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365 days, 7 fights, 4
Kos, 3 decisions, 2
scandals, 1 missing ear,
1 wild yearChris Jones
did not know what he was
getting himself into. He
looked for a sport to
call his own when he was
hired as a rookie
reporter. He found
boxing. Over the course
of the year that
followed, the dark trade
would creep deeply inside
him, set his heart
pumping one minute and
break it the next. Make
him stare at violence and
dare him not to flinch.
In Falling Hard, Jones
proves himself to the
latest in a line of
lyricists to be drawn
into boxing's storied
corruption plagued world.
He gets dressed down by
Don King, meets the
troubled guy who found
Evander Holyfield's ear,
goes to Muhammed Ali's
birthday party, and
witnesses Naseem Hamed
explode while Mike Tyson
implodes. Falling Hard is
in equal measure victory
and defeat - an
intoxicating mix that
leaves Jones addicted to
boxing's special brand of
pain. Humorous,
infuriating and
suspenseful, this is
boxing distilled to its
essence by sports
writing's brightest star.
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The Golden Gloves
tournament is an American
institution that takes
centre stage in the
amateur boxing world - a
single-elimination
contest in which young
hopefuls square off in
steamy gyms with the
boxing elite looking
on.Robert Anasi took up
boxing in his 20s to keep
in shape, attract women
and sharpen his knuckles
for the odd bar fight. He
thought of entering 'the
Gloves', but always put
it off. Finally, at the
age of 33 - his last year
of eligibility - he vowed
to fight, even though he
was an old man in a sport
of teenagers and would
have to starve himself
all winter to make weight
come tournament time. So
begins Anasi's obsessive
preparation for the
Golden Gloves. He finds
Milton, a wily and
abusive trainer, and
joins his Supreme Team: a
young black man who used
to deal guns in Harlem,
a bus driver with five
kids and a hard-hitting
woman champion who
becomes his sparring
partner. Meanwhile, he
observes the changing
world of amateur boxing,
in which investment
bankers spar with
ex-convicts and everyone
dreads the fatal blow to
the head. With the
Supreme Team, he goes to
the tournament, the
outcome of which, it
seems, is rigged - like
so much in boxing life
today. Robert Anasi tells
his story not as a
journalist on assignment
but as a man in the midst
of one of the great
adventures of his life.
Beautifully written, The
Gloves has the feel of a
contemporary classic.
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This carefully crafted
anthology of boxing
literature brings
together for the first
time in a single volume
some of the best writing
on the sport from Britain
and the USA. Spanning
more than sixty years of
the modern era, from
Tunney to Tyson, it
includes coverage of over
twenty title fights,
many of them classics,
and features all eight
weight divisions from
flyweight to heavyweight.
Come out Writing presents
the myriad aspects of the
sport from as many
different viewpoints:
here are Norman Mailer on
Ali and Foreman: Peter
Wilson on Louis and
Walcott: George Kimball
and Hugh McIlvanney on
the Hagler-Leonard
controversy.
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Hugh McIlvanney is a
living legend in sports
journalism. A regular
winner of the fiercely
contested UK Sports
Writer of the Year award,
he also has the unique
distinction of being the
only sports writer to
have been voted
Journalist of the Year.
He is respected for his
incisive commentaries and
perceptive analyses of
football and racing, but
this collection contains
the best of his writing
on his first great
passion, boxing. The
book features in-depth
analysis of the build-up,
climax and aftermath of
over 25 showdowns
including: Muhammad Ali
vs. Henry Cooper (1966)
Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad
Ali (1971) George Foreman
vs. Ken Norton (1974)
Eusibio Pedvoza vs. Barry
McGuigan (1985) Lloyd
Honeyghan vs. Marlon
Starling (1989) Mike
Tyson vs. Frank Bruno
(1989) An essential read
for boxing lovers of all
ages with writing so
vivid that readers will
feel like they have a
ringside seat.
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Sport can offer catharsis
in times of crisis, but
not this time. Liston was
a mob fighter with a
criminal past, and
rumours were spreading
that Clay was not just a
noisy, bright-eyed boy
blessed with more than
his share of the
craziness of youth, but
a believer in a shadowy
cult: the Nation of
Islam. Instead of a hero
and a villain, boxing
had served up two bad
guys.
Against this
backdrop of political
instability, of a
country at war with
itself, in a time when
ordinary African American
people were still being
maimed and killed for the
smallest acts of
defiance, Liston and
Clay sought out their own
individual
destinies.
Liston
and Ali follows the
contrasting paths these
two men took, from their
backgrounds in Arkansas
and Kentucky through to
that sixteen-month period
in 1964 and 1965 when the
story of the world
heavyweight championship
centred on them and all
they stood for. Using
original source material,
it explores a riveting
chapter in sporting
history with fresh
insight and in rare
detail.
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Sport can offer catharsis
in times of crisis, but
not this time. Liston was
a mob fighter with a
criminal past, and
rumours were spreading
that Clay was not just a
noisy, bright-eyed boy
blessed with more than
his share of the
craziness of youth, but
a believer in a shadowy
cult: the Nation of
Islam. Instead of a hero
and a villain, boxing
had served up two bad
guys.
Against
this backdrop of
political instability,
of a country at war with
itself, in a time when
ordinary African American
people were still being
maimed and killed for the
smallest acts of
defiance, Liston and
Clay sought out their own
individual destinies.
Liston and Ali
follows the
contrasting paths these
two men took, from their
backgrounds in Arkansas
and Kentucky through to
that sixteen-month period
in 1964 and 1965 when the
story of the world
heavyweight championship
centred on them and all
they stood for. Using
original source material,
it explores a riveting
chapter in sporting
history with fresh
insight and in rare
detail.
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Three months after the
assassination of John F.
Kennedy, two
prizefighters named
Charles 'Sonny' Liston
and Cassius Marcellus
Clay Jr. stepped into a
boxing ring in Miami to
dispute the heavyweight
championship of the
world. America was in
turmoil. Nobody knew who
or what to trust.
Sport can offer
catharsis in times of
crisis, but not this
time. Liston was a mob
fighter with a criminal
past, and rumours were
spreading that Clay was
not just a noisy,
bright-eyed boy blessed
with more than his share
of the craziness of
youth, but a believer in
a shadowy cult: the
Nation of Islam. Instead
of a hero and a villain,
boxing had served up two
bad guys.
Against this backdrop of
political instability,
of a country at war with
itself, in a time when
ordinary African-American
people were still being
maimed and killed for the
smallest acts of
defiance, Liston and
Clay sought out their own
individual destinies.
Liston and Ali
follows the
contrasting paths these
two men took, from their
backgrounds in Arkansas
and Kentucky through to
that 16-month period in
1964 and 1965 when the
story of the world
heavyweight championship
centred on them and all
they stood for. Using
original source material,
it explores a riveting
chapter in sporting
history with fresh
insight and in rare
detail.
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Everyone is familiar with
the gypsy race but few
outside their close-knit
and ancient community
really know what being a
gypsy is about -how they
live and how they think.
This is the story of a
gypsy man, Jimmy
Stockin, born into a
world where fighting is
first nature. Whilst
football maybe the chosen
sport for most British
males, bare-knuckle
fighting is a passion
among gypsies both as
participants and
spectators. Jimmy was
born into fighting
family. His father and
grand-father before him
'trod the cobbles' and
young Jimmy was being put
up against other boys on
gypsy camps from the age
of five. He took on bare
knuckle challenges from
wherever they came.
Before long Jimmy was
widely recognised as the
champion of the
bare-knuckle fighters. On
the Cobbles is a rare
insight into a community
under threat - a
community that treasures
tradition - and a man who
had little choice in
becoming a fighter but
was nevertheless
determined to be the
best. Shocking and sad,
humourous and brutal,
this story opens the door
to a different world. The
world of a gypsy warrior.
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In the late 1980s
heavyweight boxing was
ruled by one man - Mike
Tyson. No one could touch
him, it seemed, but
nonetheless a generation
of fighters tried. From
1986 to 1989, Mitch
Green, Reggie Gross,
Marvis Frazier, Pinklon
Thomas, Tony Tucker and
Carl Williams all
attempted to bring Tyson
to his knees. They all
failed. Everyone knows
the story of Tyson's
decline and fall - the
manchild who seemed
poised to become one of
the greatest boxers in
history is now a
disgraced relic - but
what happened to the men
he defeated during his
irrepressible prime? In
The Long Round, Dominic
Calder-Smith talks to
these men nearly twenty
years on - the Baptist
minister, the drugs
counsellor, the security
guard at Ground Zero,
the convicted assassin
and many of their
contemporaries - tracing
their lives from their
upbringings and years of
promise to their
encounters with Tyson and
the present day. The Long
Round explores, openly
and honestly, the pain
they felt in defeat and
their subsequent search
for self-respect, their
problems with drugs and
relationships, their
legal woes and financial
mismanagements. Some of
these men have forged new
lives outside of boxing,
others struggle to do so,
a few even harbour
impossible hopes of one
last shot at the title.
The Long Round is the
story of the fight game -
a story of unfulfilled
dreams and turbulent
lives, of letting boxing
go and making a fresh
start. It is the story of
what happens to fighting
men when they move away
from the spotlight of the
prize ring and have to
survive the game of life
- the longest round of
all.
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From the streets of
Peckham to the neon-lit
Las Vegas, Frank
Maloney's life has been a
roller-coaster ride that
even he finds hard to
believe at times. The
Cockney-born son of Irish
parents, who once
harboured thoughts of
becoming a priest,
instead went on to manage
Lennox Lewis for 12 years
and help him become the
undisputed heavyweight
champion of the world. In
NO BALONEY, Frank lifts
the lid on the world of
big-time boxing and its
household names, and
gives a remarkable
account of his time with
Lewis, revealing stories
and offering opinions
that can only come from a
true insider. He also
gives an insight into the
way money, sex, drugs,
politics, bribery and
corruption have played
their part in the sport.
But Maloney's story is
not just about boxing. It
is about one of life's
unique characters whose
colourful story is told
with a brand of humour
and emotion that makes it
compelling reading.
Before settling on a
career in boxing, Frank
tried his hand at being a
jockey, a street trader,
chef, pub landlord,
cab driver and
greengrocer. Along the
way there have been
girls, fights, a murder
investigation and a
broken marriage, but
through it all there has
also been a determination
to succeed against the
odds. Once dubbed a
'Mental Midget' and
'Pugilistic Pygmy' by Don
King, he has gone on to
have the last laugh over
the flamboyant American
promoter, and on those
who believed he would
fail. Above all NO
BALONEY is the story of a
man who has been lucky
enough to experience the
kind of life he could not
have imagined in his
wildest dreams all those
years ago in South London
- and Maloney has made
sure he's lived it to the
full.
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By the late 1970s,
boxing had lapsed into a
moribund state and
interest in it was on the
wane. In 1980, however,
the sport was
resuscitated by a
riveting series of bouts
involving an improbably
dissimilar quartet: Sugar
Ray Leonard, Marvelous
Marvin Hagler, Thomas
Hearns and Roberto Duran.
The 'Four Kings of the
Ring' would fight one
another nine times
throughout the decade and
win sixteen world titles
between them.
Like Ali and Frazier,
Dempsey and Tunney,
Robinson and LaMotta,
these four boxers brought
out the best in each
other, producing
unprecedented
multi-million-dollar
gates along the way. Each
of the nine bouts between
the four men was
memorable in its own way
and at least two of
them
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Everybody thinks it's
easy to fight. They go in
a pub and beat up three
of four blokes, stamp on
them. But the average pub
fight lasts ten seconds.
When you get in the ring,
you're cold. You're not
mad. Your body is playing
terrible tricks on you.
Being in the ring is the
hardest thing you'll ever
do. Unlicensed fighting
is the raw flipside of
boxing. A few men make
what they call easy
money, but for many the
unlicensed game becomes a
nightmare of pain and
fear. Watching fights
that run the gamut from
'backroom jobs' -
encounters of uncut
street violence - to
fully promoted cards with
referees and judges, THE
UNLICENSED: RANDOM NOTES
FROM BOXING'S UNDREBELLY
journeys into the margins
of contemporary Britain
to strip this world bare
for the first time. From
the remarkable John
Barnwell, a veteran of
30 years of brutal
contest around the world,
to the fearsome and
undefeated Billy Heaney,
the street-fighting
champion they call 'The
Galway Bull', and many
more, Jon Hoteen shares
the lives and times of
these hard men as they
confide their vivid and
extraordinary stories. In
parts bleak, funny,
shocking and
uncompromising, THE
UNLICENSED is above all
unflinchingly honest
about this secret
underside of the fight
game.
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Involved in more than 350
championship fights -
over 100 of them world
title fights - Mickey
Vann is one of the
world's top boxing
referees. He is also one
of the most
controversial. Appointed
as Britain's youngest
star-grade referee, he
found himself in front of
the disciplinary
committee following his
first fight. The biggest
night of his career - the
'Battle of Britain' world
heavyweight clash between
Frank Bruno and Lennox
Lewis in Cardiff - saw
him back on the mat for a
four-letter outburst
heard by the world. And
he was accused of taking
25, 000 from Don King to
fix a fight. GIVE ME A
RING covers Vann's
professional refereeing
career in all its glory
and rewinds to his early
life. The son of knife
thrower and showman Hal
Denver and the grandson
of 'The Silver King',
who included the Elephant
Man in his freak shows.
Vann's formative years
were spent between a
Dickensian foster home
and on the road with
circus. At the time, he
dreamed of being a
trapeze artist or a wall
of death rider, while
acting as a stooge for
his father and appearing
as 'the giraffe-necked
woman' in side shows.
However at the age of 14
Mickey found himself on
his own. He became a game
but often-beaten
journeyman pro fighter,
and finally found his
niche as a referee,
although he almost blew
it on his first
appearance in the ring,
and his wife did her best
to
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Bare-knuckle fighting
without the bull! I
haven't been to prison
for robbery, I didn't
know the Krays and I make
no claims to be
invincible... But my
life fighting was the
closest to hell I will
ever get.'Learn what
fuels hatred and makes a
once-gentle boy into
violent man. Read stories
of horrific fighting
experiences on the
Mafia-controlled extreme
fight circuit of New
York. Prepare yourself
for harrowing
descriptions of drug
addiction, mindless
violence and organised
crime. Tarmac Warrior has
it all. Billy Cribb was
born into a Romani/Jew
family and spent most of
his childhood travelling.
His early years were
marred by the racism and
bigotry his family
endured at the hands of
small-minded locals in
the villages where they
worked. These random
attacks planted seeds of
anger and hatred in Billy
which later manifested in
his fighting - for Billy
Cribb became one of the
greatest bare-knuckle
fighters of his
generation. Revealing an
underground fight scene
rarely glimpsed by those
on the outside, Tarmac
Warrior traces Billy's
career from his first
fights on the motorways
and A roads around
Britain onto the cross
channel ferries which
provided an arena for
many of his early fights.
It then follows Billy's
move to Majorca, giving
a frightening insight
into what really goes on
in this seemingly idyllic
Mediterranean island: the
timeshare racketeering,
extortion and organised
crime which lie under the
surface of the popular
holiday destination.
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More than the world
heavyweight championship
was at stake when Joe
Louis fought Max
Schmeling on 22 June
1938. In a world on the
brink of war, the
contest was projected as
a test of nationalistic,
racial and political
ideals. It was black man
against white man, a
showdown between
democracy and
totalitarianism.
No single event in the
history of boxing
generated as much
excitement or such
extremes of emotions. It
was the night Louis hit a
peak of fistic
perfection, hardly
missing a punch as he
destroyed the challenger
inside three brutal
minutes.
Following the Second
World War, the two
boxers
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From the streets of
Peckham to the neon-lit
strip of Las Vegas,
Frank Maloney's life has
been a roller-coaster
ride that even he finds
hard to believe at times.
The Cockney-born son of
Irish parents, who once
harboured thoughts of
becoming a priest,
instead went on to manage
Lennox Lewis for 12 years
and help him become the
undisputed heavyweight
champion of the world.In
No Baloney, Frank lifts
the lid on the world of
big-time boxing and its
household names, and
gives a remarkable
account of his time with
Lewis, revealing stories
and offering opinions
that can only come from a
true insider. He also
gives an insight into the
way money, sex, drugs,
politics, bribery and
corruption have played
their part in the sport.
But Maloney's story is
not just about boxing. It
is also about one of
life's characters, whose
colourful story is told
with a brand of humour
and emotion that makes it
compelling reading.
Before settling on a
career in boxing, he
tried his hand at being a
jockey, street trader,
chef, pub landlord, cab
driver and greengrocer.
Along the way there have
been girls, fights, a
murder investigation and
a broken marriage, but
through it all there has
also been a determination
to succeed against the
odds. Once dubbed a
'Mental Midget' and
'Pugilistic Pygmy' by Don
King, Frank Maloney has
gone on to have the last
laugh over the flamboyant
American promoter and
over those who believed
he would fail. For,
above all, No Baloney is
the story of a man who
has been lucky enough to
experience the kind of
life he could not have
imagined in his wildest
dreams all those years
ago in south-east London
- and Maloney has made
sure he's lived it to the
full.
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This is no ordinary book
about boxing. Dark Trade
is Donald McRae's vivid
personal journey through
the intense and
forbidding world of the
professional fight game.
Tyson, Bruno, Hamed,
Benn, Eubank, Watson,
Jones, De La Hoya and
Toney confide in him
their fears and longings.
Their fantastic, almost
mythological stories are
uncovered in new and
striking detail, derived
from the hundreds of
hours McRae has spent in
their company.With wit,
compassion and lucidity,
Dark Trade examines the
way in which race and
violence beat at the
heart of our society,
and asks what forces men
to pursue this most
brutal kind of stardom,
what drives their
outrageous ambition.
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Ringside is a
bountiful collection of
the most memorable boxing
stories by legendary
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Everyone is familiar with
the gypsy race but few
outside their close-knit
and ancient comunnity
know what being a gypsy
is about - how they live
and how they think. This
is the story of a gypsy
man, Jimmy Stockin,
born into a world where
fighting is first nature.
Whilst football maybe the
chosen sport for most
British males,
bare-knuckle fighting is
a passion among gypsies
both as participants and
spectators. Jimmy was
born into a fighting
family. His father and
grandfather before him
both 'trod the cobbles'
and young Jimmy was being
put up against other boys
on gypsy camps form the
age of five. He took on
bare knuckle challenges
from wherever they came.
Before long Jimmy was
widely recognised as the
champion of the
bare-knuckle fighters. On
the Cobbles is a rare
insight into a community
under threat - a
community that treasures
tradition - and a man who
had little choice in
becoming a fighter but
was nevertheless
determined to be the
best. Shocking and sad,
humourous and brutal,
this story opens the door
to a different world. The
world of the gypsy
warrior.
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Few sports polarise
public opinion as boxing
does. Some contend that
it is repugnant and
barbaric while others
counter that it is a
legitimate and regulated
contest of skill,
strength and will-power.
What cannot be denied is
that the fight game has
produced some of sport's
greatest icons. The few
at the very top can make
fortunes. Many more are
content to earn a decent
living or at least
supplement their income
from the ring.FIGHTING
CHANCE gets to close
quarters with those
involved in every day
British boxing. It goes
behind the scenes at
shows and into gyms to
meet starry-eyed young
men dreaming of world
titles, hard-nosed pros
surviving another pay day
and veteran trainers who
have seen it all and
sometimes wish they
hadn't. They say this
brutal trade provides
them with an escape from
a life of crime and drugs
and an opportunity to
find self-respect. All
recognise the possible
cost but maintain it is a
risk worth taking. Some
never rid themselves of
the demons and reveal all
here. Michael Gomez was
hailed as a future world
champion before being
charged with murder sent
him off the rails,
plunging his private life
into turmoil and leaving
his career on the brink.
Martin Jolley attempted
suicide in his darkest
hour but survived and
sought a kind of refuge
as a journeyman boxer,
taking fights at short
notice and then returning
to his day job as a
printer. Michael
Jennings' brother was
killed by an addiction to
drugs and is convinced
the sport has spared him
the same tragic fate.
Brian Hughes, one of the
best-known trainers in
the country, admits his
love of boxing has been
eroded by the realisation
that it is a 'stinking
business'. Often
shocking, sometimes
humorous, always
compelling, FIGHTING
CHANCE offers a candid
insight into the boxing
trade and the many
interesting characters
within it.
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Ringside is a
bountiful collection of
the most memorable boxing
stories by legendary
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Twenty-four hours after
arriving in Dublin,
Muhammad Ali rang his
publicist Harold Conrad.
'Hey, Hal?' said Ali,
'where are all the
niggers in this country?'
'Ali, ' replied Conrad,
'there aren't any.' On
July 19, 1972, it took
Muhammad Ali 11 rounds to
defeat Al 'Blue' Lewis at
Croke Park, Dublin. A
mere footnote in the
larger Ali story, this
fight against a game
ex-convict from Detroit
marked the culmination of
an extraordinary week in
Ireland's sporting and
cultural history. From
the moment the world's
most charismatic athlete
touched down at Dublin
Airport and announced his
maternal
great-grandfather Abe
Grady had emigrated from
County Clare more than a
century before, the
country was in his thrall
and, of course, being
Ali - he loved it. It was
to be a most
extraordinary week for
both him and the people
he met. Ali was both
charming and charmed by
those who came to pay
homage - among them, the
then Taoiseach, Jack
Lynch, civil rights
campaigner Bernadette
Devlin, oscar-winning
director John Huston,
actor Peter O'Toole and
an old lady who invited
him into her house for a
cup of tea. Through
interviews with dozens of
those whose paths Ali
crossed and many
centrally involved in the
planning and promotion of
the event, Dave Hannigan
has knitted together an
enthralling narrative
about one incredible
boxer and the remarkable
impact of his visit on
the country of his
ancestors.
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Denmark