It was 1976 when Leon and Michael Spinks first punched their way into America’s living rooms. That year, they became the first brothers to win Olympic gold in the same Games. Shortly thereafter, they became the first brothers to win the heavyweight title: Leon toppled The Greatest, Muhammad Ali; Michael beat the unbeatable Larry Holmes. With a cast of characters that includes Ali, Holmes, Mike Tyson, Gerry Cooney, Dwight Qawi, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and dozens of friends, relatives, and boxing figures, ONE PUNCH FROM THE PROMISED LAND tells the unlikely story of the Spinks brothers. Their rise from the Pruitt-Igoe housing disaster. Their divergent paths of success. And their relationship with America. The book also uncovers stories never before made public: the big paydays, the high living, the backroom deals. It’s not afraid to tackle an issue rarely discussed: Does the heavyweight title deliver on its promise to young men in the inner city? This is the definitive story of Leon and Michael Spinks. And a cross-examination of heavyweight boxing in 20th century America.

From the pivotal crossover from bare knuckles to gloves, when John L. Sullivan was the No. 1 sports celebrity in the United States, despite blacks such as Sam Lanford being prohibited from fighting white world champions, through the forties with Willie Pep and Sandy Saddler, to Rocky Marciano ruling the fifties, Marvelous Marvin Hagler prominent as one of the Four Kings (Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Tommy Hearns) during the eighties, up to contemporary times with the lone active fighter, Demetrius Andrade. Who are New England's greatest boxers of all-time, in order, from 1 to 25?

Boxing and Performance is the first substantial piece of work to place the lived experience of female and male boxers in dialogue with one another. Crews and Lennox critically reflect on their ethnographic experiences of boxing and their reading of the cultural representations of the sport. They conceive of the project as an extended sparring session. This book offers a unique perspective on boxing in/as performance and boxing in/as culture. It explores how the connections between boxing and performance address ideas about bodies, relationships, intimacy, and combat. It challenges and renegotiates oft-repeated narratives used to make meaning about boxing. This volume examines questions of visibility, voice, and agency and will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of performance and media, and sport and social studies.

**New edition updated with a foreword by Manny Pacquiao.** A celebration and memorial of the greatest era of heavyweight fighters from 1962 to 1997, as witnessed ringside by an International Boxing Hall of Fame sportswriter. Once upon a time, of all the memories made in ballparks and arenas from California to New York, there was nothing to rival that magic moment that could grab a heavyweight fight crowd by its collective jugular vein and trigger a tsunami of raw emotion before a single punch had even been thrown. That’s the way it was when the heavyweight giants danced in the boxing ring during the golden eras of the greats Ali, Frazier, Holmes, and Spinks, to name a few. There will never again be a heavyweight cycle like the one that began when Sonny Liston stopped Floyd Patterson and ended when Mike Tyson bit a slice out of Evander Holyfield’s ear; when no ersatz drama, smoke, mirrors, and noise followed a fighter’s entry into the ring; when the crowds knew that these men were not actors on a stage but rather giants in a ring with a single purpose—to fight other giants. By the ringside, acclaimed sportswriter Jerry Izenberg watched history as it was being made during those legendary days, witnessing fights like the Thrilla in Manila and the Rumble in the Jungle and preserving them in punchy yet tremendous prose. Delivering both his eyewitness accounts and revelatory back stories of this greatest era of heavyweight boxing, Izenberg invites readers to a place of recollection. Once There Were Giants is his memorial to this extraordinary time, the likes of which we shall never see again.

This is a book about a great man, an unbeaten boxing coach who in his lifetime nurtured three heavyweight world champions—a feat no one is capable of repeating nowadays. Cus D’Amato - the book is about him. The legend whose triumph is absolute, and requires no unnecessary comment and third-party consent. Here is a complete guide to the skill and tools needed to get a fundamental insight of D’Amato’s system, psychology and philosophy. This book will be useful for anybody who is striving for self-perfection and seeking an effective lifestyle methodology of a champion, not only in boxing. Cus D’Amato didn’t become phenomenal at birth. He used to say that a human being is not born as the finest, but he becomes truly outstanding through persistent and heavy work! This book is the crowning jewel of Oleg Maltsev’s 20 years of research, a shining piece of collaboration created in New York together with a disciple of the legendary Cus: Tom Patti.

A Round of Boxing is a journey through time looking at the many astonishing feats which have taken place inside the square ring over the years. From the first world heavyweight title fight which took place under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules in 1892 between John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett to the present time. The Fascinating facts are presented in chronological order in an easy to read way .The features inside the book include not just the world champions but the many other fighters both male and female who have hence put on the gloves and graced the professional and amateur rings during their careers. The many facts include highlights from every weight division from the strawweight to the heavyweight poundage. Details of when the various fight organizations who thus control the sport came in to existence. The book is Illustrated by a number of photographs both action and portrait. A knockout read which the regular and casual follower's of boxing will find to be of great interest thus adding to their knowledge about the sport.