FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A new series on boxing that pulls no punches debuts this spring in the University of Arkansas Press’ most recent catalog.

"The Sweet Science: Boxing in Literature and History" sports two titles this spring, both offering hard-hitting looks at the world of professional boxing.

In "The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing," originally published in 1986, author Tom Hauser enters the world of superlightweight Billy Costello. Through Costello, Hauser has access to his manager and trainer, promoter Don King and World Boxing Council president Jose Sulaiman.

If Hauser’s book offers insight into the boxing world, series editor Randy Roberts and co-author J. Gregory Garrison examine the celebrity and criminality of one of its members in "Heavy Justice: The Trial of Mike Tyson."

In the book, originally published in 1994, Garrison, the special prosecutor in the case against Tyson, and historian and boxing scholar Roberts recount the trial that put the heavyweight champion behind bars.

The high-profile date rape trial pitted Garrison against a multimillionaire sports celebrity and hero to millions, promoter Don King and the Washington law firm of Williams and Connolly, perhaps the slickest and most powerful defense counsel money could buy.

Writers throughout history have examined the reasons men hit other men for money and why others watch them. Homer described a boxing match in "The Iliad" and Ernest Hemingway wrote "Fifty Grand" for the "Atlantic Monthly." Authors ranging from Victor Hugo, Lord Byron, George Bernard Shaw and Jack London to P.G. Wodehouse, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Joyce Carol Oates have written about the "Sweet Science."

The series will republish out-of-print classics in fiction and non-fiction and publish new works.

Both books in the new series will be available in April.

To receive a catalog, please contact the University of Arkansas Press at (479) 575-3246 or by e-mail at <uaprinfo@comp.uark.edu>.