Boxing grew to be one of the most popular sports in America in the early 1950s. Thanks to television, fans tuned in each week, rooting for their favorites, watching the best fighters in the world battle on Gillette's Friday Night Fights. These were the "Golden Years" of boxing - the ring echoed with the names of all-time legendary champions: Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Kid Galivan, Jake LaMotta, Gene Fullmer, and a tough guy from Canastota, New York, Carmen Basilio. On September 23, 1957, Carmen Basilio defeated Sugar Ray Robinson to win the middleweight championship of the world. His remarkable career is a story of survival and perseverance during a fascinating time in boxing history. Basilio's story celebrates the power of the human spirit to triumph over pain and self-doubt. A man of great integrity and drive, Carmen Basilio deliberately moved up in weight class for the opportunity to challenge the great Ray Robinson for his title. His belief in himself and his insistence on being treated fairly is a testament to his core value of living an honorable life, one in which he refused to compromise his principles. His story is a compelling look back at one of the most magical periods in sports history.

No one gave James "Buster" Douglas much of a chance when he faced "Iron" Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990, in the Tokyo Dome. Tyson was Godzilla, and Buster wasn't expected to be anything more than a moth for Tyson to swat away, much less Mothra. Douglas had four losses already and 42-1 odds against him in this bout. One reporter, going through Japanese customs, announced he was in town for business. When asked how long he would be working, he laughed and responded "Oh, about a minute." The match lasted longer than that, though. When it was over, it was the greatest upset in boxing history. Buster Douglas was the new heavyweight champion of a shocked, surprised, and stunned world. Here is the inside story of just how the biggest of underdogs, dealing with the recent death of his mother, dethroned the invincible Tyson. John Johnson, Douglas's manager for this slugfest and most of his career, takes the reader into the ring in Tokyo and details the beginning of Douglas's career - how he positioned himself to be the champ - as well as the post-fight fall that started with a loss in his first defense of the title. Johnson and coauthor Bill Long interviewed people who were in the ring, at ringside announcing the match, and in the crowd both covering the bout or just watching it for the expected devastation. Announcers Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, and Sugar Ray Leonard discuss their memories, and men in both corners detail the in-fight machinations for both Tyson and Douglas. Mike Tyson's loss to Buster Douglas truly rocked the world and threw heavyweight boxing into a tumult that still resonates today.

"Boxing In The Shadows" is the story of many great Black fighters throughout the past century and puts their accomplishments within the context of the era that they fought in. This book is the seventh book that Mr. Donelson has written or co-written. Mr. Donelson has written on a variety of subjects over the past three decades and been published in newspapers and publications, Mr. Donelson is a leading observer of the boxing scene as well as a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, the leading boxing historical society.

About Mr. Donelson, Ringsports.com Rusty Rubin writes, "Tom Donelson is an outstanding scribe in describing the world of boxing. This is why I asked Mr. Donelson to co-authored our book, Billy Soose, "The Champion that Time Forgot.""

When French sociologist Loic Wacquant signed up at a boxing gym in a black neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, he had never contemplated getting close to a ring, let alone climbing into it. Yet for three years he immersed himself among local fighters, amateur and professional. He learned the Sweet science of bruising, participating in all phases of the pugilist's strenuous preparation, from shadow-boxing drills to sparring to fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament. In this experimental ethnography of incandescent intensity, the scholar-turned-boxer dissects the making of prizefighters and supplies a model for a "carnal sociology" capable of capturing "the taste and ache of action." Body & Soul marries the analytic rigor of the sociologist with the stylistic grace of the novelist to offer a compelling portrait of a bodily craft and of life and labor in the black American ghetto at century's end, but also a revealing tale of self transformation and social transcendence. And, by fleshing out Pierre Bourdieu's signal concept of habitus, it deepens our theoretical grasp of human practice.

The most bizarre world championship fight in boxing history was staged on St. Patrick's Day 1923, in war-torn Dublin. The winner in the ring, Mike McTigue, went on to run with gunmen, gangsters and racketeers in Jazz Age New York. A Bloody Canvas: The Mike McTigue Story tells the story of how Michael Francis McTigue left Kilnamona, Co. Clare, to seek fame and fortune in the United States, only for circumstances to bring him back to Dublin where he would win one of the strangest world title fights in boxing history. Set partly against the background of the Irish Civil War, it also tells of a bitterly divided people who managed to set aside their differences for twenty rounds of boxing before the guns started firing and the mines started exploding once more. But primarily, A Bloody Canvas is a biography. It tells how an ageing journeyman fighter found himself to be the right Irishman, in the right place at the right time. This is the saga of an underdog boxer laced with wrenching danger and a panoramic sense of life from late eighteenth-century rural Ireland to the Civil War, to the heady days of the Jazz Age in New York and the desperation of the Great Depression.

From the former heavyweight champion and New York Times-bestselling author comes a powerful look at the life and leadership lessons of Cus D'Amato, the legendary boxing trainer and Mike Tyson's surrogate father. "[Iron Ambition] spells out D'Amato's techniques for building a champion from scratch." - Wall Street Journal When Cus D'Amato first saw thirteen-year-old Mike Tyson spar in the ring, he proclaimed, "That's the heavyweight champion of the world." D'Amato, who had previously managed the careers of world champions Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres, would go on to train the young Tyson and raise him as a son. D'Amato died a year before Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. In Tyson's bestselling memoir Undisputed Truth, he recounted the role D'Amato played in his formative years, adopting him at age sixteen after his mother died and shaping him both physically and mentally after Tyson had spent years living in fear and poverty. In Iron Ambition, Tyson elaborates on the life lessons that D'Amato passed down to him, and reflects on how the trainer's words of wisdom continue to resonate with him outside the ring. The book also chronicles Cus's courageous fight against the mobsters who controlled boxing, revealing more than we've ever known about this singular cultural figure.

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

Originally published in 1915, this is a memoir of Eugene Corri's career as a boxing referee. He refereed all the top fights of the day and speaks at length of both the fights themselves and the boxers who fought them, all of whom he knew well. Well-illustrated with black and white photographs, this is a fascinating glimpse into a vanished era. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include - The Lucky-Tub of Memory - The Carpentier-Gunboat Smith Fight - Barbardier Wells, with a Word or Two about Carpentier - Robert Fitzsimmons - Willie Ritchie and Freddy Welsh - Matt Wells, Sereant Basham, and Johnny Summers - Wilde The Wizard - Some Boxing Storeys - More Boxing Storeys - Boxing in the War

Easily the most enduring of all sports questions is Who was/is the best . . . ? Perhaps in no sport is the question more asked and argued over than in boxing. And in boxing perhaps none is more qualified to answer the question than Bert Randolph Sugar.
In Boxing's Greatest Fighters, not only does the former publisher of Ring Magazine tell us who the best fighters were, he lists them in order.
Could Sugar Ray Robinson have beaten Muhammad Ali? Could Sugar Ray Leonard have beaten Sonny Liston? The answer, most experts agree, would be no. But what if, as Bert Sugar has done here, one were to take all the boxers and reduce them in the minds eye to the same height, the same weight, and the same ring conditions? The answers would be quite different.
And while some fans may express outrage that Rocky Marciano barely makes the top twenty, and Marvin Hagler staggers into the top seventy-five, others will nod eagerly when they read that Harry Greb and Benny Leonard were better than just about anybody.
So whether you read Boxing's Greatest Fighters cover to cover, pick your
favorites at random, or simply browse through the many rare photographs, at
the bell, come out arguing.

"Lords of the Ring "revives the exciting era--now largely forgotten--when college boxing attracted huge crowds and flashy headlines, outdrawing the professional bouts. On the same night in 1940 when Joe Louis defended his heavyweight crown before 11,000 fans in New York's Madison Square Garden, collegiate boxers battled before 15,000 fans in Madison . . . Wisconsin.
Under legendary and beloved coach John Walsh, the most successful coach in the history of American collegiate boxing, University of Wisconsin boxers won eight NCAA team championships and thirty-eight individual titles from 1933 to 1960. Badger boxers included heroes like Woody Swancutt, who later helped initiate the Strategic Air Command, and rogues like Sidney Korshak, later the most feared mob attorney in the United States. A young fighter from Louisville named Cassius Clay also boxed in the Wisconsin Field House during this dazzling era.
But in April 1960, collegiate boxing was forever changed when Charlie Mohr-- Wisconsin's finest and most popular boxer, an Olympic team prospect--slipped into a coma after an NCAA tournament bout in Madison. Suddenly, not just Mohr's life but the entire sport of college boxing was in peril. It was to be the last NCAA boxing tournament ever held. "Lords of the Ring" tells the whole extraordinary story of boxing at the University of Wisconsin, based on dozens of interviews and extensive examination of newspaper microfilm, boxing records and memorabilia.

Based on the proven training methods of championship fighters and martial arts masters, such as Bruce Lee, this advanced guide will help you develop superior speed and reflexes. Regardless of your martial arts style or method...you cannot apply it successfully unless you can react quickly and respond instantly. Speed is critical for success in competition and self-defense. Razor-sharp reflexes are often the sole difference between winning and losing. J. Barnes, a mixed martial artist with more than 20 years experience, details how to use the innovative Speed Loop[ training system to breakdown and master the 7 keys to martial arts speed for self-defense and mixed martial arts fighting. You can double or triple your speed by using world-class training drills to isolate, transform, and integrate every component of Speed Loop[, including: [Visual Reflexes Improve your ability to spot openings and track movements. Exceptional visual reflexes allow you to recognize, track, distinguish, adapt to, and counter movements with precision and confidence. [Tactile Reflexes - Learn to instantly feel what the opponent is attempting to do by quickly interpreting the direction of his body force. Ninety-five percent of all fights end up in close range. Be prepared! [Auditory Reflexes - It is important to react quickly to what you hear. You can improve your auditory reflexes by enhancing your perceptive listening skills. [Adaptation Speed Learn to instantaneously select the perfect action in response to an attack or opening. Highly developed adaptation speed will allow your reflexes to carry out the movement selection process automatically. [Initiation Speed - It's not how fast you move, but how soon youget there that really counts! Train yourself to make your movements felt before they are seen by developing a flawless poker face and the ability to relax at will. [Movement Speed - Dont be concerned with demonstration speed. Your training should focus on developing the applied speed that will help you overwhelm and subdue an opponent in seconds. [Alteration Speed - Alteration speed involves the ability to quickly change directions in the midst of movement. Through mastery of body mechanics, you can develop the ability to stop your movement instantly]just in case you initiate a wrong move. [Hampering Speed - Speed Hampering is the ability to effectively slow down the opponents reaction time to your attacks. Skill in speed hampering can help compensate for what you may lack in movement speed. By focusing on the maximum development of each individual speed component, your training will be more efficient and effective. This will help you develop superior speed and reflexes in the shortest possible time. Use the proven Speed Loop[ training system found in this acclaimed guide and you will see a significant improvement in your total speed and reflexes.

World champion boxer Lew Jenkins fought his whole life. As a child, he fought extreme poverty during the Great Depression; in his twenties, he fought as a professional boxer and became a world champion; and at the pinnacle of his boxing career, Jenkins fought in World War II and the Korean War. From Boxing Ring to Battlefield: The Life of War Hero Lew Jenkins details for the first time this extraordinary story. Despite his talent for boxing, Jenkins often fought and trained in drunken stupors. Although he became the world lightweight champion, he soon wasted his ring title and all his money. Jenkins eventually found purpose during World War II and the Korean War, fighting in major battles that included D-Day, Bloody Ridge, and Heartbreak Ridge. His efforts earned him one of the highest decorations for bravery, the Silver Star. Unable to find meaning in life at the peak of his boxing success, Jenkins discovered values to which he could cling during war. From Boxing Ring to Battlefield features exclusive interviews with Lew Jenkins's son and grandson, providing a personal perspective on the life of this complicated war hero. The first biography of Jenkins, this book will fascinate boxing fans and historians alike.

Sugar Ray Robinson was boxing royalty. King of the world. Personality with a punch. Over 25 years he ruled three divisions, from lightweight to middleweight. As a kid he had danced for pennies on the streets of Harlem, and he danced again in the ring from New York and Vegas to Paris and back again. The greatest pound-for-pound fighter in history. After a brilliant amateur career he turned professional in 1940 and won his first 40 contests before Jake LaMotta snapped his streak of 123 fights. He was unbeaten over the next nine years and would beat LaMotta in five of their six fights, taking his middleweight title in the process. One of Ray's toughest fights was with Uncle Sam over his $4 million fight earnings. He built and lost a Harlem business empire before retiring from the ring and entering showbiz. The great fighter proved a philandering husband and a redundant father before settling down with his third wife, Millie, in California where he set up the Sugar Ray Robinson Youth Foundation, teaching kids about sports and life.

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

Iron Mike collects the best writing on the tumultuous fifteen-year career of the most reviled and idolized athlete in the world, Michael Gerard Tyson. Since becoming, at age nineteen, the youngest heavyweight champion in history, Tyson's dramatic rise, fall, and continuing struggle has provoked more passionate writing, both in and out of the sports pages, than that of any other boxer since Muhammad Ali. Iron Mike is about more than boxing. Like no other athlete, Mike Tyson is at the nexus of America's cultural anxieties about race, class, masculinity, violence, and celebrity; like no other athlete his story of high drama and low comedy inspires writers to wrestle with these themes, with Tyson often no more than the occasion for the writer's own preoccupations. And Tyson has provided many such occasions: his rise to the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship at age twenty-one; his rocky marriage to Robin Givens; his controversial conviction for the rape of Desiree Washington; his return to boxing and reclamation of the WBC and WBA belts; his biting of Evander Holyfield. Iron Mike is a kaleidoscopic portrait of a man who, for better and worse, is one of the most recognizable, popular, and defining icons of our time. The book includes selections from Joyce Carol Oates, Pete Hamill, Jose Torres, Pete Dexter, Phil Berger, Christopher Hitchens, Robert Lipsyte, Dave Anderson, Jonathan Yardley, Richard Rodriguez, Katherine Dunn, Budd Schulberg, William Plummer, David Remnick, Keith Botsworth, and others.

Hall of Fame middleweight prizefighter John Edward Kelly, better known as Nonpareil Jack Dempsey, was one of the most popular athletes in the United States during the late 19th century. To many observers, Dempsey is one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in ring history. Inside the ropes, he was fearless, poised, quick, agile, and had terrific punching power with both hands. His story is rich-full of amazing highs and terrible lows. He was a poor immigrant Irish boy who scaled great heights to become one of this nation's first sports celebrities. He became a household name, wealthy and popular. But much too soon, it all came crashing down. His violent profession, alcoholism, mental illness, and tuberculosis left little to recognize of the valiant hero of so many battles.

"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.

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."