Ghosts of Manila - by Mark Kram (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

When Muhammad Ali met Joe Frazier in Manila for their third fight, their rivalry had spun out of control. The Ali-Frazier matchup had become a madness, inflamed by the media and the politics of race. When the "Thrilla in Manila" was over, one man was left with a ruin of a life; the other was battered to his soul.

Mark Kram covered that fight for Sports Illustrated in an award-winning article. Now his riveting book reappraises the boxers -- who they are and who they were. And in a voice as powerful as a heavyweight punch, Kram explodes the myths surrounding each fighter, particularly Ali. A controversial, no-holds-barred account, Ghosts of Manila ranks with the finest boxing books ever written.

Review Quotes

"Yet more proof that the best sports writing is about boxing...Better than anyone who has written about Mr. Ali, Mr. Kram deflates the mythology that has grown up around The Greatest." - Wall Street Journal
"Kram's book has the punch of historical truth written in poetic combinations by a reporter who was there." - New York Post
"Thrilling...[Kram] brings the fight back to life in prose that detonates like a firestorm of flashbulbs." - Entertainment Weekly
"Ghosts of Manila will surely become the definitive work on the definitive boxer of our times." - London Sunday Times