Boxing has a long and eventful history and its drama, excitement and humor are covered in this fascinating account of the noble--and sometimes ignoble--art all over the world. It covers the bare-knuckle days when the Duke of Cumberland callously abandoned his protege Jack Broughton when the latter could no longer fight on because he was blind as well as the famous fight in 1964, when the charismatic Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston with a "phantom punch" that no one in the audience saw thrown. It also highlights the advent in the 21st century of the dreaded "Beast from the East," the 7-foot-tall Russian Nikolai Valuev who powered his inexorable way to the world heavyweight title. This book presents a vivid picture of the sport rightly referred to as the hardest game