Dive deep into the world of professional wrestling where dreams, rivalries, and legends intertwine. "Ringside Redemption: Legacy of a Champion" follows the journey of Alex 'The Meteor' Mendez, a third-generation wrestler struggling to step out of the colossal shadows of his family legacy. As Alex confronts past ghosts, mends broken bonds, and faces the fiercest opponents in the ring, he learns that the weight of the champion's belt is not just about the victories but the sacrifices, grit, and the heart that goes behind each move. From grueling training days to the stories untold behind legendary match-ups, the book offers a raw, unfiltered look at the world of wrestling beyond the spotlight. It's not just a tale of one man's journey to greatness but an anthem for every underdog who dreams of leaving an indelible mark in their chosen field. Join Alex as he navigates the highs and lows, the triumphs and heartbreaks, and learns what it truly means to be a champion. A tale of ambition, resilience, and redemption awaits you in the squared circle.

Twenty-four exclusive interviews with boxing insiders feature the recollections and perspectives of champions, trainers, promoters and officials, as well as those who work behind the scenes. Interviewees include ring legends "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks and Roy Jones, Jr., trainer Angelo Dundee, promoter Bob Arum, ring announcer Michael Buffer, referee Steve Smoger, cutman Joe Souza, sportscaster Al Bernstein and manager Jackie Kallen.

Despite its status as one of the oldest and most enduringly popular sports in history, wrestling has been pushed to the background of the current American sports scene. Most people today would have a hard time even considering wrestling (with some of its modern theatrics) in the same terms as track and field or boxing. But until the 1920s, wrestling stood as a legitimate professional sport in this country, and a widely practiced amateur one as well. Its past respectability may not have endured, but the advent of cable television in the 1980s offered the sport a renewed opportunity to play a determining role in American popular culture. This opportunity was not wasted, and wrestlers now assume places in politics and film at the highest levels. Ringside, the first work to fully examine the history of professional wrestling in this country, provides an illuminating and colorful account of all of the various athletes, entertainers, businessmen, and national outlooks that have determined wrestling's erratic route through American history. This chronological work begins with a brief account of wrestling's global history, and then proceeds to investigate the sport's growth as a specifically American institution. Wrestling has continued to survive in the face of technological developments, scandals, public ridicule, and a lack of centralized control, and today this supremely adaptable entertainment form represents, in sum, an international industry capable of attracting enormous television and pay-per-view audiences, along with massive amounts of advertising and merchandizing revenue. Ringside focuses on the business of wrestling as well as on the performers and their in-ring antics, and offers readers a fully nuanced examination of the development of professional wrestling in America.

A classic book that traces Muhammad Ali’s political development in the sixties When Muhammad Ali died, many mourned the life of the greatest sportsman the world had ever seen. In Redemption Song, Mike Marqusee argues that Ali was not only a boxer but a remarkable political figure in a decade of tumultuous change. Playful, popular, always confrontational, Ali refashioned the role of a political activist and was central, alongside figures such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, to the black liberation and the anti-war movements. Marqusee shows that sport and politics were always intertwined, and this is the reason why Ali remained an international beacon of hope, long after he had left the ring.

The inevitability of what was to come hung in the air but the crowd at the outdoor arena at Caesars Palace seemed as dazed as to what was happening as Duran. Hearns, now oozing confidence, approached center ring and again touched gloves with Duran. It would be the last civil thing he did. Gliding around the ring and looking like a demented, black vampire with his goatee and Jeri curls, the "Hit Man", he had reassumed the moniker for the fight, went in for the kill. Pushing Duran backwards he leapt in and clobbered the cowering fighter with a vicious right hand that staggered Duran back into the ropes again. Hearns bounced backwards and then jumped in again with another vicious right hand and began pummeling his prey with a series of punches that kept Duran standing straight up. Roberto tried to move off the ropes, so Hearns lured him out and then pushed him back with two probing left jabs to the chest before dropping the coup de grace. The final right hand that crashed over Duran's guard was so brutal, the impact twisted his head to the side and sucked all the air out of the arena. A collective gasp went up as Roberto Duran fell face forward to the canvas. There would be no count. Duran's corner men jumped into the ring as Hearns leapt onto the shoulders of his handlers. It was the most dramatic knockout of Thomas Hearns' career and upped the ante for his potential challenge of Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the middleweight championship. Hearns would fight one more bout before that showdown, a three round blast out of contender Fred Hutchings, but he would never again be so brilliantly devastating.

I now see Boxing history through a whole new lens. Boxing legends came alive before my eyes and I understood finally what brought them to the levels they attained. Listening to my parents talk about Joe Louis and remembering Cassius Clay/Ali from my own early adult years enhanced the information gleaned from these pages. New names were dangled before me and now I want to know more about them. Where was I when they fought for glory? What kind of lives did they lead? Now I am on a treasure hunt for answers to those questions. This book has whet my appetite for more. Carol Golden-Media Assistant, Marion, IA