*Includes pictures of the boxers and important people in their lives.
*Includes the boxers' most colorful quotes.
*Discusses the facts, legends, and controversies surrounding their most famous fights.
*Includes Bibliographies for further reading.
*Includes a Table of Contents.
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't." – Jack Dempsey
“To prove I am great, he will fall in eight.” – Muhammad Ali
“Everybody in boxing probably makes out well except for the fighter.” – Mike Tyson
During a time when America’s heroes were recognized for toughness and strength, Jack Dempsey was the prototypical “golden boy” of the Roaring Twenties. Just as Babe Ruth, Red Grange, Bill Tilden and Bobby Jones were the signature figures for their respective sports, Dempsey personified the sport of boxing.
Dempsey’s aggressive style in the ring and the punch he packed made him the heavyweight champion by 1913, and by the time Dempsey lost the title to U.S. Marine Gene Tunney in 1926 and retired following their controversial 1927 rematch (a fight known as “The Long Count”), he was one of the most popular and richest athletes in history, and he parlayed that into success in everything from owning a restaurant to authoring books.
The sports world has never suffered from a shortage of self-promoters, but none have ever walked the walk and backed up the talk like Muhammad Ali, boxing’s greatest icon and possibly history’s most famous athlete. Indeed, even referring to Ali just as a boxer does a disservice to the transcendent figure he has become around the world as a living legend.
*Includes the boxers' most colorful quotes.
*Discusses the facts, legends, and controversies surrounding their most famous fights.
*Includes Bibliographies for further reading.
*Includes a Table of Contents.
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't." – Jack Dempsey
“To prove I am great, he will fall in eight.” – Muhammad Ali
“Everybody in boxing probably makes out well except for the fighter.” – Mike Tyson
During a time when America’s heroes were recognized for toughness and strength, Jack Dempsey was the prototypical “golden boy” of the Roaring Twenties. Just as Babe Ruth, Red Grange, Bill Tilden and Bobby Jones were the signature figures for their respective sports, Dempsey personified the sport of boxing.
Dempsey’s aggressive style in the ring and the punch he packed made him the heavyweight champion by 1913, and by the time Dempsey lost the title to U.S. Marine Gene Tunney in 1926 and retired following their controversial 1927 rematch (a fight known as “The Long Count”), he was one of the most popular and richest athletes in history, and he parlayed that into success in everything from owning a restaurant to authoring books.
The sports world has never suffered from a shortage of self-promoters, but none have ever walked the walk and backed up the talk like Muhammad Ali, boxing’s greatest icon and possibly history’s most famous athlete. Indeed, even referring to Ali just as a boxer does a disservice to the transcendent figure he has become around the world as a living legend.