William Dettloff grew up in the Parlin section of Old Bridge, New Jersey and fought as an amateur in the early 1980s out of the Knights of Columbus boxing club in South River, and later the New Brunswick PAL. He started writing for The Ring and its sister magazines, KO and World Boxing, in 1995. He was the senior writer there for 15 years. He also wrote about boxing for HBO and ESPN during that time, and for seven years co-hosted a popular boxing podcast.

In 2017 Dettloff was named the editor-in-chief of Ringside Seat magazine. In 2023 the magazine was reviewed by The London Times, who called it “a thoughtful boxing magazine for the discriminating fight fan.” Two years later Dettloff was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame.

Dettloff has been married to the former Kim Minetta since 1990 and has three adult children: Kayla, Angelina, and Billy. They all live in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.