The Duke

“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 Havana Nocturne

“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

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.