Fight Town: Las Vegas - The Boxing Capital of the World [Paperback]

Tim Dahlberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Las Vegas is a city where fortunes are won and lost on the roll of the dice, a 24-hour-a-day, neon-lit wonderland. Stars roam the Strip and decadence is always available at a price, but never are the stakes higher in Las Vegas than inside the ring. It's here where lives are shattered, and sometimes lost, in search of the glory and riches that come in the squared circle. This is Fight Town, a place where fame is only one big punch away and the high-rolling gamblers with their fat bankrolls look on to the next big win. Dahlberg tells the stories behind the fights. It was in Las Vegas where Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack were the stars in the showrooms, but fighters like Sonny Liston and a brash Cassius Clay were stars of the ring. The faces and places are all there, spread out over more than 200 pages. This is truly a tribute to both the city and the sport it loves. This is Fight Town.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An impressive-looking 288-page book. In fact, the illustrations, mostly glossy impactful it often detracts from the words. But it is a book to be read at leisure and treasured. -- Claude Abrams, Boxing News

By now it has become tradition, and Dahlberg, who has covered the sport in Las Vegas for the AP since 1979, has done more than preserve that tradition in this oversize book, which is stuffed with photographs. In tracing the growth of boxing in his city, he has dug up more than a few gems and arranged them with wit. -- Richard Hoffer, Sports Illustrated

If you've ever been to Las Vegas or ever seen a fight in Las Vegas, this is a must read. The stories are fascinating, and the photos mesmerizing. -- Gene Kilroy, Former Business Manager of Muhammad Ali

Through Dahlberg's words and the photos from some of the best in the business, you can be there for Sonny Liston training in the Thunderbird Hotel, Mike Tyson making his comeback and then falling from grace at the MGM Grand, and Hagler and Hearns waging their own personal war in Caesars Palace. It's like a Vegas boxing travelogue without leaving the house. -- Thomas Gerbasi, Maxboxing.com

About the Author

Tim Dahlberg is the boxing writer for The Associated Press and widely recognized as one of the leading boxing journalists in the world. He is the winner of the 1999 Nat Fleischer award given by the Boxing Writers of America for excellence in boxing journalism, and winner of multiple other Associated Press Sports Editors and BWAA writing awards.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Stephens Press LLC (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932173668
• ISBN-13: 978-1932173666
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fight Town is the Undisputed Champion!, December 1, 2004

By 

Fred Sternburg (Englewood, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fight Town: Las Vegas -- The Boxing Capital of the World (Hardcover)

If you like boxing at all, you're going to love this book. I bought it at the author's website after reading a review on a boxing website, and it was even better than I imagined. This is a big book, 228 pages in a coffee table size, and filled with great photos that really are images in time. There's Sugar Ray Robinson with two little kids on the Las Vegas Strip in 1952, and Muhammad Ali fighting in Las Vegas for the first time in 1961. The book opens with a photo I've never seen before of Ali taunting Sonny Liston after Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in Las Vegas in 1963. This photo alone is almost worth the price of the book. There's great photos from the 50s to fights in 2004, from Liston and Ali to Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya. These aren't your standard fight pictures, either. They are taken before fights, in casual settings, during fights, you name it. Did I mention it had words too? Dahlberg has been around fights in Vegas for a long time and it shows. He tells inside stories, such as how Marvin Hagler was so tight with his money he made sure the phones in the hotel rooms of his entourage were turned off and how Bob Arum nearly landed the first Ali-Frazier fight in Las Vegas. He tells how Caesars Palace built an outdoor arena for the big fights, and how great the hotel's pavillion was for fighters and how Sugar Ray Leonard came up with the game plan to beat Hagler. It's the kind of book you'll put out on your coffee table just to pick up and read a bit and look at the pictures again and again. I got mine at the fighttownvegas.com website, so I could get it personally signed by the author. My friends are all jealous.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Thorough coverage, December 17, 2004

By 

Hawk - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fight Town: Las Vegas -- The Boxing Capital of the World (Hardcover)

Fantastic photos. Fine background text. Knowledgable author. But the one thing that got me was instead of this being a historical look at the boxing game in Las Vegas, it really turned into Dahlberg's view of Boxing in Vegas.

If a book is to be based on your opinion, I'm fine with that. But doen't disguise it as a historical perspective of the topic and then force YOUR PERSONAL opinions in as if they WERE fact.

A blatant example of this was Dahlberg's OPINION that Tommy Hearns was exhausted and spent in the 13th round of his epic bout with Leonard. If Tim wants to quote Manny Steward's opinion on Hearns' weight and physical condition in the bout, that's fine. But don't pass off your personal opinion as fact. In MY Opinion, what stopped Hearns in the 13th round was Leonard's fists. Hearns certainly gave no noticable appearence of being Spent or exhausted. He slowed down when Ray NOTICABLY hurt Tommy.

I also did not care for the top 10 Vegas fights either. If you are basing it on historical significance or hype and build up, than how does Leonard Hagler not make the list? ANd if it is based on ferocity and sustained action, how does Barrera Morales not make the list? Were Tyson Berbick (Why? so we have a fight for Tyson in Vegas that Mike acutally won?)Holyfield Bowe I & II and Foreman Moorer more deserving than the two fights I mentioned, each for different reasons?

The bias and inconsistancies prevent 5 stars form me. I previewed it before I purchased it, so I feel it was worth the buy. But It ranks only as very good and not exceptional in my book

Jeff Hawkins

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Fight Book, February 24, 2006

By 

Timothy B. Reed - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fight Town: Las Vegas -- The Boxing Capital of the World (Hardcover)

This is the best fight book if anyone is interested in boxing in Vegas. A must have for any fight fan!!