” of boxing, "A Neutral Corner" brings together fifteen previously unpublished pieces written between 1952 and 1963. Antic, clear-eyed, and wildly entertaining, these essays showcase a" The New Yorker" journalist at the top of his form. Here one relives the high drama of the classic Patterson-Johansson championship bout of 1959, and Liebling’s early prescient portrayal of Cassius Clay’s style as a boxer and a poet is not to be missed.
Liebling always finds the human story that makes these essays appealing to aficionados of boxing and prose alike. Alive with a true fan’s reverence for the sport, yet balanced by a true skeptic’s disdain for sentiment, "A Neutral Corner "is an American treasure.

March 2016: boxer Chris Eubank Jr stops his opponent Nick Blackwell in round ten of a British title fight. Blackwell, having collapsed in the ring, then dies momentarily in the back of an ambulance, before being brought back to life. He remains in a coma for seven days. The boxing world is thrown into turmoil. The lives of the protagonists and the witnesses are changed forever. Journalist and lifelong boxing fan Elliot Worsell was ringside that night and in the dressing rooms in the immediate aftermath. 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. A powerful look at the past, present and future of one of the world's most dangerous sports, Dog Rounds is a modern classic.

'To be legendary you got to have heart... Ray's heart was bigger than all the rest' Muhammad Ali SUGAR RAY LEONARD was one of the greatest boxers ever. An artist and a showman he was always willing to take the difficult fight: his gruelling encounters with Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler have become legendary. Ray's autobiography takes you into the ring - with the mind games, brutality and euphroia. But, outside of the ring, Ray's biggest opponent was himself. From early domestic violence and sexual abuse to a blur of fame, sex, greed, drink and drug addiction at the height of his career that cost him so much, The Big Fight is a remarkable portrait of the rise, fall and final redeption of a true fighter in every sense.

Gleason's Gym is the last remaining institution of New York's Golden Age of boxing. Jake LaMotta, Muhammad Ali, Hector Camacho, Mike Tyson--the alumni of Gleason's are a roster of boxing greats. Founded in the Bronx in 1937, Gleason's moved in the mid-1980s to what has since become one of New York's wealthiest residential areas--Brooklyn's DUMBO. Gleason's has also transformed, opening its doors to new members, particularly women and white-collar men. "Come Out Swinging" is Lucia Trimbur's nuanced insider's account of a place that was once the domain of poor and working-class men of color but is now shared by rich and poor, male and female, black and white, and young and old.

"Come Out Swinging" chronicles the everyday world of the gym. Its diverse members train, fight, talk, and socialize together. We meet amateurs for whom boxing is a full-time, unpaid job. We get to know the trainers who act as their father figures and mentors. We are introduced to women who empower themselves physically and mentally. And we encounter the male urban professionals who pay handsomely to learn to box, and to access a form of masculinity missing from their office-bound lives. Ultimately, "Come Out Swinging" reveals how Gleason's meets the needs of a variety of people who, despite their differences, are connected through discipline and sport.

“The story of Ike Ibeabuchi is one of the strangest in modern boxing history and Luke G. Williams has told it with great clarity, sensitivity, and skill. President of Pandemonium is crammed with raw and revealing details as Williams draws us into the unsettling world of a man as vulnerable as he was destructive. It is a gripping read.”—Donald McRae, The Guardian Ike “The President” Ibeabuchi had the boxing world at his feet in 1997 after vanquishing David Tua in a battle for the ages in Sacramento. The Nigerian heavyweight’s subsequent descent into a vortex of mental illness and crime and punishment was as shocking as it was tragic. Was Ibeabuchi a vulnerable man exploited by a ruthless sport and a dysfunctional criminal justice system, or was he guilty-as-charged for his deeds and rightly punished? Somewhere amid a colorful cast of characters including Republican politicians, crooked promoters, and demons hiding in air-conditioning units, lies the uncomfortable truth. In President of Pandemonium, Luke G. Williams vividly recreates Ibeabuchi’s life in and out of the ring. Combining exclusive interviews with those who guided his career and observed him closely, as well as firsthand testimony from “The President” himself, this is a story of brilliance destroyed by dark forces, both real and imagined.