Combat Memoirs

Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas...what could possibly go wrong? Ricky Hatton's brilliance as a boxer, his down-to-earth demeanour and his live-wire sense of humour have made him a national treasure. Five of Ricky's biggest and most explosive fights took place in the boxing Mecca of Las Vegas. Tens of thousands of British fans followed him there to watch these monumental bouts and to soak up the unique atmosphere in Sin City.

Fifty years after he coined the iconic phrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", Drew "Bundini" Brown remains one of boxing's most mysterious and misunderstood figures. His impact on the sport and the culture at large is undeniable. Cornerman and confidant to two of the greatest fighters ever - Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali - Brown lived an extraordinary American life.

Bruce Lee ist vor allem als Kampfkünstler bekannt, doch er war auch ein tiefgründiger Denker. In seinen nun zum ersten Mal auf Deutsch veröffentlichten privaten Notizbüchern teilt er mit uns seine persönlichen Gedanken zu allen wichtigen Themen aus den Bereichen Psychologie und Philosophie. Besonders spannend ist seine Auffassung von den geistigen Prinzipien, die gute Kampf- und Lebenskünstler*innen ausmachen. Empty Your Mind ist ein Jubiläumsband zum 50. Todestag des Meisters am 20. Juli 2023, auf den all seine Fans und Praktizierenden der Kampfkünste nicht verzichten können.

You may have read Newcastle and Middlesbrough accounts of Lee Duffy; now, for the first time, Paul Venis the actor is set to play Lee in the upcoming Sayers' film. In this audiobook, he speaks on behalf of the South Bank community about their most infamous son. It also includes Paul's own remarkable story: Unbeaten K1 world champion, British, European, and world champion (31 Fights, 31 Wins, 30 KO's).

Alexander Gustafsson grew up in Arboga, a small town in Sweden. A country boy, he started boxing when he was 10 - winning the national youth medal at the age of 16. After a handful of run-ins with the law, he began practicing mixed martial arts and working his way up the ranks of the UFC. Nicknamed The Mauler by his training partners, due to his power, killer instinct and somewhat recklessness whilst fighting; this is the story of Gustafsson's struggle to succeed in one of the world's most challenging sports.

Hundreds of thousands of humorous Chuck Norris facts have been published, traveled around the globe via internet, and gained an international audience of millions. "Chuck Norris facts" is a quirky, but extremely popular internet phenomenon that has entertained fans from all over the globe.

Stephen McAllister was a grunt, a dog handler in Vietnam, tasked not only with fighting what was by then an unwinnable war but with rehabilitating a scout dog named Big Mike whose trauma ran even deeper than his own. McAllister's voice has an abundance of heart and humor, but the laughter has a catch in its throat. For all the ingenuity and camaraderie, a dark and suspenseful melody plays behind the adventures of McAllister and his unforgettable constellation of young characters, American and Vietnamese.

They put a price on his head. They did everything they could to disrupt his mission. Finally, when an antitank mine tore off his right foot, the warriors of jihad in Iraq thought they had neutralized one of their most resourceful, determined foes.

For three years Andrew Carroll traveled throughout the United States and around the world to seek out the most powerful and unforgettable letters ever written during US wars.

The story of Jeff Horn is like a fairy tale. Written with award-winning author, journalist and boxing aficionado Grantlee Kieza, The Hornet is the tale of a boy who, slapped around by bullies, saw through tears in his eyes a vision of himself as a hero, a champ, someone other people might one day look up to. Horn took up boxing after being tormented as a teenager. Fast-forward a dozen years and the former bullied schoolboy - now humble schoolteacher - became world boxing champion on 2nd July 2017 at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.

"I can lick any son of a bitch in the world." So boasted John L. Sullivan, the first modern heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a man who was the gold standard of American sports for more than a decade and the first athlete to earn more than a million dollars. He had a big ego, a big mouth, and even bigger appetites. His womanizing, drunken escapades, and chronic police-blotter presence were godsends to a burgeoning newspaper industry.

In Muhammad Ali, Michael Ezra considers the boxer who calls himself “The Greatest” from a new perspective. Ezra’s incisive study examines the relationships between Ali’s cultural appeal and its commercial manifestations. Citing examples of the boxer’s relationship to the Vietnam War and the Nation of Islam - which serve as barometers of his “public moral authority” - Muhammad Ali analyzes the difficulties of creating and maintaining these cultural images, as well as the impact these themes have on Ali’s meaning to the public.

This book has all the ingredients of an exciting action film because it's a highly entertaining coming-of-age martial arts memoir about a karate-crazed teen who discovers that his martial arts heroes are deep into drug, drinking, and debauchery. John Graden joined the Florida Karate Academy at the height of the Bruce Lee Kung Fu Boom in the 1970s. Within a decade, he became a protégé of the legendary Joe Lewis, twice voted as the greatest karate fighter of all time. With humor and unflinching honesty, this story is a pause-resister.

In the early 1980s, Ray Mancini was more than the lightweight champ. He was a national hero. Sinatra fawned over him. Warren Zevon wrote a tribute song. Sylvester Stallone produced his life story as a movie of the week. After all, an adoring public considered Boom Boom the real Rocky. But it all came apart in a brutal 1982 battle against an obscure Korean challenger....

Being a champion is a choice. Bullies, self-doubt, failure, abuse, humiliation and setbacks plagued his life. Through a desire to keep pushing forward and the resilience of never quitting, MMA pioneer and Jiu Jitsu World Champion Chad George found a way to transform his self-destructive thinking to believing he can accomplish anything. In "A Champion's Mindset" he shares his journey of building the fighter within and how we all have to FIGHT for what we want in life.

James Webb, author of Fields of Fire, the classic novel of the Vietnam War - and a former U.S. Senator; Secretary of the Navy; recipient of the Navy Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart as a combat Marine; and a self-described "military brat" - has written an extraordinary memoir of his early years, "a love story - love of family, love of country, love of service" in his words.

After serving in a scout-sniper platoon in Mosul, Tom Voss came home carrying invisible wounds of war - the memory of doing or witnessing things that went against his fundamental beliefs. This was not a physical injury that could heal with medication and time but a "moral injury" - a wound to the soul that eventually urged him toward suicide. Desperate for relief from the pain and guilt, Voss embarked on a 2,700-mile journey across America with a fellow veteran. Listeners walk with these men as they meet other veterans, Native American healers, and spiritual teachers.

A physical and philosophical mediation on why we are drawn to fight each other for sport, what happens to our bodies and brains when we do, and what it all means.

For just over 30 years Al Bernstein has been one of the most recognizable and respected sportscasters in America. In those three decades, the “voice of boxing” reported the funny, poignant, and bizarre events that helped shape sports television, ESPN, boxing, Las Vegas, and Showtime. With an eclectic cast of characters that includes every big name in boxing, including Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao, as well as such names in the entertainment world as Rodney Dangerfield, Sylvester Stallone, Russell Crowe, Jerry Lewis, and Jack Nicholson, Bernstein's memoir will have you in stitches.

Beetle-browed, nearly bald, with a head that rode his collarbones like a bowling ball returning on rails, his waist size more than half his five-foot, eight-inch height, Two Ton Tony Galento resembled, according to Collier's magazine writer Jack Miley, ''a taxi driving away with its top down.'' By all measures he stood no chance when he stepped into the ring against the Brown Bomber, Joe Louis, the finest heavyweight of his generation.