Local author releases heavyweight boxing book for nostalgia fans

Heavyweight Title Fights of the 1980s is a brand new book, released on Thursday 13th February, and written by Northampton's Steve Hunt.

It's Steve's first book, although he has previously had articles on boxing history published in Boxing News magazine and a variety of websites. The book covers each of the 46 world heavyweight title fights from that decade. Heavyweight boxing across those ten years was dominated first by Larry Holmes and then Mike Tyson. There were plenty of other supporting characters, such as Tim Witherspoon, Tony Tubbs, Pinklon Thomas as well as, of course, Britain's own Frank Bruno. Steve felt that the 1980s were an under appreciated decade.

"I really wanted to write the book because boxing fans often refer to the 70s and even the 90s as golden ages for the heavyweights, but the decade in between is often overlooked. In Holmes and Tyson, you had two legends of the sport and there are many other fascinating characters and storylines. One of the benefits of this era is that all these fights are on YouTube, so you can read the book and watch the fights as you go along!"

"I also felt it was a great era for boxing writing. The media landscape was so different back then, and boxing was much more of a mainstream sport, so there was so much more coverage, both in the UK and the US."

The book picks up at the start of the decade in the early days of Larry Holmes' reign as champion and ends with Tyson's final successful defence of the world title.

"It was great fun to revisit that era in depth and rewatch all the fights. I hope that people will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it."

The book is available to order from Amazon and all good book shops.