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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Combat sports & self-defence > Boxing
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
'Unbeaten is one of the best sports books I’ve read in years.' –
Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life.
Rocky Marciano accomplished a feat that eluded legendary champions like
Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson: he never lost a
professional fight. When he retired in 1956, his record was a perfect
49-0.
Unbeaten is the revelatory biography of one of the greatest
heavyweights of all time. Marciano rose from abject poverty and a life
of petty crime to become heavyweight champion and one of the most
famous faces of his era. He dominated boxing in the decade following
the Second World War with a devastating punch, which he nicknamed the
‘Suzie Q’.
But perfection came at a price.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Mike Stanton tells the story of Marciano’s
pursuit of greatness through the era of guys and dolls, hustlers and
gamblers, glamorous celebrities and notorious mobsters. But boxing had
its dark side, particularly at a time when Mafia mob bosses like Blinky
Palermo and Frankie Carbo wielded immense power behind the scenes.
Marciano retired while still in his prime, weighed down by the mob’s
influence in the sport he loved. For the last decade of his life, he
wandered America, disillusioned, untrusting, hiding his money, cheating
on his wife, consorting with the mobsters he had loathed for corrupting
his sport, until his death in a plane crash in 1969, the night before
his 46th birthday.
Unbeaten by Mike Stanton is the story of a remarkable champion, a sport
that was rotten to its core, and a country that may have expected too
much from its heroes.
Fighting for a Gender[ed] Identity is an ethnographic exploration
into the increasingly popular world of white collar boxing. Travis
Satterlund, a sociologist, spent over a year and a half researching
a boxing gym and its participants, toiling alongside gym members,
learning the boxing trade, sweating and enjoying the doses of macho
from banging heads with fellow pugilists. He learned how to throw a
variety of punch combinations; how to defend and parry punches; how
to take a punch; he learned of the hard work, commitment, and
dedication necessary to become even an average boxer; and, most
importantly, he learned about the culture of KO Gym and its
members. While expecting to find a gym filled with young,
working-class, non-white menlike he saw on television and in
movieshe was surprised when he initially arrived at KO Gym. Though
there were indeed diverse, young men at the gym who trained
seriously for competitions, the place was also filled with white
menboth young and middle-agedwho were also training. Moreover,
there were a couple of women training, and the two trainers were
white, one of whom was a woman. This countered his expectations and
piqued his interest. Satterlund wanted to learn about these mostly
white boxers that he would later learn were almost entirely middle
to upper middle-class. What brought them to the gym? What did they
get out of it? Sociologically, what was happening? This book
reveals that gym members used the cultural meanings associated with
boxing as resources to construct boxing as an activity from which
they could derive gendered identity rewards. As such, Satterlund
shows how authenticity of the gym was socially constructed to meet
these identity rewards and also to resolve these dilemmas.
Moreover, while most of the men at the gym had secure middle-class
jobs, these jobs were not the primary basis for their feelings of
self-worth, especially in relation to their identity as men. In
essence, then, the boxing gym offered a means for the men to
compensate for their inability to signify power, control, and
toughness in their professional lives. Women also sought identity
rewards from boxing and had reasons to want to signify masculine
qualities. For them, too, boxing was a way to signify agency and
strength. Yet, they also faced dilemmas in seeking to distance
themselves from other feminine women without being viewed as too
masculine. At the same time, however, social class complicated
matters considerably, creating other issues for both the men and
the women. Satterlund thus uses the context of KO Gym and its
membership to analyze the many nuances of these gender
identity-related issues, focusing not only on how social class both
disrupts and facilitates how a gendered space is created, but how
gender inequalities are created, maintained and reproduced in white
collar boxing.
Throughout history, potters, sculptors, painters, poets, novelists,
cartoonists, song-writers, photographers, and filmmakers have
recorded and tried to make sense of boxing. From Daniel Mendoza to
Mike Tyson, boxers have embodied and enacted our anxieties about
race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. In her encyclopedic
investigation of the shifting social, political, and cultural
resonances of this most visceral of sports, Kasia Boddy throws new
light on an elemental struggle for dominance whose weapons are
nothing more than fists. Looking afresh at everything from
neoclassical sculpture to hip-hop lyrics, Boddy explores the ways
in which the history of boxing has intersected with the history of
mass media. Boddy pulls no punches, looking to the work of such
diverse figures as Henry Fielding and Spike Lee, Charlie Chaplin
and Philip Roth, James Joyce and Mae West, Bertolt Brecht and
Charles Dickens in an all-encompassing study that tells us just how
and why boxing has mattered so much to so many.
*FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE BIGGEST FIGHTS IN THE
LAST FEW YEARS* 'Essential reading for anyone with even a fleeting
interest in boxing' Boxing Monthly 'Nobody knows British fighters
and their stories better than Steve Bunce' Daily Telegraph Boxing
is Steve Bunce's game. He has filed thousands and thousands of
fight reports from ringside. He has written millions and millions
of words for national newspapers previewing boxing, profiling
boxers and proselytising on the business. He has been the voice of
British boxing on the airwaves, both radio and television, with an
army of loyal fans. And now it's time to put those many years of
experience into penning his history of the sport of kings on these
isles. It's Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing.
Starting in 1970, the beginning of modern boxing in Britain, Bunce
takes us from Joe Bugner beating Henry Cooper to an explosion then
in the sport's exposure to the wider British public, with 22
million watching Barry McGuigan win his world title on the BBC. All
boxing royalty is here - Frank Bruno taking on Mike Tyson in Las
Vegas; Benn, Watson, Eubank and Naseem; Ricky Hatton, Lennox Lewis
and Calzaghe; Froch and Haye - through to a modern day situation
where with fighters as diverse as Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, we
have more world champions than ever before. And besides the
fighters, there are the fixers, the managers, the trainers, the
duckers and divers... Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British
Boxing will have every high and impossible low, tragic deaths and
fairy tales. It is a record of British boxing, British boxing
people and fifty years of glory, heartache and drama. WHAT READERS
ARE SAYING ***** A fantastic history and a top collectors prize
already... this book knocked me out in the first pages. ***** Must
read book for boxing fans. ***** Been reading boxing books all my
life, don't think I've enjoyed one more than this. ***** An
absolute must for any British boxing fan.
An ethnographic exploration into the increasingly popular world of
white collar boxing. Travis Satterlund, a sociologist, spent over a
year and a half researching a boxing gym and its participants,
toiling alongside gym members, learning the boxing trade, sweating
and enjoying the doses of macho from banging heads with fellow
pugilists. He learned how to throw a variety of punch combinations;
how to defend and parry punches; how to take a punch; he learned of
the hard work, commitment, and dedication necessary to become even
an average boxer; and, most importantly, he learned about the
culture of KO Gym and its members. While expecting to find a gym
filled with young, working-class, non-white menlike he saw on
television and in movieshe was surprised when he initially arrived
at KO Gym. Though there were indeed diverse, young men at the gym
who trained seriously for competitions, the place was also filled
with white menboth young and middle-agedwho were also training.
Moreover, there were a couple of women training, and the two
trainers were white, one of whom was a woman. This countered his
expectations and piqued his interest. Satterlund wanted to learn
about these mostly white boxers that he would later learn were
almost entirely middle to upper middle-class. What brought them to
the gym? What did they get out of it? Sociologically, what was
happening? This book reveals that gym members used the cultural
meanings associated with boxing as resources to construct boxing as
an activity from which they could derive gendered identity rewards.
As such, Satterlund shows how authenticity of the gym was socially
constructed to meet these identity rewards and also to resolve
these dilemmas. Moreover, while most of the men at the gym had
secure middle-class jobs, these jobs were not the primary basis for
their feelings of self-worth, especially in relation to their
identity as men. In essence, then, the boxing gym offered a means
for the men to compensate for their inability to signify power,
control, and toughness in their professional lives. Women also
sought identity rewards from boxing and had reasons to want to
signify masculine qualities. For them, too, boxing was a way to
signify agency and strength. Yet, they also faced dilemmas in
seeking to distance themselves from other feminine women without
being viewed as too masculine. At the same time, however, social
class complicated matters considerably, creating other issues for
both the men and the women. Satterlund thus uses the context of KO
Gym and its membership to analyse the many nuances of these gender
identity-related issues, focusing not only on how social class both
disrupts and facilitates how a gendered space is created, but how
gender inequalities are created, maintained and reproduced in white
collar boxing.
On January 5th 1971, former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston was
found dead at his Las Vegas home. Liston's death, labelled an
overdose, has long hung over Las Vegas and the boxing world,
leaving unanswered questions about his ties to mob kingpins, drug
lords, billionaire hoteliers and powerful promoters. Against the
backdrop of the pivotal era in the history of Las Vegas when the
mob turned a sleep desert oasis into a gambling paradise, Shaun
Assael's The Murder of Sonny Liston is both a riveting murder hunt
and a stunning portrait of a city that was home to the Rat Pack,
race riots and glittering high-rises along the strip.
Ramla Ali's life inside and outside the ring represents her
ruthless refusal to quit and passion to fight for what she believes
in. In her first book, Ramla details ten key fights - a combination
of life's constant challenges and real bouts she's endured both in
and outside of the ring - that have shaped her remarkable rise to
date. From her arrival in England as a refugee to being drawn to
the energy and spirit of her first boxercise class; from the
adrenaline of her first amateur fights to how she often powered on
alone, searching for a community of women like her, and her biggest
win of all: letting love into her life. Each relatable lesson is
packed full of honesty and urgency, powering the reader on to
become their own champion.
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) has always engendered an emotional
reaction from the public. From his appearance as an Olympic
champion to his iconic status as a national hero, his carefully
constructed image and controversial persona have always been
intensely scrutinized. In Muhammad Ali, Michael Ezra considers the
boxer who calls himself "The Greatest" from a new perspective. He
writes about Ali's pre-championship bouts, the management of his
career and his current legacy, exploring the promotional aspects of
Ali and how they were wrapped up in political, economic, and
cultural "ownership." Ezra's incisive study examines the
relationships between Ali's cultural appeal and its commercial
manifestations. Citing examples of the boxer's relationship to the
Vietnam War and the Nation of Islam-which serve as barometers of
his "public moral authority"-Muhammad Ali analyzes the difficulties
of creating and maintaining these cultural images, as well as the
impact these themes have on Ali's meaning to the public.
"A gritty, engrossing, and concise account of a boxer's meteoric
career and tortured personal life."-Kirkus Reviews "If I wake up, I
know I'm a success. The day I don't wake up, I know I'll be home. I
have one foot on this earth and one foot has crossed over. I didn't
just die, I lived."-Johnny Tapia ...the ghost of Johnny Tapia lives
on "Mi Vida Loca" (My Crazy Life) was Johnny Tapia's nickname and
his reason for being. Haunted by the brutal murder of his beloved
mother when he was a child, fighting and drugs gave him the escape
he craved-and he did both with gusto. In The Ghost Of Johnny Tapia,
Paul Zanon, with the help of Tapia's widow Teresa, tells the
harrowing and unforgettable story of a boxing genius who couldn't,
in the end, defeat his demons. From the Foreword: "Johnny had
incredible heart, was such a sweet man, but was also tormented. He
had two sides to him. The sweetest, nicest guy, but then the other
side which could probably kill you. He was tortured with his
addictions, but Johnny was always pure emotion in that ring."-Sammy
'The Red Rocker' Hagar, Musician The Ghost of Johnny Tapia is the
second in the Hamilcar Noir series. Hamilcar Noir is "Hard-Hitting
True Crime" that blends boxing and true crime, featuring riveting
stories captured in high-quality prose, with cover art inspired by
classic pulp novels. Perfect Gift For Boxing and True Crime Fans!
The Ghost of Johnny Tapia, combined with other books in the
Hamilcar Noir series, makes a great gift for fans of stories about
the darker side of boxing. Books in the Hamilcar Noir series also
make for a great gift idea for true crime fans-whether they are a
die-hard boxing fan or not, they will devour these quick reads and
ask for more!
The hard-hitting, personal stories shared by some of boxing's
biggest names are presented in a series of short, sharp features in
Tales from the Top Table. Seventeen world champions are among the
main attractions. Delve deep into the psyche of the famous fighting
men and relive their experiences in the ring - the good, the bad
and the ugly. There are many fresh and surprising stories included
here, as these memorable anecdotes about the fighters' lives and
times were originally intended only for the ears of those in
attendance at the Bar Sport in Cannock - and could easily have
stayed that way. The bar's upstairs Premier Suite holds just 300
people but countless sporting idols have passed through its doors,
helping to put the Staffordshire town on the map. Now Craig Birch's
exclusive notes on Bar Sport's after-dinner speakers put you right
in the room. Every chapter is packed with the unique stories and
inside information from boxing's beloved aficionados. Foreword by
Richie Woodhall, former WBC super-middleweight world champion.
In this poignant, deeply moving book, Muhammad Ali shares the
beliefs he has come to live by and which he has passed on to his
children. Some of the wisdom is his own; some comes from the
teachings of true Islam, from his spiritual studies, and from
people he has met in the course of his extraordinary life. Here, as
he recalls his relatively impoverished early days as a young
warrior in Louisville, Kentucky, and his meteoric rise to fame as
Heavyweight Champion of the World, a title he won three times, he
tells of the many battles he won and lost, both inside and outside
the ring, his conversion to Islam in the 1960s and the many life
lessons he learned along the way. Now, working tirelessly as a
worldwide ambassador for peace, he talks of the damage caused when
religion is used to tear people apart, the essential need for unity
in this troubled world, and how his faith sustains him on this, the
most important journey of his life - the journey to forgiveness and
peace. includes a selection of exclusive photographs) All draws
upon his rich reserve of notes, tapes and journals, and writes with
compassion, warmth and, of course, humour on how we can liberate
mind, body and spirit when we pursue and embrace the one essential
truth - love. As he says, 'It is after I retired from boxing that
my true work began. I have embarked on a journey to love.'
Sports fans have long been fascinated with boxing and the brutal
demonstration of physical and psychological conflict. Accounts of
the sport appear as far back as the third millennium BC, and Greek
and Roman sculptors depicted the athletic ideals of the ancient era
in the form of boxers. In the present day, boxers such as Muhammad
Ali, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Robinson, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny
Pacquiao, and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. are recognized throughout the
world. Boxing films continue to resonate with audiences, from the
many Rocky movies to Raging Bull, The Fighter, Million Dollar Baby,
and Ali. In Boxing: A Concise History of the Sweet Science, Gerald
R. Gems provides a succinct yet wide ranging treatment of the
sport, covering boxing's ancient roots and its evolution,
modernization, and global diffusion. The book not only includes a
historical account of boxing, but also explores such issues as
social class, race, ethnic rivalries, religious influences, gender
issues, and the growth of female boxing. The current debates over
the moral and ethical issues relative to the sport are also
discussed. While the primary coverage of the political, social, and
cultural impacts of boxing focuses on the United States, Gems'
examination encompasses the sport on a global level, as well.
Covering important issues and events in the history of boxing and
featuring numerous photographs, Boxing: A Concise History of the
Sweet Science will be of interest to boxing fans, historians,
scholars, and those wanting to learn more about the sport.
"This compelling book forces us to rethink the history of cinema.
Dan Streible's thought-provoking rediscovery of an entire lost
genre of hundreds of early films reminds us how much we still do
not know about the development of American movie culture. The fact
that only a fraction of these forgotten films survive, and those
mostly in fragments, makes this historical account of them all the
more valuable."--Martin Scorsese
"Men in skimpy clothing engaged in the manly art of beating on each
other became the cinema's very first movie stars. With masterful
historical research in both film and sport history, Dan Streible's
book provides the definitive account of the complex fascination
these first films exerted, as prizefighting collided with early
cinema and staged new battles over gender, race and class."--Tom
Gunning, author of "D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American
Narrative Film," and "The Films of Fritz Lang"
"'Sporting' men and curious women, slumming elites and
working-class laborers, nativists and European immigrants, Great
White Hopes and insurgent African Americans--Dan Streible's
meticulous research brings to life the dynamic, overlapping, and
often contentious public spheres that fight films pull into focus.
Written in smart and straightforward prose, "Fight Pictures"
combines new critical insights about early cinema's aesthetics of
display and struggles for cultural legitimacy with the social
histories of boxing and American modernity."--Jacqueline Stewart,
author of "Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban
Modernity"
He was the first black heavyweight champion in history, the most
celebrated-and most reviled-African American of his age. In
"Unforgivable Blackness, the prizewinning biographer Geoffrey C.
Ward brings to vivid life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more
complex and compelling than the newspaper headlines he inspired
could ever convey. Johnson battled his way from obscurity to the
top of the heavyweight ranks and in 1908 won the greatest prize in
American sports-one that had always been the private preserve of
white boxers. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he
took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not
exist. While most blacks struggled just to survive, he reveled in
his riches and his fame. And at a time when the mere suspicion that
a black man had flirted with a white woman could cost him his life,
he insisted on sleeping with whomever he pleased, and married
three. Because he did so the federal government set out to destroy
him, and he was forced to endure a year of prison and seven years
of exile. Ward points out that to most whites (and to some African
Americans as well) he was seen as a perpetual threat-profligate,
arrogant, amoral, a dark menace, and a danger to the natural order
of things.
"
Unforgivable Blackness is the first full-scale biography of Johnson
in more than twenty years. Accompanied by more than fifty
photographs and drawing on a wealth of new material-including
Johnson's never-before-published prison memoir-it restores Jack
Johnson to his rightful place in the pantheon of American
individualists.
"From the Hardcover edition.
When Carl Froch defeated George Groves in their Wembley Stadium
re-match in front of 80,000 fans, it went down as the biggest fight
in British boxing history, cementing Carl's place as our greatest
boxer - a pure warrior who has never accepted the easy way. Carl
grew up a tough kid on a Nottingham estate, where boxing helped to
keep him out of trouble. His incredible natural ability soon led to
a world amateur medal before he turned pro and embarked on a long
journey with his mentor and corner man Rob McCracken. Carl's career
has always been defined by taking on the odds with blisteringly
tough fights. He was never scared to fight in someone else's
backyard and always faced the hardest opponents to prove himself -
Jean Pascal, Arthur Abraham, Andre Ward, Lucien Bute and his
incredible last round knock-out of Jermain Taylor. But of course he
will always be remembered for his showdowns with the great Dane
Mikkel Kessler and then George Groves, avenging his initial points
defeat by Kessler and finishing Groves for a second time with one
of the greatest punches in British boxing history. Froch was first
a local and now a national hero and here he tells the story of how
he fought his way through sheer guts and determination to the
summit of the boxing world. PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS THE COBRA - NOW
FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED
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