Around the World in 80 Fights: A Lifetime’s Journey to the Heart of Boxing; Shortlisted for Sports Entertainment Book of the Year at the Sports Book Awards 2025

by Steve Bunce

An autobiographical white-knuckle ride around the global fight game by the legendary Steve the voice of the sport who is celebrating four decades of writing and talking about boxers and boxing.

In Around the World in 80 Fights, let 'the Voice of Boxing' take you on the ultimate sporting to the rings of New York, to the makeshift rings of Bukom in Ghana, to the riches of Las Vegas, and to Riyadh, Atlantic City, Bethnal Green, Mexico City, Rome and Berlin.

To the basement rooms in dingy pubs where old fighters chase the last round; a bullring in December under the stars; a small square on the outskirts of Naples with a ring obscured by a fountain; the abandoned centre of boxing excellence in a forest lost in East Germany; a railway arch in south London and a bin-bag packed with cash.

Let 'Buncey' tell you about the conversations with Mr. T at ringside; a meeting with the Pope's people; the thoughts of Donald Trump when he had plans to make boxing great again; Don King in exile in his nineties; an overheard conversation with Fidel Castro; and a very real diplomatic incident.

The hard conversations with a dead boxer's mother in the hour after a machine had been switched off. The bravery, stupidity, guts, desire and glory of the boxers in the world's most famous and unknown rings. They fought for millions, for pride, for their country and for nothing. They bled, cried and died in those rings.

Around the World in 80 Fights vividly reveals the simple, wonderful and truly awful business of boxing. It is Buncey's business and this is his story.

357 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2024

Reviews

[Lee Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! what a superb book, read it in less than 2 days rather than dipping in and out as I'd expected when I bought it.
Steve really delivers a lot of emotion with every story in here, he also gives a lot of insight and depth in a short space of time.
I've never been the biggest boxing fan, I don't stay up till 2am to watch a fight so I was surprised at how many names I knew.
Had me laughing out loud one minute and choking up the next.
I have often caught Steve's infectious story telling on 5 live and love it when he's on. I hope there's more to come and I will be tuning into and catching up on podcasts.
Taylor Vs Serrano III tomorrow is a weird coincidence.. can't wait, hope it lives up to Steve's description of their first tussle :-)

[Mario]

Nice little 2-4 page stories about fights or people involved in boxing from around the world. But after about 80-90 pages I started skipping chapters because I started losing a bit of interest as I knew the most we'd get from a chapter would be about 4 pages and I wanted a bit more in-depth on certain stories. Then again some of the fights or characters would need a whole book themselves let alone a couple of pages. Good for those boxing fans that want to dip in and out of a book and hear some interesting/strange stories along the way.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steve has been a witness to Professional boxing for decades and offers a fairly rare first hand account of a broad array of fights and characters on the boxing scene.

Steve confirms a lot of stereotypes about boxing, namely there is a lot of dirty tricks and tragedy going on but that's exactly how it is.

I did get a little bored towards the end but I like the each of the 80 fights were short enough and well framed to hold interest.

[Liam Mcgrath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not something I would usually read, this is a trip down memory lane for Steve Bunce.

This is a person who has been there and saw everything unfold, saw boxing at its highs and lows.

He has detailed 80 fights that he was present at and the backstories of what happened on the night, with more detail.

Steve Bunce knows a lot about the sport, so this was a great read, I read this whilst I was on holiday and was very enjoyable.

[Callum Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

As you’d expect from Buncey this book is a brilliant read, the man is one of the most knowledgeable people in boxing, so it’s great to spend some time reading his stories.

The book is great if you need something you can dip in and out of as most chapters are quite short, so makes it easily digestible.

[Dean HOCK1NG · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a really interesting and well written book which gave the boxing fan a concise background to some interesting fights and provides an insight into the world of boxing

I wish that some of chapters were about fights and times that I found personally interesting but nonetheless I still found each anecdote insightful and would recommend this book to boxing and sport fans alike

[Olav Nilsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

🥊👍🏼

[Grant S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Steve's road trip through all four corners of the boxing world, or should that be ring?
Pen pics of fighters, venues and matches.
Very good and often poingent.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection of stories, from a very eclectic range. A true enthusiast for life in the Noble Art. Read to the end, which is quite heartbreaking.