All the tools necessary to build a powerful defensive base for boxing -- every defence for every punch from every angle -- are included in this manual. Punching prowess has become equated with boxing, but what is done in response to that incoming flurry makes a truly good boxer: how to make an opponent miss, how to easily defend, and, most importantly, how to counterattack. Building on that defensive base, this book explores natural punching triggers, or logical counter-punching sequences, that move past the beginner's realm of being a mere puncher into the upper echelons of crafty counter boxing. With encyclopaedic boxing defensive drills bolstered by numerous illustrative photographs, this is a one-stop resource for learning the art of counter-punching.

A long-overdue tribute to legendary African American sportswriter and boxing cartoonist Ted Carroll. Ted Carroll was one of the greatest American artists and sportswriters of the twentieth century, most notably as a boxing cartoonist and journalist. As a Black man working in an era when boxing was one of the few outlets where Black athletes could achieve wealth, success, and recognition, Carroll's commentary on the sport provides a profound perspective on race and the history of boxing. In A Boxing Legacy: The Life and Works of Writer and Cartoonist Ted Carroll, Ian Phimister and David Patrick celebrate Carroll's extraordinary achievements as a sports cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and writer. Beginning with an introduction to Carroll's life and times, Phimister and Patrick then dive into Carroll's work, reproducing 44 of his best articles contributed to The Ring magazine--the bible of boxing. Arranged thematically, each section of articles includes an overview discussing the selections and providing valuable historical context. Included in the collection is the significant series "The American Black Man in Boxing," which explores race, sport, and society. Ted Carroll's insightful articles illuminate the place of boxing in twentieth-century sport and society with incredible skill and care. The first extended account of Ted Carroll's life and works, and profusely illustrated with his brilliant drawings, A Boxing Legacy finally provides the deserved recognition to a remarkable artist and author who has been overlooked for far too long.

The "affectionate...charming" (Kirkus Reviews) story of Tim Shanahan's remarkable and little-known forty-year friendship with boxing legend Muhammad Ali, filled with stories never told as well as never-before-published personal photos.In 1975, Tim Shanahan was a medical instruments salesman living in Chicago and working with a charity that arranged for pro athletes to speak to underprivileged kids. Muhammad Ali had just reclaimed his title as heavyweight champion of the world by defeating George Foreman (the "Rumble in the Jungle") and then successfully defended it in a rematch against Joe Frazier (the "Thrilla in Manila"). When Shanahan learned Ali was planning a move to Chicago, he contacted the Champ to ask whether he would participate in the charity program. Not only did Ali agree, he invited Shanahan to his new home, where the two spent a night talking, laughing, and bonding over bowls of ice cream--the beginning of an incredible friendship. Ali soon enlisted Shanahan as his early morning running partner. Quickly, Shanahan became a trusted confidant and travel companion, and Ali often stunned strangers by introducing Shanahan as his cousin. The two grew even closer over family dinners with Shanahan's wife, Helga, and Ali's wife, Veronica. Shanahan was with Ali as the Champ trained for his legendary battles with Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers, Leon Spinks, and Larry Holmes, and moved to Los Angeles with Ali when the Champ prepared for a life after boxing. Shanahan was a recipient of and witness to Ali's tremendous generosity, and as Ali's health began to deteriorate, Shanahan had a chance to return the favor, encouraging and comforting his ailing friend. Running with the Champ is an insightful personal portrait of the Greatest of All Time. But, above all, it is a touching, candid narrative of an extraordinary friendship that continued until Ali's death.

Boxing - Training, Skills and Techniques is essential reading for both recreational and competitive boxers, and all those who wish to take up amateur boxing, or participate in a boxing-based programme. It offers practical advice on the many crucial factors that need to be taken into account if the boxer is to maximize his, or her, performance and potential. An overview of the history of boxing, the amateur code, boxing weights, recreational boxing, equipment and attire A detailed consideration of both basic and advanced techniques The role of the coach Fitness training, gym work, running, conditioning, speed and agility training Making the weight and nutrition Planning the season, and much more

Black and White: The Birth of Modern Boxing is the definitive history of the early years of transatlantic pugilism. It reveals the poisonous racism disfiguring the sport and the black boxers fighting an uphill struggle for equality. It lays bare ugly attempts by authorities to stifle or ban a sport that millions flocked to see, and exposes the unethical actions of distinguished figures such as Lord Lonsdale and Sir Winston Churchill. Black and White brings to life some of the greatest fights in history as the narrative charts boxing's growth from underground sleaze to fashionable spectacle. Along the way we hear the stories of the great champions of the era including Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, Jimmy Wilde and Ted 'Kid' Lewis. The book culminates in the 'Fight of the Century', where a gallant European and an unpopular American battled for supremacy as the world looked on with trepidation.

A remarkable portrait of the heroic people who faced the threat of extermination by the Nazis and resisted by any means possible-whether through boxing, exposing the reality of death camps, armed guerrilla attacks, or deadly acts of vengeance. In Holocaust Fighters: Boxers, Resisters, and Avengers, Jeffrey Sussman shares the riveting stories of those who fought back against the Nazis. The lives of five boxers who were forced to fight for their lives while imprisoned in concentration camps are explored in depth, followed by the stories of those who managed to escape captivity and reveal the truth about the death camps. Sussman also depicts in fascinating detail the acts of the Avengers, a military unit that hunted down and killed Nazi war criminals. The final portraits are of the prosecutors who brought the Nazi leaders to justice, those same leaders who watched Jewish and Gypsy boxers beat each other for their own personal entertainment. Holocaust Fighters is an incredible account of the many ways people resisted Nazi rule, providing moving portrayals of the resilience of the human spirit even in the face of incredible horrors.

Did you just get reamed out by your boss? Did Bob in accounting eat your sandwich out of the fridge again? Don't take your stress out on your coworkers,take it out on this mini punching bag! Desktop Boxing is the perfect desk accessory for inconspicuous yet effective stress relief, and everyone from 9-to-5ers to boxing fans will enjoy this fun distraction. The kit includes a mini desktop punching bag with suction cup base, two tiny boxing gloves for your pointer fingers, and a 32-page book with basic finger boxing moves and boxing trivia.

An intimate portrait of Muhammad Ali that explores his ascent to greatness in the prizefighting ring and his extraordinary accomplishments as a celebrated humanitarian. Muhammad Ali is arguably the greatest boxer of all-time. Yet, outside his record-breaking achievements in the ring, he was admired by millions of people worldwide for his compassionate heart and altruistic endeavors. Throughout his life, Ali demonstrated an unwavering commitment to advancing justice and freedom that should never be forgotten. In Muhammad Ali: A Humanitarian Life, Margueritte Shelton shows how the "People's Champion" transformed his success in the boxing ring into a powerful platform to further his fight against inequality, injustice, and oppressive politics. Ali ascended to greatness during a violent decade of protests and revolutionary movements, and Shelton vividly portrays the personal journey of this bold young dreamer as he pursued athletic glory to become a champion in the ring and a champion for human rights. Featuring a rare collection of letters as well as exclusive interviews, this book offers unique personal perspectives on the man who became world-renowned as the "Greatest of All Time." With an emphasis on Ali's humanitarian endeavors, Muhammad Ali reveals that the champion's greatest achievement was his lifelong fight to transform the world as a messenger of peace.

On June 10, 1948, the eyes of the sporting world were focused on a minor league ballpark in Newark, New Jersey-the unlikely venue of a much-anticipated rubber match between the two men at the top of boxing's prestigious middleweight division, Tony Zale and Rocky Graziano. They had met in the ring twice before, each winning one bout. In their third fight, Zale, a clever and powerful puncher, hoped to regain his title from Graziano, a knock-out artist six years his junior. This book tells the story of the greatest middleweight trilogy of boxing's Golden Age, a championship battle Newark hoped would catalyze brighter days for a city rife with political corruption and organized crime and grappling with the beginning of deindustrialization.

Fighting Sports, Gender and the Commodification of Violence: Heavy Bag Heroines offers a glimpse into the cultural terrain of women's boxing as it manifests in everyday gyms for novice boxers. Taking an ethnographic approach, Victoria Collins examines broad understandings of gender, violence, self-defense, commodification, and health and fitness from the point of view of women who engage in the sport. Collins unpacks dominant assumptions about gender and the sport through the eyes of the women's understandings of gender norms, social assumptions about physicality, sexuality, as well as challenges to masculine and feminine performativity. Central to this study is the appropriation and marketing of the boxers' work out in cardio-boxing gym spaces (i.e. fitness boxing), where the sport has increasingly been packaged, commodified, and sold to predominantly middle class, white female consumers as a means to not only improve their health and fitness, but also as a means to defend themselves against a would-be attacker. The body project for women in the sport of boxing, therefore, should not only be framed as a form of resistance, but one of physical feminism.

On the night of 29 April 2017, at Wembley Stadium, Anthony Joshua knocked down and defeated the Ukraine's former world heavyweight champion, Vladimir Klitschko. In doing so, he added the WBA and IBO heavyweight titles to the IBF belt he already held. That bald statement of fact does little justice to what proved to be one of the finest heavyweight contests of all time, in which a brilliant but relatively inexperienced fighter took on, and eventually defeated, one of the finest boxers of his or any other age. It was a twelve-round fight before a record post-War crowd, and for eleven of those rounds it could have gone either way; indeed, in Round 6 it looked as though Joshua was finished when a massive right hand from Klitschko sent him to the canvas.

In 1988, then struggling writer Davis Miller drove to Muhammad Ali's mother's modest Louisville house, knocked on the door and introduced himself to his childhood idol. Nearly thirty years later, the two friends have an uncommon bond, the sort that can be fashioned only in serendipitous ways and fortified through shared experiences. Miller now draws from those remarkable moments to give us a beautifully written portrait of a great man physically devastated but spiritually young-playing tricks on unsuspecting guests, performing sleight of hand for any willing audience and walking ten miles each way to get an ice cream. Following in the tradition of writers such as Gay Talese and Nick Hornby, Miller gives us a series of extraordinary stories that coalesce to become a moving introduction to the human side of a boxing legend.

In the late 1890s, when boxing rivaled the popularity of baseball, George Dixon and Terry McGovern were among its most famous practitioners. Their paths crossed in 1900 in what is widely considered the most significant featherweight bout in history. Both men were fighters who died young under distressing circumstances. Both were products of a burgeoning industrial society and a cult of masculinity, at a time when prizefighting's adherents and opponents were in a constant tug-of-war. Betting on the championship fight was heavy. This book tells the full story, with a cast of characters including infamous manager/promoter Tom O'Rourke, World Welterweight Champion Barbados Joe Walcott, and Tammany Hall bigwig Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan, whose invisible hand made New York the epicenter of boxing in the 1890s.

Among the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time, Willie Pep (1922-2006) was a virtuoso of the squared circle. A two-time World Featherweight Champion, his International Boxing Hall of Fame professional record stands at 230 wins, 11 losses and one draw, with 65 knockouts and two winning streaks of more than 62 victories-each longer than most modern fighters' careers. During his 26 years in the ring, he appeared on cards with everyone from Fritzie Zivic to Joe Frazier. A scientific boxer with balletic defensive skills and a stiff jab, Pep-known as "Will o' the Wisp"-so masterfully evaded his opponents, one remarked it was like battling a man in a room full of mirrors. This book covers his remarkable career, with highlights of each bout.

In 2005, at the age of 20, Andy Lee decided he was going to try to make it in the harsh and unforgiving world of professional boxing. Leaving home for the dust and faded glamour of Detroit, over the next ten years, under the guidance of the legendary Manny Steward, he set about honing his craft, winning fight after fight, and slowly ascending the professional ranks. Then, in 2012, his star ascendant, Lee suffered two devastating blows in quick succession: defeat in his first world championship bout and the sudden loss of Steward, his guide and confidant. Bereft, his career in jeopardy, the path to redemption would test every hard-won lesson of the previous decade. 'Not so much a memoir as a lyrical treatise on the great themes: defeat, death, persistence, redemption, and the importance of friendship and family' Sunday Times

A Sunday Times Book of the Year 'Rahaman has, at last, written the definitive biography on his late brother, which tells the real Ali story' - Mike Tyson 'The real life of the Great One' - George Foreman More words have been written about Muhammad Ali than almost anyone else. He was, without doubt, the world's most-loved sportsman. At the height of his celebrity he was the most famous person in the world. And yet, until now, the one voice missing belonged to the man who knew him best - his only sibling, and best friend, Rahaman Ali. No one was closer to Ali than Rahaman. Born Cassius and Rudolph Arnett Clay, the two brothers grew up together, lived together, trained together, travelled together, and fought together in the street and in the ring. A constant fixture in his sibling's company, Rahaman saw Ali at both his best and his worst: the relentless prankster and the jealous older brother, the outspoken advocate, the husband and father. In My Brother, Muhammad Ali, he is able to offer a surprising insider's perspective on the well-known stories, as well as never-before-told tales, painting a rich portrait of a proud, relentlessly polarizing, yet often vulnerable man. In this extraordinary, poignant memoir, Rahaman tells a much bigger and more personal story than in any other book on the great man - that of two brothers, almost inseparable from birth to death. It is the final and most important perspective on one of the most iconic figures of the last century.

On the morning of 4 July 1910, thousands of boxing fans stormed a newly built stadium in Reno, Nevada, to witness an epic showdown. Jack Johnson, the world’s first Black heavyweight champion—and most infamous athlete in the world because of his race—was paired against Jim Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion then heralded as the “great white hope.” It was the height of the Jim Crow era, and spectators were eager for Jeffries to restore the racial hierarchy that Johnson had pummelled with his quick fists. Transporting readers directly into the ring, artist Youssef Daoudi and poet Adrian Matejka intersperse dramatic boxing action with vivid flashbacks to reveal how Johnson, the self-educated son of formerly enslaved parents, reached the pinnacle of sport—all while facing down a racist justice system. Through a combination of breathtaking illustrations and striking verse, Last on His Feet honours a contentious civil rights figure who has for more than a century been denied his proper due.

Going beyond the standard workout for boxers, this innovative manual introduces a diverse set of training methods, integrating them into drill sets that build the athletic attributes for which past and present fighters are known. From Leroy Jones sparring with chickens and Ken Norton’s 15 combined rounds of shadow boxing, sparring, and bag work to Ricky Hatton’s staggering 12-round sparring bouts with a body belt and Kosta Tszyu’s creative tennis-ball and head-strap punching apparatus, this guide highlights a wide vocabulary of exercises, all incorporating boxing-specific equipment. The drills can be performed solo or with a partner, and each piece of equipment is approached individually with detailed descriptions of routines, including floor exercises and drills with the heavy bag, medicine ball, horizontal rope, and jump rope. With two workout menus for weight training, this guide guarantees a regime to suit any individual need—be it professional or simply a desire to train like some of the best athletes in the world.

Records of modern female boxing date back to the early eighteenth century in London, and in the 1904 Olympics an exhibition bout between women was held. Yet it was not until the 2012 Olympics-more than 100 years later-that women's boxing was officially added to the Games. Throughout boxing's history, women have fought in and out of the ring to gain respect in a sport traditionally considered for men alone. The stories of these women are told for the first time in this comprehensive work dedicated to women's boxing. A History of Women's Boxing traces the sport back to the 1700s, through the 2012 Olympic Games, and up to the present. Inside-the-ring action is brought to life through photographs, newspaper clippings, and anecdotes, as are the stories of the women who played important roles outside the ring, from spectators and judges to managers and trainers. This book includes extensive profiles of the sport's pioneers, including Barbara Buttrick whose plucky carnival shows launched her professional boxing career in the 1950s; sixteen-year-old Dallas Malloy who single-handedly overturned the strictures against female amateur boxing in 1993; the famous "boxing daughters" Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde; and teenager Claressa Shields, the first American woman to win a boxing gold medal at the Olympics. Rich in detail and exhaustively researched, this book illuminates the struggles, obstacles, and successes of the women who fought-and continue to fight-for respect in their sport. A History of Women's Boxing is a must-read for boxing fans, sports historians, and for those interested in the history of women in sports.

Fighting techniques and strategies from World Champion and Hall of Fame Boxer, Jack Dempsey. Jack Dempsey, one of the greatest and most popular boxers of all time, reveals the techniques behind his unparalleled success in the ring. Straightforward and

Advanced Boxing utilizes the latest research in sports science and combat sports to focus on developing every aspect of a boxer's fighting to the most advanced extent. The focus of the book is on training a boxer to win competition fights. Sondhi and Thompson review the basics of boxing in order to provide the tools to begin an advanced boxing programme, focusing on specific development goals. They outline the best contemporary training methods, concentrating on yielding the most effective outcomes for the training boxer. Topics covered include: a 12-month training plan for considerably advancing a boxer's development; useful tips, lists and tables to help organize a training programme, and to maximize training effectiveness; the vitally important aspects of psychology, physiology, nutrition and coaching in a boxer's development; contemporary training methods based on the latest sports science thinking, and outlines new techniques for pad-holding, and finally, it focuses on turning a boxer into a winning athlete.

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.

Casual observers of the Welsh boxing scene might well think that the best practitioners of the sport have all hailed from the valleys and coastal cities of the south. But the rural counties have contributed their share to the nation's fistic history. In the high-profile heavyweight division alone, the area covered by this book has produced two British champions and another who contested the title. Others have worn and challenged for Lonsdale Belts at lower weights. The first British boxer ever to win a medal at the world amateur championships can be found between these covers, along with the incredible youngster who was ranked in the world's top 10 by the American Ring magazine when he was just 16 years old. This volume, packed with photographs - many published for the first time - profiles more than 50 boxers from the bare-knuckle era to stars of the present and future. It is a must-read for any fight fan, whether from Wales or further afield.