Description
Paperback.
"This is powerful writing. Enjoy it."-Thomas Hauser, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee
"Carlos Acevedo is the most original, perceptive, and best new writer in boxing. Sporting Blood is a vivid and gripping collection."-Donald McRae, writer for The Guardian and author of Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing
"...this book may cement [Acevedo's] status as one of today's best boxing journalists."-Kirkus Reviews
Boxing's literary tradition is perhaps the richest in sports. From A. J. Liebling to Donald McRae, the sweet science has consistently inspired great sportswriting. The work of Carlos Acevedo stands firmly in that honored tradition.
The essays that make up Sporting Blood include Acevedo's moving meditation on Muhammad Ali; his penetrating look at Ali's fearsome rival, the enigmatic heavyweight Charles "Sonny" Liston; and his profile of Mike Tyson, which brilliantly conjures the Boy King's late 1980s reign of terror. Acevedo offers many other unforgettable tales from boxing's dark side, featuring Jack Johnson, Joe Frazier, Roberto Duran, Aaron Pryor, Johnny Tapia, Evander Holyfield, Jake LaMotta, and more.
Sporting Blood is ultimately a poetic throwback, an uncanny book that evokes journalism's golden age and places Acevedo not only among the best sportswriters of this generation, but of any other as well.
Contents
Foreword: Thomas Hauser
1: A Ghost Orbiting Forever: Muhammad Ali 1942-2016
2: Fugitive Days: Jack Johnson in Exile
3: The Last Goodbye: Remembering the Rivalry Between Roberto Duran and Esteban De Jesus
4: Right on for the Darkness: On Aaron Pryor 1955-2016
5: The Catastrophist: The Troubled World of Don Jordan
6: Dark Sun: Remembering Joe Frazier
7: Strange Days: The Johnny Saxton Story
8: The Hurting Kind: Wilfredo Gomez vs. Lupe Pintor
9: Yesterday Will Make You Cry: The Short, Tragic Career of Davey Moore
10: Under Saturn: Johnny Tapia 1967-2012
11: Total Everything Now: Mike Tyson, 1988
12: The Windfall Factor: The Night Bert Cooper Almost Beat Evander Holyfield for the Heavyweight Title
13: Red Arrow: The Mysterious Death of Sonny Liston
14: The Dark Corner: The Furious Life of Jake LaMotta
15: A Young Old Man: The Tragic Life of Ad Wolgast
16: The Lightning Within: Tony Ayala, Jr.
17: No Exit: Eddie Machen
18: One Long Season in Hell: On Michael Dokes
19: Lightning Express: The Quick Rise and Even Quicker Fall of Al Singer
20: Live Forward, Learned Backward: Mike Quarry and the "Quarry Curse"
21: Leftover Life to Kill
Industry Reviews
"... this book may cement Acevedo's status as one of today's best boxing journalists."--Kirkus Reviews
This is powerful writing. Enjoy it."--Thomas Hauser, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee
"Carlos Acevedo is the most original, perceptive, and best new writer in boxing. Sporting Blood is a vivid and gripping collection."--Donald McRae, writer for The Guardian and award-winning author of over twelve books
"Acevdo is a sensationally good writer with some brilliantly memorable turns of phrase. Each essay packs a mighty punch and resonated with me long after I read it. It is a great collection to dip in and out of, to take your time over, to re-read and savour the writing and the imagery."--All Sports Books Reviews
"Carlos Acevedo's book of essays...finds a balance between the familiar and the less so for a read that goes by quickly and feels over too soon. Acevedo... gets to show off the range of his talent in this collection, applying varying stylistic flourishes to each subject approached. --Cliff Rold, Boxing Scene
"Carlos Acevedo understands the sweet science. Just as a DJ knows how to keep the dance floor populated with bodies, Acevedo knows how to string words together to keep a reader turning pages deep into the night...Like a forensic psychologist profiling a deep psychological mystery, Acevedo explores the psyches of each boxer in these essays with deftness and compassion...This book is recommended for high school, public, and academic libraries."--Gavin J. Woltjer, Past-President, Montana Library Association