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Charles Farrell has spent his professional life moving between music and boxing, with occasional detours. He has managed five world champions, and has played and recorded with many of the musicians he most admires—Evan Parker and Ornette Coleman among them. His first book, (Low)life: A Memoir of Jazz, FIght-Fixing, and the Mob, was published by Hamilcar in 2021. Farrell lives outside of Boston.<p>“While the
other essays here, which range from analysis of Floyd Mayweather’s fight with
Conor McGregor to an examination of boxing’s 'Black Code,' are must-reads in
their own right, it’s the tale of Farrell’s relationship with Green as manager
long after the New Yorker’s 1986 bout with Mike Tyson and his infamous street
fight with 'Iron Mike' that’s the star of the show…. Like his previous book [<i>Low(life):
A Memoir of Jazz, Fight-Fixing, and the Mob</i>], he removes the romance of the
boxing business and gives it to readers straight, whether we want it or not.”<b>—Thomas
Gerbasi, <i>The Ring</i></b></p><p>"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."<b>—<i>All Sports Book Reviews</i></b></p><p>“Wow. A story everyone in the fight game can relate to, and a story everyone who <i>thinks</i> they know the fight game should read. This is a <i>real</i> dive into the dreams, hopes, insanity, and business of the Wild West of all professional sports—boxing!”<b>—John Lepak, COO, KRONK</b></p><p>“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.”<b>—Hamilton
Nolan, writer for <i>The Guardian</i> and author of <i>The Hammer: Power,
Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor</i></b></p><p>“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.”<b>—Todd D. Snyder, author of <i>Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game</i> and <i>Bundini: Don't Believe the Hype</i></b></p><p>"With his trademark insider acuity, unsentimental compassion, and faultless eye and ear, Charles Farrell gives us an indelible portrait of one of boxing's great characters and a definitive account of what happens when talent runs afoul of the way things work in the world."<b>—Carlo Rotella, contributor to <i>The New York Times Magazine</i> and author of <i>Cut Time: An Education at the Fights</i></b></p><p>“Charles Farrell is certainly, without question, among the greatest boxing writers of all time— not merely because of his unique and unmatched experience in the dark underbelly of boxing, but because of his intellect, his craft (he is an artist, first) and his honesty. Charles is not always right—no one is, not about boxing—but he is often brilliant, and always unflinchingly honest about the essentials, the essence. He educates and elucidates and pulls back the curtain on a world slightly more real than reality. In the litmus test for a great writer, I’m smarter, wiser, <i>better,</i> for having read him.“<b>—Sam Sheridan, film producer and author of <i>A Fighter's Heart</i> and <i>The Fighter's Mind</i></b></p><p>“On
boxing, Charles Farrell is the best writer we have. I learned this many moons
ago when I read my first Farrell piece and he has only gotten better. So what’s
the secret sauce? Near as I can figure: (a) command of the subject, (b) lucid
prose, (c) unique insights into an opaque and exploitive world, a world most
fans never see. Also, he’s funny. Really funny. To label Farrell a ‘boxing
writer,’ however, would be an injustice. He’s a writer, a remarkable one, and
his sensibility is equally revelatory and readable about music, politics, and
what A. J. Liebling lovingly dubbed ‘the low life.’ These essays all feature
boxing but it would be a mistake to think that’s all they address. Rather, they
are concerned with marginal people who live in extremity from choice and need,
and suffer because of it. Farrell’s clear-eyed compassion for fighters might be
the reason he didn’t get rich off boxing but it also is a big part of why his
work will endure.”—<b>Robert Anasi, author of <i>The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle</i></b></p><p><b><i><br /></i></b></p><p><b><i>Praise for (Low)life: A Memoir of Jazz, Fight-Fixing and the Mob</i></b></p><p>“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.”<b>—Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for <i>The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher</i>, and author of <i>Madam: The Life of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz-Age</i></b><br /></p>"To scrape the heavens with your art, to plunge into the sordors of the world with your business: not even Charles Farrell can explain Charles Farrell. But he’s better qualified to try it than anybody else, and you owe it to yourself - I might even say it’s your duty as an American - to experience (Low)life. Elegant, unexpected, seeking always the real behind the real, Farrell’s prose hits like the precision fists of... blows like the wild trumpet of... I give up."<b>—James Parker, <i>The Atlantic</i></b><br /><br />
“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.
The Legend of Mitch “Blood” Green
The Time I Didn’t Have Time For Donald Trump
Floyd Mayweather Jr. Versus Conor McGregor: What Kind of Fuckery Is This?
Black Code
Dreamland
Way Out in Space
This Was Ali
Rang Tang Ding Dong Rankie Sankie
Blood was a major celebrity at Rikers—as treasured a presence with the guards as he was with the inmates.
“Man, you gotta see me there,” he’d tell me. “All the inmates, all the gangs, all the guards, it’s like ‘Yo, Yo, Yo, it’s Mitch Green. Oh shit, it’s Blood. Big Mitch. Lookin’ good, baby.’ Charl, I tellin’ you, I’m the King of Rikers Island.”
He loved the accommodations.
“Man, it’s beautiful. Don’t nobody bother me. I get to rest up, get lots of peace and quiet. And the food is good, man. Three meals a day, all you can eat. The guards bring me extra, bring me desserts. I can lift weights, do push-ups. I get into good shape in prison. And I got this little cooler where I can keep my Kool-Aid.”
“Does anyone box?”
“We do like slap boxing. Just see who got the fast hands. Not real boxing boxing. But it helps me stay sharp.”
Mitch assured me that I too would thrive at Rikers.
“Man, when you get in, you see how you get you respect. They be askin’ you questions. They gonna ask about their cases, ask you to listen to their tapes, ask you if you manage them in boxing when they come out. You do good in Rikers, Charl.”
“I don’t plan to ever be sent to Rikers, Mitch.”
“No, you don’t plan to. But nobody know the future, Charl. I’m just sayin’ if you wind up there, you’ll do good.”