No Middle Ground

"This is an enthralling behind-the-scenes account of a bygone sporting era." -Shortlist

"Riveting. It's like I'm back there on a sat night with my family, watching the bloodlust. Brilliantly written." -Phil Williams Radio Five Live

'Shetty painstakingly spoke to the fighters, their respective teams and many of the integral people involved to capture the scene of the fight nights excellently. The way in which he introduces the reader to each of the boxers personalities in fine detail from their adolescent youth through to maturity early on in the book sets the tone perfectly. Shetty takes the reader through an amazing journey that started inside a tent in Finsbury Park North London in May 1989, and ends tragically on cold night at White Hart Lane Football on September 21, 1991. Highly informative and well written.' -Clive Bernath secondsout.com

2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the first bout in the epic battle between Nigel Benn, Michael Watson and Chris Eubank that would keep us entertained for five manic, magnificent and ultimately tragic years.

The fight took place a month after the Hillsborough disaster and was screened live on TV, in a slot now dominated by talent contests. It was a time when kids could stay up late to watch 12 rounds of madness. It was also the last Golden Era of British Boxing.

While for us these greats of British boxing provided entertainment away from the hooliganism of football, for them it was much more personal. Rivalries exist in every sport, but their loathing was real and in the ring it nearly became deadly. But this is what the swaggering early-90's Britain tuned in for. These three fighters were Britain's alpha-ego. They made the country proud.

No Middle Ground takes us back to the years when these boxers pounded the heavy bags and tells their story as well as that of Britain's love affair with the sport, and how these fight came to define them and us. In tracing the boxers' journeys to centre-stage Sanjeev Shetty reveals the story of the dark side of Thatcher's nation - the blood, the sweat, the dangerous hatred that fuelled these men, and the ultimate price they would pay for their moment in the sun.

SANJEEV SHETTY began writing about boxing in 1994. He has reported from ringside on greats such as Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed, Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Oscar de la Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. The majority of his reportage has been for the BBC, for whom he has served over three years. He lives in Cheshire with his wife Laura and their two sons, Rafael and Ruben. He is also the author of a detective novel,Man's Work.