Dog Rounds

March 2016: boxer Chris Eubank, Jr. stops his opponent Nick Blackwell in round 10 of a British title fight. Blackwell, having collapsed in the ring, dies momentarily in the back of an ambulance, before being brought back to life. He remains in a coma for seven days. The lives of the protagonists and the witnesses are changed forever. Journalist and lifelong boxing fan Elliot Worsell was ringside that night and in the dressing rooms in the immediate aftermath. What he saw and heard would transform his view of the sport he loves and force him to question his own complicity. In Dog Rounds, Worsell goes in search of boxers who have killed in the ring. He talks to George Khalid Jones, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Gabriel Ruelas, James Crayton, and referee Kenny Bayless. Spending time with these boxers and returning to the venues in which tragedies occurred, Worsell reveals the extent of the devastation left behind. In doing so he uncovers an incredible story of guilt, forgiveness, obsession, and violence. What results is a powerful look at the past, present, and future of one of the world's most dangerous sports.

"One of my favourite sports books of this year." —Matt Williams, Radio 2

"Best Holiday Read 2017." —Observer

"My kind of book, by my kind of writer." —Don McRae, author, Dark Trade

Elliot Worsell has worked in the boxing and mixed martial arts industries for over a decade as a journalist and a publicist, and his writing has appeared in The Ring, Boxing News, Boxing Monthly, UFC 360, Fighters Only, and the Huffington Post. His first book was Making Haye: The Authorised David Haye Story.