x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Boxing Life Stories

Welcome to Boxing Conversations with Tris Dixon, a series of interviews that takes you behind the scenes in the world of boxing. Including the hugely-popular Boxing Life Stories library, long-form interviews with some of boxing"s biggest hitters, this podcast reveals all about the sport, the good, the bad and the ugly, and gives you unprecedented access to those who live and breathe boxing. Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written

sports

All Episodes

53:01

Season 4: #35 Tony Weeks

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/06/29

Las Vegas referee Tony Weeks has landed some of the most high profile assignments in boxing in recent years. Weeks was the third man in the ring the night Diego Corrales stunned Jose Luis Castillo in their first fight, had to set Bernard Hopkins straight against Antwun Echols and he was also the referee the night Leavander Johnson lost his lightweight title – and later his life – against Jesus Chavez. Here, Weeks talks about the big nights, the risks, the bloody shirt from the Badou Jack-Marcus

en

96:04

Season 4: #34 Joe Mesi

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/06/22

Joe Mesi retired undefeated, at 36-0, but after issues with a brain scan he found it harder and harder to get licensed until he finally called it a day. Now Joe still has a links to brains in his current profession, selling medical equipment. In boxing, he is known as the 'brain fighter' because of the injuries he sustained following his big fight with Vassily Jirov, and it was fascinating to hear about the research he did about whether it would be safe for him to box again. When the injury

en

99:25

Season 4: #33 Lou DiBella

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/06/15

Promoter Lou DiBella is one of the most outspoken men in the sport. In his former role at HBO, he worked with the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Lennox Lewis and Pernell Whitaker and as a promoter he's been with Bernard Hopkins, Micky Ward, Sergio Martinez and many others. He lost a brother to suicide, rescues animals (including a zebra!), was this week inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and here also discusses his relationship with the likes of Eddie Hearn and Al Haymon. Lou's

en

103:47

Season 4: #32 Kathy Duva

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/06/08

Promoter Kathy Duva was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020, but officially goes in this year as no induction ceremonies have taken place since the pandemic. Kathy's journey includes plenty of star names, and we talk about Arturo Gatti, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Vinny Pazienza, Andrew Golota, Sergey Kovalev, Tomasz Adamek and many more. But it's Kathy's own story that hits the hardest. She lost her husband Dan when he was just 44, brought up their three children,

en

42:10

Season 4: #31 Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/06/01

In 1982, Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney shared a historic night and wonderful 13 rounds in Las Vegas. Holmes was the experienced champion, Cooney the untested but heavy-hitting contender yet the backdrop of the fight was about race, which made it the biggest money fight in boxing history at the time. After the hostilities, however, Holmes and Cooney formed a friendship that endures to this day and they are something of a double act. The bad blood and the animosity has subsided but here they look

en

91:46

Season 4: #30 John Ryder

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/05/25

The super-middleweight 'Gorilla' talks about the highs and lows of his career that see him on the cusp of another big fight following a win over American Danny Jacobs. Ryder talks about the many battles he's faced away from the ring, working with Tony Sims, struggling to make middleweight, big fights with Billy Joe Saunders, Nick Blackwell, Jacobs, Callum Smith and others as well as his stablemates, old and new, including Anthony Joshua, Darren Barker, Ricky Burns, Conor Benn, Felix Cash and many

en

108:18

Season 4: #29 Chris Byrd

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/05/18

Former world heavyweight champion Chris Byrd won a silver at the 1992 Olympics and thought it would be his springboard to fame and fortune. It wasn't. Unable to get marquee deals or fights, he thought his best option was to balloon from middleweight to heavyweight to get his career going, so he ate anything and everything he wanted and found himself in the ring with the giants of his era, including the Klitschko brothers, David Tua, Ike Ibeabuchi, Evander Holyfield, Jameel McCline and many

en

76:03

Season 4: #28 Conor Benn

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/05/11

Conor Benn is one of the hottest properties in world boxing. The exciting welterweight contender overcame. rocky start to life in the pros to race to 21-0. But away from the highlight reel finishes and the glamorous social media profile, Benn has endured plenty of struggles. Here, the son of legend Nigel Benn (see episode 100) discusses the trials he has encountered, the problems he's had to overcome, his father's fights, family turmoil, trainer Tony Sims, struggling to get to grips with boxing,

en

91:43

Season 4: #27 Dave Harris

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/05/04

For too long, fighters have needed to have the option of high-level care available to them when they retire. Dave Harris has a dream. He's started the Ringside Charitable Trust and wants to build a retirement home for damaged fighters who have nowhere else to turn. But he's doing more than that. He's raising awareness about the troubles of life after boxing, he's started a dedicated call line for retired fighters to use to talk about the issues they face and he's trying to raise money to help

en

137:15

Season 4: #26 Frank Stallone

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/04/27

Frank Stallone has been involved with boxing his whole life. From mimicking a Jack Dempsey haircut when he was 10 to knowing and forming friends with legends of the sport, including Muhammad Ali, Dempsey himself, Jimmy McLarnin, Vinny Paz, Ike Williams and many more. Yes, his ultra-famous brother Sylvester made more headlines, but Frank has had a superb career in his own right and boxing has never been far from it. He penned music for the Rocky franchise and here shares thoughts and memories of the

en

60:34

Season 4: #25 Marc Ratner

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/04/06

Marc Ratner is the former head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission who now has a top job with the UFC. Throughout his years in Las Vegas and beyond, he witnessed some of the biggest fights of a generation and oversaw many controversies, from The Fan Man at Bowe-Holyfield to the Tyson-Holyfield Bite Fight to Zab Judah throwing stools and brilliant bouts featuring Corrales and Castillo and Barrera and Morales. Here, Ratner reflects on some of the highs and lows during his time in the Chair.

en

79:29

Season 4: #24 Gene Kilroy

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/03/30

Gene Kilroy was a friend, advisor and confidant to Muhammad Ali. He spent a huge part of his life as Ali’s business manager and is universally seen as the last surviving member of Ali’s inner circle. Here, he talks about his time with The Greatest, the incredible moments he experienced and the celebrities they encountered and he details Ali’s relationship with other heavyweight legends. He discusses Zaire, Manila, Deer Lake and much more besides in a phenomenal look back over a phenomenal

en

77:28

Season 4: #23 Kash Farooq

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/03/23

Kash Farooq was 16-1 and tipped for stardom until changes appeared on his brainscan at the end of 2021. The Scottish bantamweight prodigy had a bat fanclub in the sport, was promoted by Matchroom and shared a Fight of the Year contender with Lee McGregor. There was then due to be a big fight on a Devin Haney bill in Las Vegas, a return with McGregor and then possibly a world title fight but all of those plans were sadly derailed. Here, Farooq talks about his decision to retire, what was behind

en

113:45

Season 4: #22 Anthony Leaver

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/03/16

For almost 15 years, Anthony Leaver has been part of the Matchroom boxing media team. He joined the promotional group to work across poker and golf, but soon found himself working on boxing, on Prizefighters and with the likes of Audley Harrison, James DeGale, Carl Froch, Tony Bellew and many others. But when Matchroom opened their New York office, he was on his way to head up their media operations and he's subsequently handled media relationships for Canelo, Roman Gonzalez, Demetrius Andrade,

en

90:42

Season 4: #21 Kevin Lueshing

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/03/09

Kevin Lueshing is a former British welterweight champion who famously dropped a 30-0 Felix Trinidad before losing a punch out in Nashville. Lueshing was an exciting fighter, as seen in his seven-knockdown fight of the year for the British crown against Chris Saunders, but he also boxed the likes of Kirkland Laing and Harry Simon. Away from the ring, Lueshing was tormented by his father, who was beyond violent with him, suffered abuse as a small boy, became a model, was a huge puncher and he later

en

143:01

Season 4: #20 Kevin Mitchell

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/03/02

For more than 30 years, Kevin Mitchell covered boxing for The Guardian and The Observer. The award-winning author and journalist was ringside at the biggest fights and interviewed the biggest names and was unafraid of crossing swords with some of the most famous and litigious figures in the sport. Kevin also helped a young and naïve Tris Dixon take his first few steps in the world of boxing journalism. More importantly, he wrote the excellent books War, Baby: The Glamour of Violence about the

en

108:10

Season 4: #19 Al Bernstein

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/02/23

International Boxing Hall of Famer Al Bernstein has been involved with boxing for half a century. For many, he's the voice of the sport having covered some of the most iconic fights of all time. He's also appeared in multiple boxing movies, has his own podcast – Al Bernstein Unplugged – has written for major boxing publications and he's written a book 30 Years, 30 Undeniable Truths About Boxing, Sports, and TV. But it's for his work on ESPN, Showtime and Channel 5 over the last several decades and

en

84:47

Season 4: #18 Jackie Kallen

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/02/16

Jackie Kallen has been involved with boxing for almost 50 years. She cut her teeth as an entertainment journalist interviewing the likes of Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones and the Beatles and then found herself in the basement of a Detroit Rec Center covering boxing. She became a publicist for the famous Kronk Gym, working closely with Tommy Hearns through his glory years and beyond, and wound up managing James Toney and a successful stable of fighters in subsequent years. Now, a motivational

en

110:05

Season 4: #17 Murad Muhammad

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/02/09

Enigmatic promoter Murad Muhammad has worked with the likes of Muhammad Ali, prisoner James Scott, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Roy Jones and Manny Pacquiao. As well as being around some of the biggest names in the sport, he's had personal friendships with some of the major players in TV, including Disney CEO Bob Iger, and he recounts some of the relationships and deals he's been involved with and been a part of over the years. Muhammad, who resides in New Jersey, has stories

en

76:39

Season 4: #16 Barry Hunter

Boxing Life Stories ·

2022/02/02

Barry Hunter has become one of the go-to trainers in the USA. After his noteworthy work with the Peterson brothers, who he trained from their childhoods until their career twilights, he's worked with a who's who of top-tier talent including Adrien Broner, Tony Thompson, Raushee Warren and Isaac Dogboe. As part of the US amateur set-up, he's also worked with Shakur Stevenson, Ricardo Williams, Errol Spence and countless others. Here, he talks about PEDs in the sport, playing the drums, the

en

337 results

Similar Podcasts

Keeping Karlsson Fantasy Hockey Podcast

Elan Dubrofsky and Brian Kom

Daily Fantasy Sports by Ship It Nation

Ship It Nation

Fantasy Football Today

CBS Sports, Fantasy Football, FFT, NFL,...

Bring The Pain

Heat00veride

ESPN SportsCenter Update

ESPN