“The Duke is a harrowing tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, and a gripping read. Don’t miss it.”—T. J. English, New York Times bestselling author of Havana Nocturne
An American Gothic…
In the early 1990s, Tommy Morrison, a young roughneck from Jay, Oklahoma, burst onto the boxing scene to become one of the most controversial fighters of his era. Handsome, eloquent, and dynamic, Morrison parlayed destructive knockout power and a homespun personality into celebrity status throughout middle America, where boxing rarely prospered.
But it was his starring role in Rocky V alongside Sylvester Stallone that propelled him to stardom–and ultimately led to his tragic downfall. His brush with Hollywood fame triggered a limitless appetite for parties, liquor, and sex. When Morrison was shockingly diagnosed with HIV in 1996, his life imploded, and his subsequent descent into drugs, prison, bigamy, and conspiracy theories made Morrison notorious long after his glory days had ended.
In The Duke, Carlos Acevedo chronicles Morrison’s tumultuous life from his days as a teenaged Toughman contestant, to his victory over George Foreman, to his struggles with HIV and depression, to his death at forty-four, when his delusions finally overtook him.
Morrison himself was a divisive figure but critics and readers are unanimous about Acevedo’s The Duke.
“This is a big American saga writ large, just the sort of tortured tale Carlos Acevedo tells so well.”—Don Stradley, author of The War: Hagler–Hearns and Three Rounds for the Ages
“I love how Carlos Acevedo writes. He''s detached and immersive, observant and detailed, unsparing and fair. He brings to life what I love—and what I don''t love—about boxing. That''s clear in The Duke, which examines not just Tommy Morrison, but Morrison''s place in boxing, celebrity culture, and the greater sports consciousness. It''s the perfect marriage of writer and subject, written sharply, broadly and expertly—and hard to put down.”—Greg Bishop senior writer, Sports Illustrated
Industry Reviews
"An enthralling new biography by Carlos Acevedo . . . [Tommy] Morrison's Falstaffian story makes for a rollicking read in Acevedo’s deft hands."-The Irish Times
“Carlos Acevedo is a keen student of the technical aspects of a sport that, despite its raw physicality, swiftly exposes the untrained. Beyond that, though, he is interested in its deep history, in mining the past for what is uniquely instructive in a gladiatorial contest that strips human nature bare. In this, he is a worthy successor to all those who have tried to honor in words the inarticulate striving of the ring.”—City Journal
"The Duke is above all an exceptional work of biography. Acevedo’s achievement is to tell the story in a way that is riveting but not lurid, gripping but not eulogizing. The Duke is unputdownable in a way nonfiction rarely is. It grips you and submerges you in a narrative that is riveting, comic, and ultimately tragic."—All Sports Book Reviews
“[A] fascinating dive into one of the key players of the '90s heavyweight era."—Boxing Scene
"The Duke is an enjoyable and compelling read and I doubt any other boxing literature released this year will surpass it."—Boxing Social
