Winks and Daggers

About

Thomas Hauser’s annual collections have been avidly anticipated from the time A Beautiful Sickness was published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2001 until his most recent collection, Boxing Is . . . , was named a 2010 Best Sports Book of the Year by Booklist, which has called Hauser “the current champ in boxing literature.”

Sportswriter Donald McRae recently wrote, “Thomas Hauser has become boxing’s indispensable writer with a stream of books and internet columns that strip away the layers of intrigue to reveal a seamy but addictive world. Whether writing Muhammad Ali’s biography, or shredding boxing’s power brokers, Hauser instills passion and gravitas into his work.”

Winks and Daggers continues that tradition with Hauser’s writing from 2010. Hauser brings readers into Manny Pacquiao’s intimate circle in the moments before last year’s two biggest fights. His award-winning investigative journalism exposes the inner workings of HBO Sports and examines the use of performance-enhancing drugs in boxing. There’s a look back in time at Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Leonard. And there’s much more in this latest collection in the series that has become, according to reviewer Bart Barry, “an essential part of boxing’s official record and the chronicles of this era most likely to endure.”

Author

Thomas Hauser is the author of forty-two books. His first work, Missing, was made into an Academy Award–winning film. He later authored Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, the definitive biography of the most famous fighter ever. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism.

Reviews

“If there’s any interest at all in boxing among your patrons, this annual is the book to add every year.”
—Booklist Online, Dec. 30 2011

“Hauser’s writing, in other words, consistently beats the hell out of traditional media sources that disseminate publicists’ inflated claims as fact.”
—Bart Barry, 15rounds.com

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

Round 1: Fights and Fighters
Manny Pacquiao and the Essence of Boxing
Hopkins-Jones II: Better Never Than Late
Kelly Pavlik and the Hard Road of Boxing
The Myth and the Reality of Floyd Mayweather Jr
Sugar Ray Leonard: Behind the Smile
Paulie Malignaggi: A Fighter’s Code
An Appalling End to Foreman-Cotto
John Duddy: A Fighting Heart Isn’t Enough
Michael Grant: The Reluctant Dragon
Manny Pacquiao: The People’s Champion
Martinez-Williams II: The Punch
Rocky Marciano Revisited

Round 2: Curiosities
At the Fights with Harold Lederman
Who Will Be Boxing’s Next Crossover Superstar?
My 84-Year-Old Mother Meets . . .
Flights of Fantasy

Round 3: Issues and Answers
Mayweather-Pacquiao, PEDs, and Boxing
Bob Arum Brings Boxing Back to the Future
The Mayweather-Pacquiao Negotiations
Todd DuBoef and the Future of Boxing
Fistic Notes
Notes from the Literary Front
The Povetkin-Seldon “Sparring Session”
Antonio Margarito and the Handwrap Issue
Floyd Mayweather Jr: When Is Enough?
HBO and the State of Boxing
Jay Larkin: (1950–2010)