Boxing In The Shadows

Reaching the top in any sport requires a long, hard climb. But when you start with the baggage of years of family dysfunction and incarceration in a hellish mental hospital, the climb is especially steep. Yet even with such weights to carry, Anissa Zamarron won not one, but two, world championships in women's boxing. Her story, as dramatically intense as the Clint Eastwood film Million Dollar Baby, is one of tremendous courage and determination to overcome the odds against her as a Latina and as a woman working through mental illness and addiction—a fight in which Zamarron has been as powerful and successful as she has been in the boxing ring. In this compelling biography, acclaimed author W. K. "Kip" Stratton collaborates with Zamarron to tell the story of her unlikely rise to the pinnacle of women's boxing. With searing honesty, Zamarron describes how the chaotic breakup of her childhood family caused her to develop "demons" that drove her to aggressive behavior in school, an addiction to self-destructive habits, including cutting, and eventually to a corrupt for-profit mental hospital in which she spent eighteen months tied to a bed. She explains how boxing became her salvation as an adult; she learned how to turn her anger and aggression into motivation to train hard and excel at her sport, not only becoming the first woman to fight as a professional in a sanctioned fight in New York, but also fighting more ten-round fights than any other woman in history. A gripping account of Zamarron's 2005 upset win over Maribel Zurita to claim her second world championship caps the book.

"Boxing In The Shadows" is the story of many great Black fighters throughout the past century and puts their accomplishments within the context of the era that they fought in. This book is the seventh book that Mr. Donelson has written or co-written. Mr. Donelson has written on a variety of subjects over the past three decades and been published in newspapers and publications, Mr. Donelson is a leading observer of the boxing scene as well as a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, the leading boxing historical society. About Mr. Donelson, Ringsports.com Rusty Rubin writes, "Tom Donelson is an outstanding scribe in describing the world of boxing. This is why I asked Mr. Donelson to co-authored our book, Billy Soose, "The Champion that Time Forgot.""

George Plimpton makes his riskiest foray into participatory journalism -- stepping into the ring against a champion boxer -- in Shadow Box, repackaged and including never-before-seen content from the Plimpton archives. Stepping into the ring against light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore, George Plimpton pauses to wonder what ever induced him to become a participatory journalist. Bloodied but unbowed, he holds his own in the bout -- and lives to tell, in this timeless book on boxing and its devotees, among them Ali, Joe Frazier, Ernest Hemingway, and Norman Mailer. Shadow Box is one of Plimpton's most engaging studies of professional sport, told through the eyes of an inquisitive and astute amateur. From the gym, the locker room, ringside, and even in the harsh glare of the ring itself, Plimpton documents what it is like to be a boxer, an artist of mayhem.

Boxing is the family sport—but it’s killing the family in this riveting read from the author of Inexcusable, a National Book Award finalist. It’s been five years since his father died, and fourteen-year-old George is the man of the family. He knows all too well how brutal the life of a fighter can be. Didn’t it kill his father? But Monty, George’s younger brother, has a completely different attitude. Boxing comes naturally to him. It’s in his blood. He thinks of it as his father’s legacy. Unless George figures out a way to stop it, will boxing kill Monty, too?

Glen Sharp's boxing career was a rise-and-fall story without so much rise in it. A sparring partner for light-heavyweight Hall of Famer Yaqui Lopez, he "retired" with a record of one victory and two defeats. A decade later, having come to understand how and why he failed as a younger fighter, he attempted a comeback. Told with heart and wit, his memoir is a treatise on boxing as both profession and purpose. Sharp uses economic theory to describe the sweet science as a case study in resource management while recounting his own struggle to win fistic glory and his father's admiration.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE 'One of the most captivating boxing writers on the planet' Barry McGuigan 'A superb tale...His inspirational story celebrates peace and reconciliation' Daily Telegraph Multi-award-winning author Donald McRae's stunning new book is a powerful tale of hope and redemption across the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland - thanks to boxing. At the height of the Troubles, Gerry Storey ran the Holy Family gym from the IRA's heartland territory of New Lodge in Belfast. Despite coming from a family steeped in the Republican movement, he insisted that it would be open to all. He ensured that his boxers were given a free pass by paramilitary forces on both Republican and Loyalist sides, so they could find a way out of the province's desperate situation. In the immediate aftermath of the 1981 Hunger Strikes, Storey would also visit the Maze prison twice a week to train the inmates from each community, separately. In itself, this would be a heroic story, but Storey went further than that: he became the trainer for world champion Barry McGuigan and Olympian Hugh Russell, who became one of the most famous photographers to document the Troubles. Even with all his success and the support of both sides, Storey still found himself subjected to three bomb attacks from those who were implacably hostile to any form of reconciliation. He also worked with the Protestant boxer Davy Larmour, who fought two bloody battles in the ring against Russell, his Catholic friend. At the same time, in Derry, the British and European lightweight champion Charlie Nash fought without bitterness after his brother was killed and his father was shot on Bloody Sunday - the most infamous day of the conflict. Now, Donald McRae reveals the extraordinary tale of those troubled times. After years of research and intimate interviews with the key characters in this story, he shows us how the violent business of boxing became a haven of peace and hope for these remarkable and compassionate men. In Sunshine or in Shadow is an inspirational story of triumph over adversity and celebrates the reconciliation that can take place when two fighters meet each other in the ring, rather than outside it. '[An] outstanding and important book, Don McRae's powerful storytelling shows the courage of the people of the North' Andy Lee

Discusses the life and boxing career of Jack Johnson.

Poet-boxer Sevigne Torrins struggle to find his place in the world as he experiences a series of professional and sexual misadventures that take him from his youth on the shores of Lake Superior, to trendy Toronto, to Egypt.