Showing titles in Combat Sports & Self-Defense

Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the 20th century. The son of a former slave and an indigenous Creek woman, Bullard fled home at the age of 11 to escape the racial hostility of his Georgia community. When his journey led him to Europe, he garnered worldwide fame as a boxer, and later as the first African-American fighter pilot in history. After the war, Bullard returned to Paris a celebrated hero. But little did he know that the dramatic, globe-spanning arc of his life had just begun.

Bobby Gunn has been fighting for his existence since a childhood spent living under the hand of his volatile father, and would do anything to give his seven-year-old daughter a better life—including betting on himself in the underground world of bare-knuckle boxing. In 1984, Gunn was an eleven-year-old boxer in Ontario when his father woke him in the middle of the night to fight grown men in motel parking lots for money, his old man pocketing the cash.

The definitive biography of Vince McMahon, former WWE chairman and CEO, charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world’s most influential media empires—and features exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent.

This is a manual designed to get white belts to competent blue belts in as fast a time as possible. Zen Jiu Jitsu is more a rendition of concepts than techniques. This is the simplest and easiest way to break down and simplify the many and varied ideas, philosophies, and combinations in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu arsenal. For both competition Jiu Jitsu and self-defense Jiu Jitsu, most white belts need to fully understand the concepts, but they can be VERY confusing!

On an evening that defined the Greed is Good 1980s, Donald Trump hosted a raft of celebrities and high rollers in a carnival town on the Jersey Shore to bask in the glow created by a 21-year-old heavyweight champion. Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks that night, and in 91 frenzied seconds earned more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics combined.

Leon White grew in Compton before taking on the world. His impressive college football days led him to the NFL and ultimately the Super Bowl. Reinventing himself as a wrestler, he battled monsters in the ring like Bruiser Brody and Jerry Blackwell, until given his own monster-like gimmick in Japan. As “Big Van Vader," he defeated Antonio Inoki for the IWGP title and had his eyeball knocked out of his head by Stan Hansen, initiating his own legendary status. Taking on all the top names and winning titles around the world, this mastodon became “The Greatest Super Heavyweight of All Time....

Earl Hebner used hard work and determination to become the most recognizable officiating name in professional wrestling, if not "the greatest of all time." Starting in Virginia as ring crew, he gained the respect of Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair, going on to referee NWA's biggest events. Then, in front of 33 million fans, Earl debuted on WWF's most-watched event ever as the evil twin ref who stole Hulk Hogan's title. As WWE senior official, he played an integral part in "The Montreal Screwjob", calling an unplanned controversial finish that screwed Bret Hart out of his championship for real. ...

Bruce Lee remains the gold standard that all martial artists are compared to. But could he actually fight? World Champions in karate competition have gone on record to point out that he never once competed in tournaments. Were his martial abilities merely a trick of the camera? For the first time ever, Bruce Lee authority and bestselling author John Little takes a hard look at Bruce Lee's real-life fights to definitively answer these questions with over thirty years of research that took him thousands of miles.

Growing up a 90-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970s TV series, Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to spend two years training with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism.

We could whine about how we live in dangerous times nowadays, but let's face it, all throughout history ordinary people have been at risk of violence in one way or another. Abdicating personal responsibility by outsourcing your safety to others might be the easy way out, but it does little to safeguard your welfare. In this book you'll discover what dangers you face and learn proven strategies to thwart them.

One of WWE's most unlikely champions of all time and also one of its most popular, Bryan has proved to the world and to all of WWE that looks can be deceiving. Just ask anyone who's ever underestimated him . . . right before he went out and whipped the WWE universe into a frenzy. This is Bryan's behind-the-scenes story told for the first time ever by the "YES!" Man himself---from his beginnings as a child wanting to wrestle to his ten years circling the globe on the independent circuit and his remarkable climb to the upper ranks of WWE.

"Leave your ego at the door." This platitude highlights our confusion. If we could leave our ego at the door, we wouldn't need Jiu Jitsu. To develop an adversarial relationship to an aspect of one's self gets nowhere good fast. That which we resist, persists. The skillful path forward is to walk the ego onto the mat with us, like a child, and dissolve its stronghold through awareness.

While most of Postl's adult life has been spent in the wild world of the wrestling industry, his is more than a story of a little person's journey through a world of giants; it's a memoir of elation and anguish, triumph and disappointment, and of how an endlessly positive outlook combined with the unwavering support of family and friends helped a long shot become a success in his industry and a loving, responsible father.

To uncover the secrets of mental strength and success, Sam Sheridan interviewed dozens of the world's most fascinating and dangerous men.

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.

When I started my first martial art school, all I knew about growing a dojo was that I needed more students. So, I set about getting more students every way I knew how, and I kept adding more ways to do that as I went along.

Lost in the annals of boxing is the sport's true Cinderella story. James J. Braddock, dubbed "Cinderella Man" by Damon Runyon, was a once promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929.

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.

It takes a certain kind of person to do whatever is necessary to make a living as a mixed martial arts fighter. And it takes another kind of person to stand out from all the rest as both a wild man and a rock star. Chris Leben, otherwise known as "The Crippler", is that kind of person. Leben's reputation started when he appeared on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, a reality show and competition where hopeful fighters live together and vie for a UFC contract and a path to greatness.

Love him or loathe him, ‘Iron' Mike Tyson is an icon and one of the most fascinating sporting figures of our time. In this no-holds-barred autobiography, Tyson lays bare his demons and tells his story: from poverty to stardom to hell and back again. In his first autobiography, ‘Iron' Mike Tyson pulls no punches and lays bare the story of his remarkable life and career.