An autobiographical white-knuckle ride around the global fight game by the legendary Steve Bunce: the voice of the sport who is celebrating four decades of writing and talking about boxers and boxing.
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In Around the World in 80 Fights, let 'the Voice of Boxing' take you on the ultimate sporting odyssey: to the rings of New York, to the makeshift rings of Bukom in Ghana, to the riches of Las Vegas, and to Riyadh, Atlantic City, Bethnal Green, Mexico City, Rome and Berlin.
To the basement rooms in dingy pubs where old fighters chase the last round; a bullring in December under the stars; a small square on the outskirts of Naples with a ring obscured by a fountain; the abandoned centre of boxing excellence in a forest lost in East Germany; a railway arch in south London and a bin-bag packed with cash.
Let 'Buncey' tell you about the conversations with Mr. T at ringside; a meeting with the Pope's people; the thoughts of Donald Trump when he had plans to make boxing great again; Don King in exile in his nineties; an overheard conversation with Fidel Castro; and a very real diplomatic incident.
The hard conversations with a dead boxer's mother in the hour after a machine had been switched off. The bravery, stupidity, guts, desire and glory of the boxers in the world's most famous and unknown rings. They fought for millions, for pride, for their country and for nothing. They bled, cried and died in those rings.
Around the World in 80 Fights vividly reveals the simple, wonderful and truly awful business of boxing. It is Buncey's business and this is his story.
"This book captures the magic of the sport - the glory and the heartache." Ricky Hatton
"Steve and I go way back, all the way back. He has been ringside at all my fights, from national amateurs all the way to Wembley stadium. He is the only reporter who could have ever got close to that lift in the Garden." Anthony Joshua
"Bunce is a walking talking boxing library, and is not frightened to say what he thinks and says. I've enjoyed many nights and many fights with a true legend of the game." Tyson Fury
"Buncey has forgotten more than most people in boxing know." Prince Naseem Hamed
"He's been there, done it and pretty much seen it all." Eddie Hearn
"Steve has a great knowledge of our sport." Joe Calzaghe
"Bunce captured the madness in Memphis around the fight with Tyson... the behind-the-scenes story of the Bruno fight and was there from York Hall to Las Vegas." Lennox Lewis
"His love and enthusiasm for the sport is infectious." Katie Taylor
"Steve understands how the minds of boxers tick." Carl Froch
"Steve's knowledge on the sweet science of boxing is second to none." Carl Frampton
Author
About Steve Bunce
Steve Bunce has worked as a journalist and broadcaster since 1984. He has written for a dozen different newspapers and still has a weekly column in the Independent and Boxing News. He has been at seven Olympic Games and has reported on more than 60 fights in Las Vegas. He has a podcast with BBC 5 Live and is part of TNT's boxing coverage. He had previously worked on Setanta Sports (RIP) and BoxNation (RIP) and several other outlets that have folded and vanished. In the nineties, he was the boxing correspondent at the Daily Telegraph and believes he was the last person to be hired by a national newspaper as such, a job that no longer exists. He first walked through the doors at the Fitzroy Lodge when he was ten and six stone dripping wet.
