Sporting Blood: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing

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
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.

Biographies & Memoirs

Acevedo, Carlos

Historical

Hamilcar Publications

"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 Durán and Esteban De Jesús 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

About the Author\nCarlos Acevedo, author of Sporting Blood: Tales From the Dark Side of Boxing (Hamilcar Publications (2020) and The Duke: The Life and Lies of Tommy Morrison (Hamilcar Publications 2022), was the founder of The Cruelest Sport and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His work has appeared in Inside HBO Boxing, Boxing News, Remezcla, Boxing Digest, and Hannibal Boxing. His stories A Darkness Made to Order and A Ghost Orbiting Forever both won first place awards from the BWAA. Acevedo is also a member of the International Boxing Research Organization.\n“The Duke is a harrowing tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, and a gripping read. Don’t miss it.”—T. J. English, New York Times bestselling author Havana Nocturne 
An American Gothic… 
In the early 1990s, Tommy Morrison, a young roughneck from Jay, Oklahoma, burst onto the boxing scene to become one of the most controversial fighters of his era. Handsome, eloquent, and dynamic, Morrison parlayed destructive knockout power and a homespun personality into celebrity status throughout middle America, where boxing rarely prospered. 
But it was his starring role in Rocky V alongside Sylvester Stallone that propelled him to stardom–and ultimately led to his tragic downfall. His brush with Hollywood fame triggered a limitless appetite for parties, liquor, and sex. When Morrison was shockingly diagnosed with HIV in 1996, his life imploded, and his subsequent descent into drugs, prison, bigamy, and conspiracy theories made Morrison notorious long after his glory days had ended. 
In The Duke, Carlos Acevedo chronicles Morrison’s tumultuous life from his days as a teenaged Toughman contestant, to his victory over George Foreman, to his struggles with HIV and depression, to his death at forty-four, when his delusions finally overtook him. 
Morrison himself was a divisive figure but critics and readers are unanimous about Acevedo’s The Duke. 
“This is a big American saga writ large, just the sort of tortured tale Carlos Acevedo tells so well.”—Don Stradley, author of The War: Hagler–Hearns and Three Rounds for the Ages 
“I love how Carlos Acevedo writes. He's detached and immersive, observant and detailed, unsparing and fair. He brings to life what I love—and what I don't love—about boxing. That's clear in The Duke, which examines not just Tommy Morrison, but Morrison's place in boxing, celebrity culture, and the greater sports consciousness. It's the perfect marriage of writer and subject, written sharply, broadly and expertly—and hard to put down.”—Greg Bishop senior writer, Sports Illustrated

The Duke: The Life and Lies of Tommy Morrison

"This book may cement [Acevedo's] status as one of today’s best boxing journalists."—Kirkus Reviews\nBoxing has one of the richest literary traditions in sports. From A. J. Liebling to Donald McRae, the sweet science has consistently inspired great writing. The work of Carlos Acevedo stands firmly in that distinguished tradition. 
In this expanded edition of Sporting Blood, Acevedo adds two new masterful essays—one about the murder of Stanley Ketchel, the other about the gangland slaying of Battling Siki—to those that made his debut collection an instant classic. Other highlights include a moving meditation on Muhammad Ali; a penetrating look at the enigmatic Charles “Sonny” Liston; and a vivid profile of Mike Tyson, which brilliantly conjures the Boy King’s late 1980s reign of terror. Acevedo also offers many other unforgettable tales from boxing’s dark side, featuring Jack Johnson, Joe Frazier, Roberto Duran, Aaron Pryor, Jake LaMotta, and more. 
Sporting Blood is a poetic throwback, a singular book that evokes journalism’s golden age and places Acevedo among the best sportswriters of his generation. 
Contents\nForeword: Thomas Hauser\n1: A Ghost Orbiting Forever: Muhammad Ali 1942–2016\n2: Fugitive Days: Jack Johnson in Exile\n3: The Last Goodbye: Remembering the Rivalry Between Roberto Durán and Esteban De Jesús\n4: Right on for the Darkness: On Aaron Pryor 1955–2016\n5: The Catastrophist: The Troubled World of Don Jordan\n6: Dark Sun: Remembering Joe Frazier\n7: Strange Days: The Johnny Saxton Story\n8: The Hurting Kind: Wilfredo Gomez vs. Lupe Pintor\n9: Yesterday Will Make You Cry: The Short, Tragic Career of Davey Moore\n10: Under Saturn: Johnny Tapia 1967–2012\n11: Total Everything Now: Mike Tyson, 1988\n12: The Windfall Factor: The Night Bert Cooper Almost Beat Evander Holyfield for the Heavyweight Title\n13: Red Arrow: The Mysterious Death of Sonny Liston\n14: The Dark Corner: The Furious Life of Jake LaMotta\n15: A Young Old Man: The Tragic Life of Ad Wolgast\n16: The Lightning Within: Tony Ayala, Jr.\n17: No Exit: Eddie Machen\n18: One Long Season in Hell: On Michael Dokes\n19: Lightning Express: The Quick Rise and Even Quicker Fall of Al Singer\n20: Live Forward, Learned Backward: Mike Quarry and the “Quarry Curse”\n21: Leftover Life to Kill: Who Will Remember Carmelo Negron?\n22. The Busy World: The Murder of Stanley Ketchel\n23. Too Far from Home: Battling Siki Comes to America

Sporting Blood: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing - Expanded Edition

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Books by Acevedo, Carlos

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Acevedo, Carlos. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sporting Blood: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing

Sporting Blood: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing

The Duke: The Life and Lies of Tommy Morrison

Sporting Blood: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing - Expanded Edition

The Devil Inside: The Dark Legacy of the Exorcist