Close Encounters with the Gloves Off is a rollercoaster ride through boxing history in the words of the boxers themselves, as they recall their highs and lows, their greatest triumphs, the background stories and many shock revelations. Acclaimed boxing writer, author and historian Thomas Myler has interviewed every one of the pugilistic greats featured, during a career spent covering boxing; from the big names of the 'Roaring 20s' right through to boxing's modern era. Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Georges Carpentier, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and modern greats such as Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield and Ken Buchanan all feature.

Myler has spent a lifetime around boxing and boxers and was once described by George Kimball, prize-winning author of the acclaimed Four Kings, as 'One of the world's best boxing writers'. Close Encounters with the Gloves Off pulls together that life's work to take the reader on a wonderful boxing journey which spans almost an entire century.