“Charles Farrell’s many personal encounters, questions, insights, and experiences as an observer of the sport… add a multifaceted richness to [this] essay collection…. Readers will find its vibrant psychological, social, political, and personal revelations are just the ticket for a read that is solid in its facts, unexpected in its focus and connections, and thoroughly delightful in its novel approach to boxing.”—Midwest Book Review

Mitch "Blood" Green had more things going for him to make big money in boxing than nearly any fighter in history. A six-foot-six, 225-pound heavyweight with a chiseled physique and a traffic-stopping look, Green had ironclad street credibility—he was the gang leader of the Black Spades—and four New York Golden Gloves heavyweight titles.

But his penchant for mayhem, drugs, and chaos, while keeping him in the news, torpedoed his pro boxing career. He lost a high-profile decision to Mike Tyson at Madison Square Garden, got into a tabloid-grabbing late-night street fight with Tyson at an after-hours boutique in Harlem, and then disappeared.

Until Charles Farrell found him.

In The Legend of Mitch "Blood" Green and Other Boxing Essays, Farrell captures life in the boxing business from its deepest interior, and offers additional portraits of characters as wide-ranging as Donald Trump, Floyd Patterson, Bert Cooper, Charley Burley, Peter McNeeley, and Muhammad Ali. Trenchant, fearless, and often flat-out funny, there has never been a boxing book like this, and there will never be another.

"Charles Farrell is that rare insider who can write as beautifully about the ugly side of sport as he can about boxing itself. No-nonsense honesty combined with wonderful turns of phrase."—All Sports Book Reviews

“Wow. A story everyone in the fight game can relate to, and a story everyone who thinks they know the fight game should read. This is a real dive into the dreams, hopes, insanity, and business of the Wild West of all professional sports—boxing!”—John Lepak, COO, KRONK

“Some people know the fight game, and some people know how to write. Charles Farrell is one of the only people in America who truly knows both. That's why he's my favorite boxing writer. Read this book and he'll be yours, too.”—Hamilton Nolan, writer for The Guardian and author of The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor

“Mitch ‘Blood’ Green is a legend in the streets of New York City, one whose roller-coaster life is referenced so often in hip-hop that some contemporary fans might mistakenly assume it was he, not Mike Tyson, who reigned as heavyweight champion.”—Todd D. Snyder, author of Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game and Bundini: Don't Believe the Hype

Praise for (Low)life: A Memoir of Jazz, Fight-Fixing and the Mob

“With deadpan humor, whip-smart insights and some damn fine sentences, Charles Farrell has written a classic chronicle of life in the twilight world, on par with masters of the genre like Damon Runyon, Mezz Mezzrow, Nat Hentoff and Nick Pileggi. A truly great read.”—Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, and author of Madam: The Life of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz-Age