Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing

"In his dressing room he sits, a fighter alone in his thoughts, an artist deliberating over an empty canvas, a writer whose story is still being told.

"He has a setting: 400 square feet, more or less, an elevated stage in a coliseum where the masses gather, seeking either his triumph or his demise. That desire—victory or defeat, success or failure—is the driving force, the conflict, internal and external. There is a man who will punch him hundreds of times that night, sending forth hundreds of pounds of force cushioned only by eight or 10 ounces of leather and padding."

The stories of boxing range from amazing to heartbreaking, telling the tales of great stars such as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather and recalling the swan songs of warriors such as Arturo Gatti and Erik Morales. Boxing writer David P. Greisman has seen fighters rise and fall and rise again, watched them perform at sold out arenas at the pinnacle of pro boxing and seen anonymous amateurs show just as much heart in front of a suburban ballroom.

Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing contains 63 of Greisman's best dispatches from the Sweet (and sometimes not so sweet) Science from 2007 through 2012, including nine articles that have been recognized for excellence by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Greisman is an award-winning boxing writer who has covered boxing since 2004. His articles have appeared on BoxingScene.com, FoxSports.com, MaxBoxing.com and in The Ring magazine.