Showing titles in Combat Sports & Self-Defense

A UFC champion and a boy with leukemia, in the fight of their lives. Cody Garbrandt dreamed of being a UFC champion. In his darkest moments, when those dreams were dashed, he dug deep with the help of an unlikely friend—five-year-old Maddux Maple, a local hometown fan with leukemia. They made...

Is there a way to find truth in the stuff of legend? You may think you know Andre the Giant - but who was Andre Roussimoff? This comprehensive biography addresses the burning questions, outrageous stories, and common misconceptions about his height, his weight, his drawing power as a superstar, and his seemingly unparalleled capacity for food and alcohol. But more importantly, The Eighth Wonder of the World transports listeners beyond the smoke and mirrors of professional wrestling into the life of a real man.

Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestling’s formative period in the U.S., from roughly 1874 to 1941, and the contested interplay of wrestlers and promoters who built the “sport” as we know it. During this period, the major conventions that would define wrestling to the present day were perfected and codified, as wrestling morphed from a rough sport practiced on farms and at town gatherings to melodramatic mass entertainment that reliably drew large crowds in cities across the nation.

On the night in 1964 that Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) stepped into the ring with Sonny Liston, he was widely regarded as an irritating freak who danced and talked way too much. Six rounds later Ali was not only the new world heavyweight boxing champion: He was "a new kind of black man" who would shortly transform America's racial politics, its popular culture, and its notions of heroism. No one has captured Ali—and the era that he exhilarated and sometimes infuriated—with greater vibrancy, drama, and astuteness than David Remnick.

No sport is more enthralling than boxing - called “the noble art” and the “sweet science”. As famed boxing announcer Larry Merchant once noted, boxing is the “theater of the unexpected”. Its storied history has seen momentous bouts, the breakdown of racial barriers, and fights of the century. In this thrilling 18-part audio series, the inimitable David L. Hudson, Jr. takes you on a thrilling ringside ride.

Justin Wren knows what it's like to feel like the world is against you. Like many kids, Justin was bullied as a child. Fueled by the anger he felt toward his tormenters, Justin trained hard and propelled his dream of becoming a UFC fighter into reality. But the pain from his childhood didn't dissipate, and Justin fell into a spiral of depression and addiction, leading him on a path toward destruction.

The first meeting between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden, transcended the world of sports to become a major international media spectacle with tremendous social and political overtones. Sportswriter Michael Arkush draws from interviews with Ali's trainer, Angelo Dundee; his doctor, Ferdie Pacheco; and more than 100 others to examine how the fight, watched by more than 300 million viewers around the world, ushered in a new era of sports marketing. From then on, every game would be turned into an "event," powered by over-the-top hype and carefully staged pageantry.

As a kid growing up in New York in the late '50s, Bill Apter fell in love with professional wrestling, and it wasn't long before he was rubbing shoulders with the greats as a young reporter and photographer. He's since become the world's best-known wrestling magazine personality, and he's had professional and personal relationships with a who's who of the business, like Triple H, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Sting, and Ric Flair.

Growing up in New Jersey as the only African American Muslim at school, Ibtihaj Muhammad always had to find her own way. When she discovered fencing, a sport traditionally reserved for the wealthy, she had to defy expectations and make a place for herself in a sport she grew to love. From...

Practitioners across the globe continue to use jujitsu as a tool for personal development. For many, the jujitsu academy is the one place in which we purposefully practice virtuous action. On Jiu Jitsu seeks to codify the mechanisms by which jujitsu shapes the individual, as the character traits required to achieve mastery in sport are the same that our highest humanity requires.

Join WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes as he invites WWE Superstars & Legends, athletes and celebrities aboard his bus for an unfiltered conversation about all things wrestling and beyond. Cody and his guests share never-before-heard stories from the road, their favorite matches and moments from their careers, and candid opinions on the world of wrestling.

Rory Miller's Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected includes seven elements that must be addressed to bring self-defense training to something approaching complete. These elements are: legal and ethical implications, violence dynamics, avoidance, counter-ambush, breaking the freeze, the fight itself, and the aftermath. Training that dismisses any of these areas leaves you vulnerable.

In A Wrestling Life: The Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable, famed wrestler and wrestling coach Dan Gable tells engaging and inspiring stories of his childhood in Waterloo, Iowa; overcoming the murder of his sister as a teenager; his sports career from swimming as a young boy, to his earliest wrestling matches, through the 1972 Olympics; coaching at the University of Iowa from the Banachs to the Brands; life-changing friendships he made along the way; and tales of his family life off the mat.

In this inspiring and moving book, Ronda Rousey, Olympic medalist in judo, reigning UFC women's bantamweight champion, and Hollywood star, describes her difficult path to glory. Marked by her signature charm, barbed wit, and undeniable power, Rousey's account of the toughest fights of her life - in and outside the Octagon - reveals the painful loss of her father when she was eight years old, the intensity of her judo training, her battles with love, her meteoric rise to fame, and the secret behind her undefeated UFC record.

On an overcast day in 1987, the pro wrestling landscape was altered forever when a reported 93,173 fans converged on the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit to see Hulk Hogan defend his championship against André the Giant. For several years, Vincent Kennedy McMahon had been transforming old-time rasslin' into mainstream "sports entertainment," incorporating A-list celebrities into storylines and forcing even cynics to follow the proceedings.

"A fun read about an underrated talent and 35 years of both good and bad luck in life... and the struggles to keep a career alive as the old territorial system was falling apart."- Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer "One of the best-written wrestling books I have ever read... honest and endlessly entertaining."- Jim Valley, Pro Wrestling Torch contributor "It's been a long time since I've been so pleasantly surprised by a book... a very well-written and lively read."- Dwight Jaynes, Comcast Sports Net He defeated Andre the Giant, tutored the Ultimate Warrior and helped Jake "The Snake" ...

Kenpo Perspectives: The Diversity of American Kenpo is filled with a wealth of information for all American Kenpo practitioners and instructors around the world. American Kenpo founder Ed Parker said, “Every Kenpo black belt is a style unto himself.” Every person is different and each person who studies Parker’s system creates his own style of that system. This book illustrates that concept while displaying the common ground found within the system, and also provides a lot of insight from many different perspectives for those who truly want to dive into the inner workings of the ...

The inspirational teachings in this collection show that the real way of the warrior is based on compassion, wisdom, fearlessness, and love of nature. The teachings are drawn from the talks and writings of Morihei Ueshiba, founder of the popular Japanese martial art of Aikido, a mind-body discipline he called the "Art of Peace", which offers a nonviolent way to victory in the face of conflict. Ueshiba believed that Aikido principles could be applied to all the challenges we face in life.

The incredible story of the first African American military pilot, who went on to become a Paris nightclub impresario, a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. The son of a former slave...

In sharing his stories, Atlas reveals the philosophy by which he lives. Like Teddy Atlas - inimitable, tough, honest, and wise - this book inspires. It is about so much more than boxing. It is a story of overcoming hardships, of compassion for those in need, of tremendous personal integrity, and of personal and professional triumph.