Earnie Shavers
Earnie Shavers

Author: Earnie Shavers

Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 9781582613635

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Earnie Shavers, recently honored by the International Boxing Association as Puncher of the Century. But it's Shavers' life story that really packs a wallop as the anvil-fisted pugilist pulls no punches in his autobiography, Earnie Shavers: Welcome to the Big Time. Shavers takes readers through the amazing journey of his life, starting in the segregated Deep South when the Ku Klux Klan drove him and his family from their Alabama home. After his family relocated to Ohio, Shavers excelled in high school athletics. Unfortunately, he became friends with hoodlums and appeared headed for a life of crime until a chance encounter led him to the boxing ring. Shavers eventually established himself as a knockout sensation and squared off with other legendary heavyweights like Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, and Ken Norton. Shavers tells readers of his easy-come, easy-go fortune, his six marriages, and his conversion to Christianity. Earnie Shavers: Welcome to the Big Time will provide hours of entertainment for boxing fans and sports fans alike.

Off the Ropes
Off the Ropes

Author: Candace Toft

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9781949590012

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"[Ron Lyle's] life was a remarkable one and the story of it worth re-telling, which makes the book's new edition thoroughly welcome. Off The Ropes is absolutely recommended reading."--Gary Lucken, Boxing Monthly "Nobody ever hit me that hard. No question. I 'll remember that punch on my deathbed. A great puncher, a great guy."--Earnie Shavers

The Champ
The Champ

Author: Michael Gaffney

Publisher: Diversion Publishing Corp.

Published: 2012-07-23

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1938120205

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The legendary boxer’s personal photographer from 1977–1978 shares fascinating stories and stunning rare photographs. Michael Gaffney traveled the world with Muhammad Ali, covered three fights, took eight thousand photographs, and produced hours of recordings that, pieced together in this book, define and reveal an authentic Ali. Poignant, funny, and brutally honest, this book reveals the struggles of the legendary fighter who fought to stay in the game he loved. This is a dramatic and up-close look at the trilogy of Ali’s fights from 1977–1978: A tough win against Earnie Shavers, a shocking loss to Leon Spinks, and a glorious redemptive comeback victory to win the World Heavyweight Championship for an unprecedented third time, a feat never accomplished before or since. Filled with dramatic photos, The Champ is also a compelling personal journey inside the good heart and courageous spirit of one of the most extraordinary people of our lifetime. “The Champ is one helluva achievement and one helluva book.” —Bert Randolph Sugar, Hall of Fame boxing historian

The Book of Basketball
The Book of Basketball

Author: Bill Simmons

Publisher: ESPN

Published: 2010-12-07

Total Pages: 754

ISBN-13: 0345520106

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The NBA according to The Sports Guy—now updated with fresh takes on LeBron, the Celtics, and more! Foreword by Malcom Gladwell • “The work of a true fan . . . it might just represent the next phase of sports commentary.”—The Atlantic Bill Simmons, the wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining basketball addict known to millions as ESPN’s The Sports Guy, has written the definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA. From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for all—every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball. Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.

Third Man in the Ring
Third Man in the Ring

Author: Mike Fitzgerald

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2014-06-19

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1612342426

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Officiating a professional boxing match can be a thankless job. When a match goes well, no one focuses on the referee. But when a controversy arises, everyone remembers the man who made the call. Third Man in the Ring explores the lives of thirty-three officials as they discuss what goes on inside the ropes and recount the disputes and clashes that have occurred when they worked at home and abroad. The referees share stories from the high-profile fights they worked, with such superstars as Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes, and Julio Cesar Chavez. Readers will hear from Rudy Battle, the first ref to officiate a title fight in an Eastern bloc country, and about Mills Lane, the third man during the infamous Mike Tyson/Evander Holyfield ear-biting match. Several officials reveal memorable moments such as arbitrating contests in nations experiencing civil unrest. One referee admits fearing for his life after disqualifying a hometown hero in front of a packed stadium, while another recalls his experience officiating in communist North Korea. MMA legend Big John McCarthy describes from his experience the differences between officiating a boxing contest in a traditional ring versus the increasingly popular mixed martial arts (MMA) events held in a cage. Readers will also hear stories from refs who have gone Hollywood, consulting on film sets alongside such legends as Sylvester Stallone. An old boxing adage states, The best referees are the ones no one knows are there. Third Man in the Ring sheds much-needed light on these hardworking officials and their stories.

Hard Luck
Hard Luck

Author: Steve Springer

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2011-04-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0762768630

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The story of boxing legend Jerry Quarry has it all: rags to riches, thrilling fights against the giants of the Golden Age of Heavyweights (Ali—twice, Frazier—twice, Patterson, Norton), a racially and politically electric sports era, the thrills and excesses of fame, celebrities, love, hate, joy, and pain. And tragedy. Like the man he fought during two highly controversial fight cards in 1970 and ’72—Muhammad Ali—boxing great Jerry Quarry was to suffer gravely. He died at age fifty-three, mind and body ravaged by Dementia Pugilistica. In Hard Luck, “Irish” Jerry Quarry comes to life—from his Grapes of Wrath days as the child of an abusive father in the California migrant camps to those as the undersized heavyweight slaying giants on his way to multiple title bouts and the honor of being the World’s Most Popular Fighter in ’68, ’69, ’70, and ’71. The story of Jerry Quarry is one of the richest in the annals of boxing, and through painstaking research and exclusive access to the Quarry family and its archives, Steve Springer and Blake Chavez have captured it all.

Ali
Ali

Author: Jonathan Eig

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 661

ISBN-13: 0544435249

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Based on more than 500 interviews, including Muhammad Ali's closest associates, and enhanced by access to thousands of pages of newly released FBI records, this is a thrilling story of a man who became one of the great figures of the twentieth century.​

The Night the Referee Hit Back
The Night the Referee Hit Back

Author: Mike Silver

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-06-10

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1538136910

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This collection of award-winning boxing journalist Mike Silver’s best articles from the past 40 years features a colorful mix of hard-hitting exposes and light-hearted stories that include legendary boxers such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Oscar De La Hoya, and more. The boxing world has witnessed some spectacular and iconic moments, from the “Thrilla in Manila” to the last encounter between Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta. In The Night the Referee Hit Back: Memorable Moments from the World of Boxing, award-winning boxing journalist Mike Silver looks back at some of boxing’s most legendary fights, talks with Hall of Famers Archie Moore, Carlos Ortiz, Emile Griffith and Curtis Cokes, and analyzes the changes that have taken place in boxing since the Golden Age. This collection, drawn from the author’s best articles from the past 40 years, are a colorful mix of hard-hitting exposes, interviews, and light-hearted stories featuring boxers such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Joe Frazier, Oscar De La Hoya, and Muhammad Ali. Mike Silver captures the essence, charisma, tragedy, and romance of boxing like no one else. Featuring numerous historical and iconic photographs, The Night the Referee Hit Back is a fascinating and valuable collection for boxing fans and sports historians alike.

Serenity
Serenity

Author: Ralph Wiley

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2000-06-01

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 9780803298163

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"This is a surprising book, a terrific book. It's not about boxing, but about an odd, demanding world in which boxing is the thread, the key to existence. Wiley deftly broadens the delineation of this world and its people. Perceptive reporting is the foundation and perceptive reporting is rare enough. Wiley enhances it with clear, quick writing laced with humor and with a sensitivity that lends brilliance to this impressive work."-Robert W. Creamer, author of Baseball and Other Matters in 1941. "Ralph Wiley, with Serenity, has produced an original book about the ring. . . . He can dig beneath the surface and show us what really happened in a bout: why Thomas Hearns, with too much faith in his powerful right hand, lost to Sugar Ray Leonard in their first match. . . . Or why Roberto Durn was acting out of prudence, not cowardice, when he quit in his second fight against Leonard. . . . Yet the book is not really about boxing. Boxing in Serenity is what T. S. Eliot, speaking of plot, called the meat a burglar brings to distract the watchdog. The book is really about growing up in a world where you had to defend yourself physically to survive."-New York Times. "Wiley's rapport with boxers is profound."-Publisher's Weekly. "Wiley is one writer who really knows his way around a boxing ring. . . . [He writes] with passion and understanding about complex, violent men and their oddly redemptive sport."-Booklist. Ralph Wiley is the author or coauthor of several works, most recently Born to Play: The Eric Davis Story.

The Last Great Contenders
The Last Great Contenders

Author: Richard Poche

Publisher:

Published: 2019-09-08

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 9781691741953

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"THE LAST GREAT CONTENDERS" -The heavyweight division of the 1970s was arguably the most competitive in boxing history. Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Muhammad Ali all earned the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World during this time period. But in order to be the "baddest man on the planet" they had to survive a crucible of contenders unlike any other in the division''s history. Names like Ken Norton, Jerry Quarry, Earnie Shavers, Jimmy Young and others dotted the landscape. No fighter who competed during this era emerged from these battles unscathed. "I AVOIDED HIM..." Jerry Quarry was named by George Foreman as the greatest fighter to never win a title and Foreman freely admits to have avoided him. Many a viewer felt Jimmy Young defeated both Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton but his style was not "crowd pleasing." Jeff Merritt was labeled as a "can''t miss" prospect by everyone who ever saw him...But the drug lifestyle robbed him of his future. Earnie Shavers punched "like a Mack truck" but a soft chin and poor stamina led to untimely losses. "FOREMAN GOES DOWN!!" Anyone who has seen Foreman versus Lyle will never forget it. The last round of Holmes versus Norton has made for many a barber shop conversation. Quarry vs. Frazier is the equivalent of the immovable object against the irresistible force. Shavers vs. Lyle was a seldom seen classic. Great fighters all competing for what was a modern day answer to a gladiator tournament. These brutal battles became the standard by which all heavyweight fights are judged. "PAY UP, MOTHER F*CKER!" What did Roy "Tiger" Williams say when Muhammad Ali owes him money? The two engaged in a fierce two day sparring session to settle their dispute. This was an example of how sometimes the best fights took place outside the arena and in the gym, sparking rumors and hearsay. Was Sonny Liston knocked cold by ex-Marine Mac Foster in an Oakland gym? Did Earnie Shavers leave Muhammad Ali''s camp by choice or was he thrown out? AMONG THE FIGHTERS FEATURED Rahman Ali - Brother of Muhammad Ali Ibar Arrington - Steel chinned ex-Navy champion Duane Bobick - The most criticized fighter of the era Rodney Bobick - Sparring partner for Ali, died in car accident Oscar Bonavena - Wild and wooly Argentinian Johnny Boudreaux - Was compared to Muhammad Ali Joe Bugner - Underrated veteran who fought them all George Chuvalo - Perhaps the toughest fighter of all time Henry Clark - Clever San Francisco heavyweight Dino Denis - Popular Massachusetts stick and mover Tony Doyle - Was considered Utah''s best boxing prospect Jim Lee Elder - Up and coming slugger who died from a brain tumor Lou Esa - Giant former bouncer out of Florida Mac Foster - Ex Marine who won 24 straight by knockout Jose Luis Garcia - Venezuelan slickster who ate himself out of contention Terry Hinke - Heavy left hooker who was Foreman''s sparring partner Morris Jackson - Nebraska power puncher Scrap Iron Johnson - The trial horse of the division Florida Al Jones - Giant Miami prospect hampered by a hand injury Boone Kirkman -Popular draw out of Washington state Scott Ledoux - Minnesota brawler who always gave his best Alvin Blue Lewis - Detroit tough guy Pedro Lovell - Popular Argentinian who fought out of L.A. Ron Lyle - Denver slugger who gave Foreman hell Humphrey McBride - The decade''s answer to Butterbean Jeff Merritt - Brutal left hooker who was knocked out by drug Fili Moala - Power punching Tongan Randy Neumann - Intelligent boxer who worked as a writer, model, and investor Ken Norton - Always gave Ali fits Jack O''Halloran - Goliath who suffered from "gigantism" Jerry Quarry - One of the era''s most popular These fighters and more from A to Z are featured in this encyclopedia of heavyweight contenders of the 1970s.