When Diego Pacheco’s parents left Mexico for America, they did so in pursuit of a better life for their family.

They struggled, sacrificed and worked tirelessly to give their son opportunities they never had. Now, at 25, Pacheco is on the brink of becoming a world champion, and he knows exactly who he wants to repay.

The unbeaten super-middleweight has come a long way from the streets of South Central LA. But he hasn’t forgotten where he came from, or what it took to get here.

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Now 26-0 (19 KOs), he is the headline act at the War Grounds in Carson on Saturday night. He tops the Matchroom bill while sitting in a strong position in the world rankings: No. 2 with the WBO, No. 3 with the WBC, No. 5 with the WBA and No. 13 with the IBF. But he’s achieved a lot to make it this far. Plenty of his friends from his old neighbourhood have not made it.

“I was born and raised in South Central LA, and my first six years in this world, I lived in some apartments where it was horrible, man,” Pacheco tells me. “Like, I remember we had close family friends who lived there as well. And they were gangbangers. I remember a few times looking out my window and seeing guys shot, coming running into the apartment complex, bleeding out because they just got shot around the corner… people getting killed, murder scenes, all types of things that I saw in those apartment buildings that really, really honestly, made me realise what I was around. And I remember as a kid, I always wanted to be outside playing with the neighbourhood kids. And my mom [Maria], she was like, ‘No, I don’t want you out there.’ But then my mom would go to work and I had to go out there on my own.”

Diego was a big kid. By 13, he was 6ft tall, which meant he wound up in altercations with older teenagers, but soon enough he started hanging out with them.

“I didn’t want to back down, no matter how much older they were than me or bigger, whatever, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to back down and I was going to fight,” Pacheco added.

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“And that’s where the fighter mentality came from for me, I would say. And transferring it to the boxing gym was something that was very easy for me. I remember as a young kid, everyone would tell my dad [Federico] that I was very gifted. You don’t see Mexican kids this tall who can move, who can fight, who have good rhythm, who have good athleticism.”

With that, Pacheco’s father tried to explain to his boy that he was different, while teaching him to remain humble and work hard to get the best out of his physical attributes. Now Diego tries to give back, but knows all too well the risks posed by the streets.

“I have friends that to this day, they call me from prison, and it’s just things that are unfortunate,” Pacheco said. “And there’s some friends that I wish were still here, and it’s just, it’s life, man. And we can’t sit there and just feel bad, we have to keep going.

“I lost my brother two years ago [Manuel was born with a rare genetic condition that ultimately claimed his life] and that’s something that hurt me a lot. And it’s something that’s crazy because it helped me get even closer with my wife [Jo]. When I went through that, she was there for me. And then a couple of months later, her grandma passed away and I was there for her. There’s just things that happen in life that just bring us closer together to the people we love.”

**

As far up the ladder as Diego has climbed, he contends the altitude is no different. Fighting is in his blood, so regardless of the platform, the venue, the opponent or the stakes, he feels the same way.

“This is boxing. People ask me all the time, like, ‘How do you feel going into this fight?’ Things like that. And I just say, ‘Man, I’ve been doing this my whole life. I remember as a kid, being 12 years old, getting ready to go to national tournaments and knowing I was going to face the best, knowing I was going to go up against the toughest guys in the whole country.

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“And I think my confidence always came from my dad. I remember as a kid, me being so tall at a young age, a lot of people in the gyms would think my dad would lie about my age.

“And I’ve always had a mature personality. All the kids my age, I wasn’t doing what they were doing. My dad always tried to keep me focused, tried to teach me the bigger picture of life. And I’ve always been the same way.”

It is Pacheco’s desire to make his father proud that has helped keep him on course.

“It all came from the way I was raised,” he said.

Despite coming from what he calls “a low-income home”, where his parents struggled to pay rent, seeing them discriminated against and fighting to give him a better life proved to be the inspiration for him to stay on the right path, and also to contribute to building a better life for the family.

When it came to boxing, his father gave him the self-belief and motivation he needed to fight older kids, bigger foes and more experienced opponents.

“I’ve been a winner since I was a kid. I remember the first national tournament, my dad had to raise funds for me to be able to get to the tournament,” Diego stated. “Because these things are expensive. And I remember him telling me like, ‘Okay, I’m about to go in debt for this. But you got to go over there and you got to win. Like, you never have to come back a loser.’

“I was like, ‘Oh shit, my dad didn’t just sacrifice all this money, he didn’t just go into debt for me to go over there and lose.’

“Our first day, I draw the guy who won the previous year, the national champion. So I’m like, ‘Oh shit, okay. I get through him, I’m good.’

“I went to work, I beat him. And then I became a national champion. That’s where it came from. My dad getting me to believe in myself.”

That belief comes through in Pacheco’s work today. He’s easy to talk to. As we converse over Zoom, there is no apparent time limit, nothing he won’t discuss, and he’s talkative. Too few make it this easy, but he has a story to tell and he wants people to know how much gratitude he feels he owes his parents.

As positive as his story might be, Pacheco has been something of a lightning rod for negativity online. There have been opportunities to fight Hamzah Sheeraz and Christian Mbilli, but Pacheco has walked a path that’s attracted derision in some quarters.

Asked how he thinks the fans feel about him, he pauses to consider a response.

“Ah, man, it’s hard, honestly,” he replied, half-smiling. “That’s a really hard question. I feel like a lot of boxing fans, a lot of boxing fans, I feel want to see me lose. I feel like they… I don’t know, man. I just feel like a lot of people think that I had it real sweet, that I had a great upbringing, that they’re like, ‘Yeah, you have two lovely parents. They raised you well.’ Some even say I went to private school, which is not true. But I don’t know why I come off as that. I guess because I just try to be a good guy to everyone. But growing up, I had to do a lot of things on my own. I had my parents who were there, but they had to work a lot.

“They lived cheque to cheque trying to make ends meet. Sometimes it was hard for them to be there for us… And I feel like boxing fans see me as a good fighter who was young, who hasn’t proved himself yet because I haven’t faced the top guys. But I’m on my way there. Come November 14th, at this level now, I feel every fight is dangerous, and Darius is a great fighter. That’s why he’s in there with me.”

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The goal, of course, extends far beyond 15-1-1 (13 KOs) Texan Darius Fulghum this weekend.

It is world titles, but Pacheco knows the sport intricately and there have been reasons behind his patience in reaching the top. There are reasons why he has not rushed things and why bouts against Mbilli and Sheeraz have not been the right ones at the right times.

“I feel like a couple of years ago, I did have some things that I wanted to prove to myself,” he said, referring to his desire to become a better fighter before reaching the top.

That included changing up the team, through both addition and subtraction.

“But now that’s all cleared up. I know what I can do. Just having a great trainer in your corner can change everything, and when you have someone who has been there before and he knows what he’s talking about, it’s just amazing. The things Buddy McGirt has been teaching me in the gym, and it goes beyond just the boxing stuff, the mental stuff, knowing how to handle certain situations and the way you react to certain things. I know I’m ready now. That’s all I’ll say.”

Diego Pacheco says Hall of Fame fighter and trainer Buddy McGirt was the missing link. After Fulghum, Pacheco wants the biggest fights possible. Those are his words. And he doesn’t mind admitting he needed “a lot” from Buddy, whether it was mentally, physically or tactically.

With Diego’s brother having passed away two years ago, there have been scars. Then, while living and training in Seattle – where he spent the best part of five years before moving back to LA – he was working with David Benavidez. But “The Monster” was often in Florida, and that meant former head coach Benavidez Snr was spending a lot of time in Miami, too.

Pacheco knew things would not work out like that. He grew frustrated, wasn’t happy, and felt he needed to return to Los Angeles to be closer to his parents, who were growing older.

“I had to build my team from scratch, because another thing being over there in Seattle, it’s like I was Team Benavidez, I wasn’t Team Pacheco,” he explained. “Every time people talked about me, every time I was brought up, it was Team Benavidez, Team Benavidez. So it was time for me to become my own man and really make my own team.”

But there was no rush, internally at least. The fans might not have known, but with Pacheco’s head all over the place, he wanted to know he was ready for an acid test, and that wouldn’t have been the case as long as he felt so unsettled.

He also knew there were things missing from his skill set, which is not a good thing to have in your mind going into world title fights.

“I’ve never had a trainer like Buddy McGirt, man,” he added. “I feel like in these six months that I’ve been with him, I’ve learned more with him than I’ve had my whole 15 years boxing with every boxing coach I’ve ever had. So in the back of my mind, like, and you hear the media, you see all these things, and I remember a couple of fights, I’d be confused and just like, I’d be dominating so good, winning every round. And then my coach would want me to go in there and knock him [the opponent] out. And it’s like, ‘I don’t know.’

“It was just something that was confusing me. It was a lot of things that I know I needed to change. And now I did. I have a new management team. I have a new training team. And now we’re here. I feel like sky’s the limit here.”

Fans are quick to use hard and heavy words in the fight game. Duck, quitter et al are part of a keyboard warrior’s go-to word sets. While Pacheco might be better served talking all things Fulghum, I ask him to explain why he did not fight Sheeraz or Mbilli. He says people will refuse to understand why they were not the right steps for him.

“I know that people just don’t understand that, people aren’t in the boxing business,” Pacheco said. “They’re looking from the outside, looking in, like they don’t know what’s really going on behind closed doors, man. And I’ll be honest, I’ve had to go through a lot of things where I’ve learned, when it comes to contracts, when it comes to negotiating, when it comes to building fights, there’s a lot of things that I’ve learned that I didn’t even know a couple of years ago and it’s all about having a good management team. I feel like that’s everything. The team that I have now, they want the best for me. They’re getting me everything that they possibly could. And I feel like my management before that was like the complete opposite, bro. Like they didn’t want me to get more money. They wanted me to actually take less and keep building to stay hungry, which was like, to me, ‘Bro, I got a family to feed. I got people that depend on me. Like you want me to take these harder fights and take less money. It doesn’t make any sense.’”

Pacheco said he was being smart and looking out for himself.

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When it came to Mbilli, Pacheco would have been the B-side and gone to Canada, aged 23 and with the odds against him. His wife was pregnant with their daughter.

“I don’t mind going to Canada. Let’s do it. I don’t mind being a B-side, but just make sure I’m taken care of,” he said. “I’m not here to just say yes to everything.”

Mbilli went on to win the WBC title but lost it last month to Canelo in Saudi Arabia.

Pacheco hopes a win over Fulghum will lead to a Hamzah Sheeraz- or Lester Martinez-type fight in May, with Canelo or Jaime Munguia in September.

“That would do me. I think those two guys are the biggest names in boxing and will make the biggest fight,” he said. “So yeah, those are the guys I would want to fight.”

“I would love to get in there with Canelo. He’s a great fighter. I actually got to spar with him when I was 18 years old and it was great work. I know I gave him great work. And now that I’m 25, I know it’ll be a lot different. So, God willing, one day he gives me the opportunity, then we go to work and come for the win for sure.”

Now, Pacheco says he is the captain of his own ship and making the final calls on every move. He didn’t feel that was always the case.

And he’s in a position to reap the rewards of his parents’ choices, and to pay it back to them so they can see his future glory and benefit from it. He has also made his own tough choices, as his parents had to when they left Mexico all those years ago.

“This is honestly the dream, man. Like, and to just fuck it up because I have to say yes to someone?” Pacheco asked.

“Like, no. Who’s going to take care of my daughter? Who’s going to make sure my parents are good now that they’re older? Nobody. So it’s all up to me. And I have to make sure I play my cards right. I have to make sure I’m smart about every decision I make, even outside of boxing. This is something I deal with every day… I just try to be smart every day. Everything I do, I try to calculate it perfectly and make sure that everything falls into place.”

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Suffice to say, I’m shattered. And there’s still the gala dinner to go to.

The good news is, I’ve bagged a 20-minute interview with Mauricio Sulaiman and we covered a lot of ground.

The other bit of good news is I interviewed Julio Cesar Chavez. The bad news? It was Julio Cesar Chavez Junior.

That’s actually very unkind. Junior was great.

(Chavez Jnr in the interview before mine. I don’t think he was asked about cartels, drugs and sobriety in this one)

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Hey guys, welcome back to Total Boxing. This is the Tris Dixon Daily and it’s take two because I recorded this and it just disappeared. Anyway, I just wanted to talk a little bit about last night’s fights and a bit about the week ahead. Chris Billum-Smith was obviously stopped by Shev Clark. Chris, who I do know well,

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I don’t know if it was too soon after the Riziki fight or if he’s just had too many hard fights, but he couldn’t really get out of the way of that Shev Clark right hand and paid the price. And Shev Clark buzzed him in the seventh round. I think buzz was Chris’s word afterwards.

And he never really fully recovered, even though Shev Clark missed with a lot of the follow-up shots, you couldn’t really argue with the stoppage. Obviously with my background with damage and everything else, I’d be inclined to say, The stoppage was fine, but I could see why Chris was disappointed at the end

and obviously probably subsequently heartbroken today with the defeat. He’s been on a hell of a tear, really, with the side to the loss to Zerdo Ramirez and, you know, people call him an overachiever and everything else. But whatever he is, he’s had a fantastic career and done extraordinarily well. I’ve got nothing but respect for what he’s done.

And you could take the same thing to Shev Clark, who’s probably been written off by just about all and sundry over the last two, three years. And look what he’s done. I think I remember my son was working for Boxer at a Eubank Ben show in Wembley.

And it was probably the night where maybe Bill and Smith fought Brandon Glanton and Shev Clark. Lost, I think to Vidal Riley and you imagine Bill and Smith was on to bigger things and Shev Clark maybe thought it was the end of the line and now look how the roles are reversed.

I mean, that’s boxing, doing boxing things. Interesting. I mean, I, I’ve just recorded a video with Tundi Ajayi and you can go onto the Total Boxing YouTube channel. I’ll drop a link in the notes shortly. And, um, It’s interesting how boxing works. And one thing I said is, you know,

I could see Chris Billum-Smith coming back against Jack Massey to renew the amateur rivalry in Shev Clark fighting Ryan Riziki in a doubleheader. But whether or not that happens, I don’t know. There’s a sort of zoo for planning that I could see. But we’ll see. Also on that, Bill Denzel-Bentley.

Defeated Shane Mosley Jr. A good fight, fight of the night award from the Zufa show. And Denzil dropped Mosley early in the first couple of rounds and then managed to see out a decision which was close on the cards. It was always going to be close.

Mosley’s a good fighter and he’s been on a good run of form, especially when you factor in the Boachuk win, which was probably a huge shock at the time, I would imagine. But onwards and upwards for Denzel, who’s talked about fighting Carlos Adames and Aaron McKenna, both world champions who are now under the Zufa banner.

And there was a bit of back and forth with Connor Ben there last night and Ben saying that he would welcome a fight with Bentley. So we’ll see how that works out. I’m sure Ben would prefer a money spinner against Manny Pacquiao in Q1 as Zufa are calling it, but we’ll see how that shakes out.

Up in Manchester, and this is mostly what Tundi and I talked about, obviously, Joshua Boazzi and Willie Hutchinson fought for the WBC £175 title. And Willie Hutchinson became only the third fighter from the UK to win that belt, following on from John Conte in the 1970s, Dennis Andrees in the 1980s. And they fought some biblical fights.

Obviously, Conte won the title against Jorge Armuda and fought the likes of Matthew Saar Mohammed. And then Dennis Andrees had that great rivalry with Australian Jeff Harding. And now Willie Hutchinson is up there and he can call the shots. Anthony Yard got into the ring afterwards and they spoke about possibly fighting next.

But obviously, Anthony Yard has also been mentioned by Ben Whittaker and his team. And I saw Frank Warren on a huddle. Interview last week where he was saying that he thought that the winner of Boatsy Hutchinson could go into a fight with Ben Whittaker. So we’ll see how that goes. That will be of interest to me.

I think on Tuesday when I’m at the ratings meeting at the WBC convention in Acapulco, when they start to talk about 175 pound division, because Willie Hutchinson is now the world champion. And Ben Whittaker is the WBC Silver Champion. So it’ll be interesting to see how they talk about who fights whom next.

And just before I leave you, and the first version of this was a little bit longer, it’s fair to say, but I’ve been sent some interview times for this week. And unfortunately, my times for Roberto Duran were in about an hour from now, and I’m leaving the house in about an hour and a half from now.

Maurizio Suleman, William Zepeda and Pitbull Cruz are lined up for the morning before I even arrive. But then on Monday afternoon, I’m due to speak to Julio Cesar Chavez, Tuesday, Katie Taylor, Wednesday, Oshaki Foster, and a few more in between. I’m also hoping to get Robert Garcia and Lester Martinez, but we’ll see how it goes.

It’s obviously a bit of a crapshoot, but Hopefully the ones that I miss today and early tomorrow can be rescheduled. We’ll push them back. If you have any questions for the brilliant Julio Cesar Chavez, let me know in the comments because I will put some great questions to Julio Cesar Chavez, which I’m looking forward to doing

because I’ve never done anything proper with him before. If you’ve seen my top 20 countdown memorable moments, you’ll see that I have done stuff with Duran, but I’m excited to do more. And I will speak to you on the other side from Mexico.

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There is a chance that the former fighter-turned-promoter Dmitry Salita doesn’t like what he hears during his next show tonight.

Because a familiar voice will be providing the soundtrack, and it won’t matter if Salita’s prospects win or lose, what Teddy Atlas thinks about them – returning to the live mic for the first time since parting company with ESPN – is what he will say about them.

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Teddy Atlas: The last witness

Saying it like it is has been Atlas’s modus operandi as both a coach and an analyst.

It’s got him in hot water at times, but he’s always been able to take the heat.

He does, of course, have his own podcast and YouTube channel, The Fight with Teddy Atlas, where he breaks down present-day contests in boxing and MMA.

And when we spoke recently, he and his son were looking for premises in Brooklyn to open a boxing gym.

“We think we saw one that is right off the Tijuana Highway, the BQE [Brooklyn-Queens Expressway]. And it’s got a lot of cars that see it every day. And there’s a lot of good stores in the building,” Teddy said.

But he makes his return to the broadcast booth on Saturday, ready to do what he always does.

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The truth has two sides, but Atlas only likes one

“See, the way I looked at it was the truth,” Atlas says of his job calling the action. “The truth has two sides to it. But I like the one side to it.

“It’s the truth. And at the end of the day, you can play with it all you want. But at the end of the day, people aren’t stupid. And the thing that kept Friday Night Fights [on ESPN] going for 18 years straight – and I was the only original one that was still there at the end – was that I’d go on the air and if it was a crappy show, I said, ‘This is gonna be a crappy show.’ And the people would come back because they said, ‘Well, yeah, I don’t like a crappy show, but at least Teddy told me it’s a crappy show. You know what? I’m gonna stay with him. And if he tells me it’s a good show, I’m gonna call my friends and say, hey, this is gonna be a good show. Because Teddy actually validated it.’

“So there’s worth. I remember the executives at that time, I had so much power at ESPN it was ridiculous. And I never used it, but I had it. Well, I did use it. I saved a few people’s jobs, but I used it in that way which I thought was a blessing.”

What wasn’t a blessing was Atlas’s exit, even though many an executive had told him that he gave “validation to our brand”.

They didn’t see his criticism as biting the hand that fed him. They felt it came from a place of honesty and experience. They paid for the authenticity. And now, of course, boxing is all Teddy has ever really known.

“I’m a lifer. I painted one house. That’s all I ever did other than boxing my whole life,” he added.

“I painted it really well. There’s a lot of shit to it [boxing]. But the special thing is two men getting in the ring. That’s honest. That’s honest. And I always felt like I had an obligation to that, to just tell it the way it was. I had an obligation to the guys that bleed in the ring and to guys that were really dedicated to the sport and for what it’s supposed to be, that I had an obligation to always shoot it the right way, you know? And not be compromised.”

A voice for those who couldn't speak for themselves

“I always felt like when I signed a contract, a new contract, whatever, I said, what comes with this that’s not in the contract that to me is worth more than the money is that it gives me a platform, an opportunity to try to make the sport a little better. I’m no angel. I’m far from it. But if you can do that, if you can be blessed where you could also, besides making a living, you can make the sport a little better, you could protect the guys that really need protection, the fighters. If you could do that, then that’s a gift. That’s really, truly icing on the cake, and even more so. So I always looked at it that way. And most people I work with, I’ll be honest, when I would see something that was controversial, they would hide under the table. I mean, almost literally.

“People used to laugh. They said, ‘Your partner was like moving himself away from you.’

“I said, ‘Yeah, I know.’

‘I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with that guy.’

“And they laughed.

“They say, ‘Oh no, you wouldn’t.’

“’But we’d like to be in a foxhole with you.’

“I said, ‘I don’t want to be in a foxhole. But if I am, I know how to behave. I know what I’m not going to do.’

“And they would distance themselves safely.”

There would appear to be only a slender place in the market for Teddy’s kind of truth in 2026, but thankfully Salita has opened the door. For Atlas, though, there are other battles that have shaped him, and some of them have little to do with what happens inside a boxing ring.

“The fighters would come up to me years later and say, thank you. Thank you, you were the only one who said I got robbed. You were the only one who went into a freaking rant that probably got you in trouble,” Atlas continued.

“And some of them did get me in trouble. But it was temporary. It was worth it.”

Even the professionals came to Teddy for advice

It is Atlas’s ability not just to analyse what is going on in the ring, but also what is going on in the minds of the fighters, that has so often set him apart. And while it was well documented that Mike Tyson was not the finished article when Cus D’Amato died, one wonders whether Atlas was the finished product when he was banished from Catskill all those years ago.

Has Teddy had counselling since?

“Say that again?” he says, when I ask the question.

“Have you ever had counselling?”

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ICYMI This week

Joshua Buatsi interview

Willy Hutchinson interview

Jack Rafferty interview

Ste Clarke interview

Billy Deniz interview

Alex Arthur Jnr interview

The transcript… Unedited

Hello. Good morning. It’s me. I hope you guys are doing well and I hope you guys are enjoying these short bulletins. Guys, it’s been an interesting 48 hours. I feel like I’m going to be saying stuff like this every time because it doesn’t really stop. There’s a constant flow of work and things that need to be done.

Sadly, in the end of it, yesterday, I didn’t get to get George Groves. I think we will try for tomorrow. If I don’t get George tomorrow for Total Boxing’s YouTube channel, I think I’m going to go for Tundi Ajayi, who I was messaging yesterday, who obviously is Anthony Yard’s coach.

And he is going to be ringside tonight at the fight between Joshua Boatze and Willie Hutchinson, which I’ll get onto in a bit. I’m actually not going to any fights tonight. Not even because I can justify it and say I’m going to Mexico tomorrow, but I just don’t feel that either

of these fights or shows justify the outlay in terms of me being on the ground. Obviously, I might be wrong and I’m referring to the Zufa boxing show as well, but it’s been an interesting week. You guys can see, obviously, with the work I’ve put out with Jack Rafferty, Alex Arthur, Stee Clark, Boatze, Willie Hutchinson,

I’ve obviously done a lot for that Manchester show, but I actually think the show in London is equally good or certainly very strong. And by the way, just about Groves, I think obviously, hopefully we’ll get something tomorrow. His cruiserweight, Lucas Roerig is on that bill, the Zufa bill.

And also one of the reasons why I think I didn’t get George yesterday and I hadn’t realized, but he’s part of the Sky team that’s covering the show tonight. So he’s a busy guy with obviously Lucas on the bill and then working the bill separately.

And just interestingly, um, I swapped a couple of messages with Teddy Atlas yesterday. Teddy is back in the commentary booth for the Solita show on DAZN tonight. So I said, sent him good wishes. I’m aiming to finish up a feature with Teddy today, hopefully ahead of his return to the broadcast booth.

Um, and then I actually had a missed call from Lou de Bella. Um, uh, we played phone tag a couple of times, but I kept missing him. So I need to speak to Lou. Um, Lou, if you haven’t seen, by the way, obviously I know I’ve written an interview on Total Boxing,

but if you go over to the YouTube channel, you can see an interview that’s done really well. It’s like 15,000 views deep for a new channel. And people have been very complimentary to both Lou and myself about the piece. I’m wondering if Lou was phony about the death

of former USA Today writer John Saraceno, who was A top, top, top writer, really good sports writer, excellent boxing writer. And my paths only crossed with John a little bit when we overlapped really at the start of my Time at Boxing News on the staff because USA Today was owned

by Gannett, which owned News Quest, which owned Boxing News. And so John and I banged our heads together a couple of times to see how we could work together and create some kind of content synergy, particularly over Muhammad Ali’s passing, we were sort of talking about what might happen

when Ali passed and how we might prepare for that. But John was always a gent to me and people knew him far better than me. And everyone raves about the type of man that he was. Also, I filed my Hall of Fame ballots. It’s quite interesting.

I think there’s some people on the ballots, by the way, now that just, I can’t believe they’re not in. Brendan Ingle, it just blows my mind. There’s still not one UK trainer. In the Hall of Fame. It’s staggering to me. And I got Brendan onto the ballot and it shouldn’t have to take

that for Brendan Ingle to be on the ballot. A couple of my votes are Israel Vasquez, Wilfredo Vasquez, Mikel Kessler, Darius Mikulczewski. I think they’re all deserving to go in. There’s a couple more that I’ve ticked off as well. There’s some people on that ballot. I just don’t even see why they’re on the ballot.

Sven Oka, I know he was unbeaten, but he had so many hometown decisions. Arthur Abraham, not just that he’s... He benefited from some hometown cities. I just don’t think he’s Hall of Fame worthy. Sergio Martinez is on there. He possibly is. Obviously, that Paul Williams knockout, a huge body of work, including some early fights over here.

Rocky Lockridge, Kelly Pavlik, they’re on it. Sean Porter’s on it. Mikey Garcia’s on it. Mikey Garcia, for me, was a first ballot Hall of Famer if he hadn’t done all the stuff he had jumping up and down and waiting, taking weird fights. Chris Eubanks on the ballot, Steve Collins on the ballot.

And by the way, There is, I’ve alluded to this, but I am looking to do some long form sit downs, boxing life story style stuff on Total Boxing’s YouTube channel. And Steve Collins will be one of my first sit downs. He actually lives near me now.

This is surreal. Steve Collins was up there as my main idol when I was a kid. He now lives two or three miles from me. We’ve been for... Two coffees in our local pubs and it’s wild to me. It’s beyond strange, but it’s brilliant as well. It’s brilliant.

And Steve is really good company and it’s great that he’s out here because no one else lives around here boxing wise. By the way, just a couple of other ticks in boxes for these Hall of Fame ballots. Steve Bunce is on there of Tick Buncey. I think his lifetime in boxing is worthy.

How Bob Canobio, the founder of CompuBox, isn’t in yet, I’ll never know. Same for John Shepherd, who is the founder and owner of BoxRec. Glyn Leach, the longtime Boxing Monthly editor. And Tom Cushman, the Philly boxing journalist, those all got my ticks. There’s a few other contenders and runners and riders in there,

but those were the ones that really stood out to me. And then in the old timers, I’ll only share two, and it’s pretty two obvious ones. Not everyone votes for this. I think you’ve got to be a certain type of boxing buffing to get this paper.

But two of my obvious choices have been Marvin Johnson and Eddie Mustafa Mohammed, two light heavyweight Excellent stars. And you can’t have a Hall of Fame with Matthew Saad Mohammed in, Victor Galindez in, and a couple of others from that generation and not have Eddie Mustafa and Marvin Johnson in. You just can’t do it.

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Marvin was a three-time champ. Eddie, one of the best of his era, obviously had a win over Matthew Saad Mohammed in his career and a win over Marvin Johnson for that matter. I don’t see how you can not have those guys in if you have the others in as well. They made that generation extra special.

Anyway, so on to tonight, Chris Billum-Smith fights Shev Clark. This was a fight that I sort of speculated about, but I soon knew, once it was in my mind, I soon knew it was nailed on. And I messaged the guys at Zufa and I said, is this a fight? And they said, nothing signed yet. But...

I did write it in Total Boxing. You can go back ahead of time. And it was one where I said it was going to come like the Ryan Garner, Jazza Dickens fight, which I also broke ahead of time in a note section of my column.

So keep an eye on those columns and the note sections, because I am breaking stories in there. I’m doing it subtly because I’m not into the clickbait stuff, but this was one I broke ahead of time. And it was just when I started to think logically, who’s out there for Chris Billum-Smith?

And I thought, well, they just fought on the same card. A news guy wanted Jack Massey to get to the Chris Billum-Smith fight. And obviously with Massey being upset by Shev Clark and Billum-Smith and Shev Clark fighting on the same bill, then that It sounds logical, but I don’t think that’s what they were looking at.

Obviously there’s an amateur rivalry there now. I left the Chris Billum-Smith fight with Ryan Rezicki in Bournemouth earlier this year thinking I did not want to see Chris Billum-Smith box again. I’ve been at so many of his fights where he’s had hard fights and I know

that he’s not a man who wants five Bentleys on the driveways, Porsches, Lamborghinis. He has modest means and he doesn’t want the earth. He just wants to be comfortable and sat with his family. At Cruiserweight, there’s not many fights that can do that. And I kind of felt, unless he fights a Benavidez for a seven-figure purse,

I don’t see the point in continuing. Maybe this is me overreacting. I just didn’t want to... He’s taken a lot of shots. But... Shev Clark has not dazzled as a pro. He’s found the going quite tough. And this is a really interesting fight.

And I will go so far as to say in my head, it’s a 50-50 fight, but actually I could see why people would make Bill and Smith a slender favorite, but I would actually think about making Clark the slender favorite. However, It’s a very hard one to pick because when it was first made, I thought,

you know what, Shev might have that. But then when I think of Billum Smith and how disciplined he is, how he works, I’ve looked at the weigh-in and the press conference stuff this week as well. And I look at how measured and experienced he now is on these big stages.

I actually think Chris is going to do it. And I think he might get a stoppage late, but He might have to climb off the deck. Could be an interesting, thrilling fight. I’m going to have two screens open while I’m at home today. This is how I’m going to work, cover the fights or watch the fights.

I might not cover them, but watch the fights. And obviously elsewhere on this build, by the way, Denzel Bentley. And if you guys haven’t seen my Built Different show, we’re about to take a Um, a season break from it. We’ve just had six episodes out. Denzel Bentley is on it in the current one.

So you go to the, go to the built different YouTube channel and it’s me training with Denzel Bentley. We trained for two and a half hours and it was rank and you can see me pulling up in it. I actually got spasms in my abs during the workout

and you could see these lumps coming out of my abs. Um, But yeah, that was interesting. But Bentley is in great shape, fit as a fiddle. He was obviously the middleweight champion of the world when we filmed it. He’s no longer the middleweight champion of the world with the WBO.

And I think, well, he’s going to have his hands full with Shane Mosley Jr. Shane Mosley has that great win over Serhai Boachuk. And it’s a real, I don’t want to say live underdog, again, 50-50 fight. It’s a cracking fight. Denzel is one of the nicest guys in boxing.

If you haven’t read the Don McCray piece with Denzel from earlier in the week, I’d implore you to go back and read that as well. Really good about getting to the crux of the Denzel Bentley story. Couldn’t recommend it highly enough, but I’m going to edge towards Shane Mosley for that one. I am in a minor upset.

And then over in Manchester, I suppose, at the top of the bill, Joshua Boazzi, Willie Hutchinson. It’s so interesting because when we had that fight before, we didn’t need to see it again. Boazzi won in decent fashion and that was it. We all move on. But we got the rematch.

When the rematch was made, you kind of thought, well, why are we getting this again? But then they’ve been able to add the WBC World Light Heavyweight title to it. It’s changed everything. And I think the more you look at it, you see Joshua has run a form since.

He’s gone life and death in that hell of a fight with Callum Smith. He seemed to come out of the Zack Parker fight with a decision win that people didn’t think he merited. Willie Hutchinson has blasted out Mark Jeffers and beat Ezra Taylor. So they’re in very different form and everything’s changed from their fight in 2024.

To the point now where obviously people are now calling this a 50-50 fight and people are saying that they can make the case for Willie to win. And you can, you really can. And, you know, I know people who’ve been very strong about Willie Hutchinson’s talent all the way through.

But then you also look at Joshua Boazzi winning a medal at the Rio Olympics. And it’s not like he’s cannon fodder, is it? He’s only lost that one fight to Callum Smith. And the title is on the line. Like, it’s a fascinating fight. Really, really good.

And based on not much in particular, apart from maybe the first fight, I’m coming down on the side of Boazzi. But it’s not a certain pick by any stretch. And I don’t think he stops Willi. And Willi could outwork him. But I’m going to go for Boazzi. But it’s tough, very tough.

Obviously, I’m not trying to cover myself. It’s just a cracking match. So you could see how it would go the other way. I know Lee Eaton, by the way, thinks that the fight between Jack Rafferty and Havana’s Marta Ostian could steal the show. I’ve also heard people talk about Zach Miller and Gulley Power being

the possible fight of the night on that Manchester bill. I’ve also written a piece on Billy Dennis, by the way, along with Alex Arthur Jr. and Steve Clarke. And by the way, I was offered interviews with Brad Ray and Ezra Taylor, but they were on the days when I actually went off and did the high rocks

with my son. So I couldn’t do them. But Brad Ray’s a great character. He’s obviously best mates with Connor Walker, which is a great little boxing friendship. So yeah, some really good fights tonight. And I can’t speak with any certainty, but if I was putting on a betting triple, which I would never do, I would go to,

say, Bill and Smith late stoppage. Shane Mosley points. Boatsy points. But there’s as much chance of me going 0 for 3 as there is 3 and 0. But yeah, there we go, guys. By the way, the WBC convention, I went there... I’m going there expecting to get some of those big names I mentioned,

Chavez and Duran, some of the Hispanic greats. I’ve subsequently seen that also Lester Martinez, the hot super middleweight contender, is going to be going out there. Robert Garcia, the trainer, is going to go out there. So everything that I write from that will be paywalled and put behind the paywall here on Substack.

So guys, I hope you are looking forward to that content. I’m certainly looking to fill my boots out there in... I’ll be back tomorrow after a night of huge fights, wherever you are. I hope you enjoy them. Let me know in the comments below how you think the fights tonight will go.

Be interested to know your thoughts and reasons as well. And yeah, have a great weekend, guys. And if you aren’t subscribed to this podcast, hit subscribe. And if you are enjoying everything and you’re a free subscriber, just click on that paid subscription one. Pay £8 a month and just have a look behind the paywall.

Peek behind the paywall and see all the stuff and have a read of a couple of the longer pieces. I’d love you to check it out. But I hope you guys have a great weekend and I’ll be back soon.

[Welcome to today’s episode of me] talking into my laptop or more pertinently speaking to you individually. Enjoyed yesterday. Appreciate the feedback that came in from plenty of people, which was great, including the legendary Don McRae who messaged me. I’d like to do something long form with Don soon. Yeah, it’s been an interesting few hours.

Obviously, I’m all systems go for Mexico on Sunday night. And yesterday was a typical day in the life of a boxing journalist, really. George Groves is now lined up, hopefully, for at some point this morning for an interview for the Total Boxing YouTube channel, which would be great.

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I finished putting together the pieces on Willie Hutchinson and Joshua Boazzi. Both are now live on the Substack. Josh Boazzi is probably one of the most interesting guys to speak to in boxing, if you ask him the right questions. And I think you’ll enjoy the interview that I’ve done with Josh.

One of my favorite sort of, I don’t know, it’s hard to say long, but it is quite a long piece, about one and a half hours of words, but really enjoyed putting that piece together and challenging Josh on a couple of bits on his career. And by the way, while we’re talking about podcasts and output,

Yesterday while I was in the gym, I listened to the latest opening bell podcast with Matt Christie talking to Dr. Neil Scott. Now Dr. Neil Scott was the man who stopped the fight in Saudi Arabia. On Saturday night, and I want to say the controversial stoppage in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, but it really wasn’t.

And when you look at Dr. Neil Scott, his credentials, there’s probably no one better to stop a fight in boxing than Dr. Neil Scott. In many ways, it was somewhat amusing hearing the hyperbole around The fight that was stopped, it was Ricardo Blandon who stopped against Raphael Espinoza. And facial wounds are Dr. Scott’s bread and butter.

And I put something on social media on the night saying he’s a maxillofacial specialist because I spoke to him for damage. And while I know I have prior knowledge of Dr. Scott, his achievements, his accomplishments and what he does as a pro, I don’t know everyone at ringside every time,

but I did recognize that he was the man calling the shots and he was the one who stopped the fight. And then obviously I heard the outrage that subsequently followed. Now go and listen to Matt Christie’s opening bell with Dr. Scott and it just tells you everything you need to know about many things,

but also including the media, jump into sensational Conclusions with the boxing media that’s specifying. The likes of Chris Mannix, Malik Scott in the studio and plenty more online had a bit of a pile on about the stoppage and it was just so unnecessary. Do you honestly think a doctor is going to wave it off?

For no reason at all. And then, you know, then they were sort of almost questioning Dr. Scott’s credentials. Anyway, I don’t want to say too much more on it, but go and listen to the podcast because it is super interesting. Matt is doing a great job with the opening bell, keeping it going after Alex Stedman left.

And yeah, I think it’s A, worthy of support, B, worthy of your time and C, go and listen to this particular episode today. And then maybe go back and watch the fight or the end of the fight and just think, you know, being armed with the knowledge of what Dr. Neil Scott is professionally.

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And then you’ll just be like, you’ll be shaking your heads at some of the stuff that was said. It was frankly ludicrous. But yes, I’m hopeful to get George Groves today. And when I said yesterday was typical, It was in the sense that, so here it is. I had Diego Pacheco set up for 4.15, Lauren Price 4.45.

I got a message from Ed Roth at Boxer earlier in the day when I was at the gym saying, Lauren is now going to be driving home at that time so she can do a phoner but can’t do video. So I said, oh, let’s kick it back to next week when I’m in Mexico and she can be

in front of a camera. We’ll do one. And that’s fine. We’ll delay it. So that was the 4.45 postponed. And then the 4.15 with Diego got to about 4.25 and I messaged Anthony Lever at Matchroom and I said, am I still waiting for this? Is this still happening?

And anyway, I thought it was going to be like a normal sort of 10 minute slot. And 25 minutes later, I’m sort of having to wrap things up with Diego. And I was very grateful, obviously, that the Lauren Price interview had been kicked back.

I must say, I’ve not spoken to Diego Pacheco before, but I was super impressed. And he gave me such good stuff. And I’m looking forward to A, writing it and B, probably try and put out the whole video next week. It was really good. He was really interesting. And he was into it.

Like, I don’t know if he’s like that with everybody. Maybe he is, but... He really wanted to tell the story. And yeah, it was 25 very brisk minutes. It does add to my workload for next week. So I’ve got several things that I’m working on.

I’ve got some more Teddy Atlas to work on following the first interview recently. I’ve got Vidal Riley for next week. And obviously, Diego Pacheco. Who else have I got? And I’ve alluded to it. In the chat yesterday, I got Emmanuel Odiasi, the German heavyweight. He’s actually from the Midlands, but fights out of Germany.

And that’s coming down the pipe as well. So those are in the bag and ready to work on. I’m obviously planning on working on a bit on the flights and getting out to Mexico. I’ve been looking at the agenda ahead of next week

where it looks like I actually feel like I might have been able to fly back a day early. I think everyone leaves on the Friday and I’m booked to come back on the Friday night. But really the Monday, people arrive on the Sunday, I get there Monday morning.

Then Tuesday is a big day with the ratings and everything else. That’s really the biggest day. And then Wednesday, there’s other meetings and some of the medical stuff. Thursday, it’s a bit of a taper day and there’s a couple of more parts of the convention and then Friday, everyone leaves.

But Thursday, I think will be sparse and it will be, it’s really going to be about the Tuesday and Wednesday, possibly the Monday night and grabbing who I can there. I’ve actually been chatting to Lee Eaton as well at Queensbury and we fly out

on the same flight. So I think Lee doesn’t do much and hasn’t done much. So if you’re interested, let me know and I’ll do a Q&A with Lee and put something out next week or the week after I might be able to hold it. Because that’s part of the plan really is to...

Not just cover all the stuff live and be at the ratings for you next week, but obviously to bring back some work and to speak to some of the, I was going to say some of the big names, but it’s not always the big names that I target,

but obviously I’ve asked for time with Julio Cesar Chavez and Roberto Duran. I am optimistic about getting them. Like I said yesterday, there’s not loads of media that goes to these things. So hopefully I’ll be able to sort of help myself and have things lined up, which would be super helpful.

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And that’s part and parcel of going to these conventions. Like I said, when I was like a, I don’t know, steadfast determined kid, I was like, oh yeah, you can’t go to a convention and support. These money grabbing, sanctioning bodies. And now I think, you know, it’s like, what a place to go to get these plague people.

And I don’t mean Mexico or Kiev or Hamburg or Vegas, wherever I’ve been before, but I just mean like it is a feeding frenzy for content. And it just makes absolute sense to go, particularly now I’m doing what I’m doing as a freelancer. We’re going to somewhere where there’s not going to be loads of competitors,

where I’ll be able to have some time and space to write stuff and work on stuff and bring in video. Yeah, so I’m interested to see how it goes and optimistic. So yeah, that’s kind of where we’re at. So today I’ve got a meeting with the guys at Profenix who power Total Boxing.

That’s at 1 .30pm, I’m actually doing a short interview for someone at The Economist at 11 o’clock about the AJ Fury stuff. I was on the Aria Hawane show, the one that he does with the boxing journalists with Najee the other day. So you can find that. I think that’s on Amazon Fire. So I did that.

And I’ve also spoken to the publishers about the PED book. And one of the interviews I did recently, which I was really happy with, was with Tim Hallmark, who Is Evander Holyfield or was Evander Holyfield’s strength and conditioning coach? Like if you look up Tim Hallmark on YouTube and Holyfield,

you’ll find some of their old school vignettes, which are really good. Like he was pioneering stuff at the time. Everyone was talking about Evander being crazy doing S&C and it’s just hilarious now with hindsight. But still, so all systems go on that. But yes, I’m hopeful that the George Groves interview will be coming. Your way later on.

I’ll obviously post it in the notes if it does go up. And then aside from that, obviously Boatsy’s up. I’d implore you to go and have a look at that. And also just give me some feedback, guys. Let me know if you’re enjoying these check-ins, these sort of daily voice notes.

Let me know what you’d like to see on the site. Give me some feedback. What have you enjoyed? The kind of stuff that you would like to see. Maybe the stuff that you’d like me to get from the convention. But really open to having dialogue with you guys, and I hope you enjoy these check-ins.

I’m really hopeful, by the way, that they’re going to be, I was going to say dynamic. That’s still going to be just me next week, but I’m really hopeful there’s going to be a lot to talk about next week. I don’t mean taking 30, 40 minutes of your day,

but just I’m hoping the days are going to be slammed with activity and news, notes, gossip, all sorts. But yeah, that’s it for today, guys. Really appreciate you taking the time to check in and speak to you tomorrow.

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“Nah, Tris, the way you’re asking, you know the answer is no,” Joshua Buatsi smiles.

It has been 10 long years since he won bronze at the Rio Olympics. When he turned professional, Buatsi was – according to many – nailed on for a world title.

There was little doubt. In a GB squad that boasted the likes of Joe Joyce, Josh Kelly and Joe Cordina, Buatsi was the one who was perhaps best suited to the pros and from whom most was expected.

A decade on, Kelly is a world champion, Cordina has twice won world belts, and Buatsi gets his first world title opportunity when he faces former foe Willy Hutchinson for the vacant WBC light-heavyweight title on Saturday in Manchester.

There has been just one loss in those 10 years, but only 20 wins. Activity has been an issue, and he’s fought under the promotional banners of Matchroom, Boxxer and now Queensberry.

As he sits beside me on the ring apron of one of the two boxing rings at the New Era Boxing Gym in Merstham, Surrey, Buatsi has a thick head of hair and a thick beard, both of which will likely be streamlined by fight day. He’s wearing a charcoal Nike Jordan T-shirt and sits easily for up to 15 minutes at a time as he makes his media rounds a week or so out from the bout.

FREE TO READ: WILLY HUTCHINSON INTERVIEW

He’s not looking at the time and he’s not endlessly scrolling on his phone during or between interviews. His answers are deliberate but not forced.

The question we started off with was whether he knew the professional game would take him on such a winding track to the top.

“I didn’t,” he admits. “I thought it was straightforward. I thought it was a bit like the amateurs, you understand, going to certain tournaments, what it would lead to, what it would do. But with this one, nah, it’s been very windy, but we’re here, Tris, 10 years.”

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Willy Hutchinson has no interest in being the next great Scottish boxer. He wants to be one of the best fighters in the world, and beating Joshua Buatsi on Saturday night would be a significant step …

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Hey guys, I’m going to do something a little bit different here. I’m going to take you behind the scenes of what I’m going to do at Total Boxing and give you a pretty much daily glimpse into what’s going on, not just in my world, but the boxing world.

And I’m going to talk to you about the content that we’ve got coming up, but not in a salesy way, just about what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, how I’m doing it. And it’s come to me just because I just feel like I want to make a bigger connection

with the people at Total Boxing and subscriber base that we’ve been building. And it’s been quite, it’s been a wild start. It’s been a wild transition for me to go from boxing scene and being on a treadmill of news to doing what I’m doing.

And I think what I’ve tried to do, and you can see it by the comments, by the way, which have been really encouraging on Total Boxing YouTube channel, is I’m trying to create a safe space for fighters, trainers, managers, promoters to tell their stories and without delusioning them with clickbait headlines.

Trying to bury them, trying to sort of harvest relationships, maintain the working relationships I’ve built over the last, well, I was going to say last few years, the last 25 years, embarrassingly enough. And yeah, so that’s what, that’s really what I’m trying to do. And I’ve got different things up my sleeve,

different plans that I’m working on for different content. I am heading out to Mexico for the WBC convention next week. And I’ve asked for sit downs with Julio Cesar Chavez and Roberto Duran via translators. I’ll be bringing you all the news and notes from the convention, whether it’s from the medical seminars, but also probably most importantly,

The ratings committee, which will be subscriber only content. These first few, let’s say, Daily Dixon voice notes, podcasts will be going out for free. But once I hit Mexico or after a day or two in Mexico, they will be paywalled. And I hope you guys will consider supporting me on my journey.

Through a paid subscription, there’s going to be loads of cool stuff coming up. I see Michael Carbajal’s going out there. Do you know what is a bit touch and go about going to Mexico right now? Because if you look at the travel advisories for Acapulco, it doesn’t look great. But I think the flight into Acapulco is,

there’s a stop on the way at Mexico City. And then we fly on and then it’s a two and a half mile trip to the airport, from the airport to the hotel. And then everything is going to be done from there. So I don’t imagine venturing far off the hotel. I’ll be buried in the conference rooms

and doing the interviews that I can, where I can. And yeah, I’m really, I am excited to go out. I’ve done the WBC conventions in Las Vegas, in Kiev, in Ukraine, and in Hamburg, Germany. They’re an untapped resource for journalists. I think it’s funny, I used to have a very strong opinion about going out to them

and not being seen to support promoters or certainly sanctioned bodies, but it’s just a place to harvest so much rich content. There’s always so many people around and I just think it’s really worthwhile. I think Oshaki Foster’s going. I think Katie Taylor might be going. I’ve heard Dalton Smith might be going.

Obviously, there’ll be representatives from all the promoters going to mistake their claims at the ratings meeting. So that will be great. That’ll be worthwhile. So they’re always a worthwhile trip. They really are. I suppose ahead of that, just to let you know, I’ve swapped some messages with George Groves this morning.

We’re trying to get him on the YouTube channel for tomorrow to talk a little bit about Lucas Roehrig, who he’s fighting on the Zufa show, his cruiserweight. And to talk about Chris Billam-Smith, his old stablemate at the McGuigan’s gym. And then obviously I’d love to pick his brains on James DeGale and the podcast

that went out with Charlie Parsons and Tony Bellew where James DeGale got So there’s plenty I’d like to speak to George about. He’s messaged me back this morning and said that we should be on for something tomorrow morning, which would be good. Kind of a little bit fine, but hopefully we’ll get something there.

And then this afternoon I’ve got interview slots with Diego Pacheco ahead of his fight next week. And with Lauren Price ahead of her return to the ring on the boxer show. Super interesting times. Right now I’m just putting to bed the features with Willie Hutchinson and Joshua Boazzi ahead of their rematch.

I’ve not done anything really on the boxer show this week. The clash is not helpful. They did say I could go up to the media day on the Wednesday and get what I need. But I’ve done a lot over the years with Chris Billum-Smith,

and I don’t know how much more we can add to that as things stand. Although I do think that’s a cracking card with Shev Clark, with Denzel Bentley, and the Zach Parker fight, which everyone’s talking about being in the prelims, but perhaps shouldn’t be.

But I think from standards, you could say it shouldn’t be on the prelims, but... You know, with how Zack Parker fights, you can’t always guarantee putting it on the main show is going to be worthwhile. That’s not criticism, but you know what the paying punters are going to see. I am surprised, by the way.

That Zufa have gone back to the Copper Box so soon after it was criminally empty against Johnny Fisher and they’ve put Chris Billum-Smith in it. Why they’ve not gone back to Bournemouth, the hotbed for this fight, I’ve got no idea. I think commercially, economically, it’s just a much better fit.

I think the last show at the Copper Box for them looked like a disaster. And that was the night that Dana sort of had his implosion with Jack Fig and the other reporters who were asking him about all the AJ Fury stuff. No doubt he’ll be a bit more buoyant this time because he’s announced that he’s got

the co-main on the Joshua Fury bill with Deontay Wilder fighting Jai Opatia, which is an interesting fight. It’s not been the best kept secret, that one. Actually, I’ve been messaging Deontay this week to get on the podcast or to get on the channel as well. And I keep hearing back from him.

He’s on and off, but now he’s got a date locked in. I imagine it might be a bit more difficult to hear from him, but we’ll see. I’ll keep trying. Deontay I go back with to 2008, so... He is usually very good, but we’ll have to see how that goes. But yeah, so it’s a busy day.

So obviously working on Hutchison Boatze stuff, due to speak to Lauren Price and Diego Pacheco later. And then obviously tomorrow morning, George Groves, and then I’m due to fly out to Mexico on Sunday night. So not loads of time. The Mexico thing was only booked yesterday,

although it’s been sort of in the plans for I don’t know, not long, a week or two. A week or two is when it’s sort of being realistic, I suppose, and thinking about it and committing to doing it. And I have been looking at what else is coming up.

There’s obviously Germany for Cabell and the Fight Zone show the day before that with Emmanuel Odiasi, who I’ve already interviewed ahead of his fight. And then there’s Monte Carlo. And I say that there’s Monte Carlo for me because obviously, With everything that’s gone on with me and Saudi Arabia and the Riyadh season, guys,

I can’t get anywhere near any of their fighters or events. So I won’t be in Wales for December the 11th. But what that does mean is I might go to Monte Carlo for the fights on December the 12th and be out there for fight week,

which I think could be a really good fight week to do because everyone will be in Wales. George Liddard will be there with Tony Sims and their team. David Adelaide will be there with Adam Booth. And then Eddie Hearnwood will be there on Saturday, the day after the big fight in Wales, Fury Joshua.

So I feel like there could be a really rich amount of content to get from Monte Carlo. So it might be those, I don’t feel like I’ve done loads of traveling this year, but it might be those will see me through. Yeah, Mexico and Monte Carlo and then start the hibernation program.

I was going to say, but then start coming up with the good content for Christmas and trying to come up with all the good stuff, the written content, some of the archive stuff. And by the way, I mentioned it in notes recently, but I’ve had all my old camera films from America developed.

So all the stuff from the road to nowhere, all my travels around America, all the fights I’ve met, I’ve got all the pictures developed and I’m planning on writing up many stories about meeting the great of the good. Obviously, I know I’ve done stories that you can find through the archive

with Joey Giardello and The Raging Bull, Jake LaMotta, but there’ll be plenty more of those sort of archive things coming up. I’ve just found my pictures with the former brothers and Chico Vajor and I think Chico is one I’d love to do because we stayed in touch. He wrote me a couple of letters after we parted company

and That’s something I’d love to touch upon. But yeah, so there’s loads of stuff coming up. I hope you enjoy this sort of update. I’m planning on them coming thick and fast over the next few days and trying to build something with the audio. And I hope you enjoy it and we’ll be back soon.

“He’s the nicest kid ever,” said coach Stephen Smith. “Comes to the gym and goes home, doesn’t drink, lives the life, you’re not gonna get anything mad about him.”

This is never a bad message to get from a trainer about one of their up-and-comers, and that is what the Liverpool trainer told me about his charge, Ste Clarke.

“Pretty bang on, to be fair,” Clarke smiled at the character reference.

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Then, the 10-0 (2 KOs) middleweight explained how he and Smith linked up.

“I boxed for the Rotunda as an amateur, obviously, Swifty [Smith’s ringside nickname] boxed for the Rotunda as an amateur as well, so I’ve known him since I started the Rotunda, because they always used to come in, him and [brothers] Paul, Liam and Callum as well, just come in, support the up-and-coming lads and girls. And when I wanted to turn pro, when I won the ABAs, I spoke to Paul, asked him whether he’d be my manager at the time, because I knew he was managing, he said, ‘Yeah, not a problem,’ and then Swifty wasn’t actually coaching at the time, but he was thinking of it, so Paul said, ‘Would you want to go with Stephen,’ and I said ‘Of course. Not a problem, 100 per cent,’ and that’s pretty much how he got to coaching me.”

Smith was a world title contender and one of the better UK boxers not to get over the line and win a world belt.

He had a very good career, and he has a burgeoning reputation as one of the UK’s fastest-rising quality coaches.

Clarke is impressed by Smith’s boxing brain and how hard-working he is. Clarke also likes how hard he pushes everyone in the gym.

“He’s probably one of the best coaches in the game at the moment,” Clarke added. “He’s been there, done it, the family’s been there, done it. He’s got the experience, so he’s not just someone coming off the street saying, ‘I’m a boxing coach.’ He’s actually been there and done it. He knows what it’s like to be a fighter and how to actually teach boxing, rather than someone just coming off the street being a PT and a padman.”

Clarke doesn’t need a motivator as he is fine doing that himself. As Smith said, there’s nothing wrong with Ste’s work ethic.

There is also nothing wrong with his manners.

“I’m brought up from a good family,” Clarke says. “My dad [Stephen], he’s had me in the gym since I was young. He’s always been into the gym himself and he’s always been hard-working and dedicated to his training, so I think I’ve got that from him. Since six, seven years of age I’ve been training, he’s been training me hard and getting me in the right gyms, getting me with the right people and showing me what to do, just from being young.”

Ste’s father, who worked on the doors of the city’s pubs and clubs, didn’t box but was always around the boxing and MMA gyms in Liverpool. Ste, however, wound up going to university to study Business and Management.

He knows that will help him in life after boxing, and it will also help him navigate boxing’s often rocky political waters.

“Obviously, with boxing, it’s a business at the end of the day, isn’t it?” Clarke said. “So, the stuff I learned in university is going to help me as my career gets bigger and my name gets bigger to help me guide myself.”

Clarke is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Kirsty, and they’ve been together almost 10 years. They work out together and occasionally take part in fitness competitions as a duo, but when it comes to boxing, he is listening to Paul and Stephen Smith and the advice they give him as he looks to improve.

“I want to become a better fighter in every single attribute. So, I think each fight I am improving and I think as the levels step up, I will improve myself because the better the fighter is, it’s only going to bring the better fighter out of me. Each fight’s just to progress any way, shape or form.”

Jack Rafferty and Mark Chamberlain shared 12 torrid rounds and, long after the final bell, Rafferty shared pictures of the aftermath, showing him curled up in a ball in a hospital bed.

He was wearing a gown, ghostly pale, and the rippling muscles of fight day had vanished, replaced by lean, trim but weak-looking limbs.

“It was a week after the Chamberlain fight,” Rafferty explained. “I fell ill, started off with a bad stomach and things got worse and worse. I rang my wife at the end of the week and said, ‘I can’t deal with this.’”

Within an hour, Rafferty was in hospital and had been diagnosed with an ischaemic bowel. The doctors told him: “It’s bad.”

“How bad?” Rafferty asked.

“We have to take you to surgery now,” they told him.

Rafferty had to undergo an emergency operation to have part of his bowel removed.

Pictures (top) courtesy of Queensberry Promotions and, above, Jack Rafferty via Instagram

Just a few short months later, he stopped the highly regarded Ekow Essuman and now – on Saturday in Manchester – fights for the IBO welterweight title.

It has been a torrid journey for the 31-year-old Manchester-born fighter, who now boasts a 27-0-1 (18 KOs) record.

He was in hospital for 10 days in all. Then he was released and got married two days later, in a wedding that had, of course, been on and off for several days.

“Listen, if I’m getting wheeled down in a wheelchair down the hall, I’m going,” he said.

“This day’s not changing.”

He had to get his suit tailored down a size or two because of his weight loss, but he made it. And in May, he made it back into the ring.

“That was well behind me,” he said of his ill health as he headed into the fight with Essuman. “I wouldn’t have been in there, my team or no one – especially my dad – wouldn’t have let me be in there. And I had plenty of training, breaking myself back into it, and then a good performance.”

Sadly for Jack, he was no stranger to hospitals. He has routinely paid tribute to his mum, Debs, who passed away from cancer in late 2020, and dedicated his biggest wins to her memory. And while he might not be the biggest fan of hospitals, he has nothing but respect for those who work there.

“Thank God for them as well, you know. You don’t realise how good the NHS is until one of your family members are in there, or even yourself,” he said.

“So, thank you to them. They’re massively overrun and they get a lot of stick, but once you’re using them, thank God they’re there.”

*

Rafferty has been on quite the run, claiming the scalps of the likes of Henry Turner, Reece MacMillan and Cory O’Regan.

Known as the “Demolition Man”, he has shown different sides to his game, including going to war with Chamberlain.

“I hope I’m entertaining,” he said. “That’s what we’re in, the entertainment business, and [promoter] Frank [Warren] said, ‘As long as you’re dancing, I’ll give you the platform to dance’, and I must be dancing not too bad.”

Many felt his bout with Essuman was hard to call, but Rafferty did his work early and bloodied and stopped “The Engine” in six rounds in a contest that was deemed all but 50-50.

“Unfortunately, that’s what everyone wanted, a bloodbath, which, apart from the fans watching it, it’s no good for your boxing career,” Rafferty admitted. “There’s a time and a place for a bloodbath and what people are expecting, but that’s what I can do, I can box, I can move and I could do a few more other things, and that [a war] is what he wanted. He wanted to be up close and personal and sometimes you can’t give your opponent something they want. He wasn’t expecting me to move and be rangy and I just don’t think he was ready for that.”

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Billy Deniz is learning his trade in some distinguished company.

A former kickboxer with no amateur boxing experience, Deniz has taken an unconventional route into the professional ranks. At 26, he knows he has ground to make up, but few could argue with the quality of his education.

He’s worked alongside Artur Beterbiev, sparred the fearsome Osleys Iglesias (pictured above) in Canada and continues to develop under Joe Gallagher in Manchester.

There are no shortcuts, and Deniz knows he still has plenty to learn. But he’s determined to make up for lost time in the best company available.

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Even for this camp, over the last few weeks, Deniz has been all over, with stints in Canada, back in Manchester and in Dubai.

The Dubai part came because he and his partner, Chloe, had a pre-booked holiday with their 11-month-old baby and so he decided to go but to turn it into a camp, while enjoying some down time in between sessions.

Deniz often posts his gym work on his socials, and that was ironically how he met Chloe during lockdown.

“You could ride your bike, couldn’t you?” Deniz recalls. “And I was on a bike ride around Manchester and I saw her on a bike ride and she ended up messaging me and I didn’t even know who it was at the time. I just thought, ‘I’m sure I know her.’ And she’d messaged me before and saying, ‘Oh, can I join the workouts…’ and it’s just gone from there. I’m dead into my fitness. People say, ‘Oh, you’re a boxer, you can’t do that.’ ‘You’re a boxer, you can’t do this.’ So I just like to get involved in the classes and stuff and just show everyone that boxing is the hardest sport in the world and I can do what you can do, what you can’t do is come and do what I do.”

And what Deniz does is impressive. Eight weeks out from Saturday’s fight night in Manchester, he had been back in Canada sparring with some of the top boxers in the Eye of the Tiger stable.

In the gym with Marc Ramsey, he’s worked with some of the best in and around his weight in the world.

While he gives Beterbiev his respect as the best of the bunch given what the light-heavyweight star’s achieved, even he agrees Igelesias is “the boogeyman” out there.

“I know why no one’s talking about him,” Deniz said.

“Only people started talking about him now because they have to. When I was over there sparring with him, he got put to number one on BoxRec and he is a bad man. He literally is a bad man and sparring people like that can only make me better and improve me. And, you know, even just being there and watching how they train and trying to pick up little things here and there, it’s amazing.”

Deniz is given his respect over there and says Eye of the Tiger treats him well in order to get the most out of him. He’s been going there to help out several years, learning on the job because, as a former kickboxer, Deniz did not have a single amateur fight.

Back home, of course, he is a Joe Gallagher fighter, and Joe has been locked in a cancer battle over the last few years.

“You wouldn’t even know he’s got it, and sometimes we have to tell him to calm down a bit because he’s shouting and this and that and he shouldn’t be doing that,” Deniz added.

“But yeah, he’s there when he’s there and when he’s not, we understand, he’s going through a bit of a time at the minute. So, we’ve just got to crack on and keep the ball rolling and stay consistent for Joe. And when he’s there, take in what he’s saying and the knowledge and when he’s not, they’ll be grafting away and don’t just think, ‘Oh, Joe’s not here today so we can have a day off.’ That’s not how it works.”

Before Jack Massey left, Deniz used to bank plenty of rounds with the 200lbs contender, and how he spars with the likes of Taz Nadeem and Clark Smith.

Deniz still works as a kickboxing coach and, now 26, he knows his levels of experience are comparatively insignificant when compared to his UK rivals, from Callum Simpson to Mark Jeffers and Troy Williamson. That is why he is patient and learning as he goes.

“I’ve got a manager, I’ve got a trainer, there’s a plan. And then it’s just to follow it, not to rush it too soon and build my way into it because of the no amateur boxing,” he said.

“I trust in my management, Kevin Maree. He’s done a mega job so far and I trust him in my career. Joe’s a great trainer and he’s guided a lot of people to world titles, British titles, European titles, you name it, they’ve won it. So I trust in my team and I just do what they say. And as long as I’m ready when they want me to be ready, that’s all that matters.”

Alex Arthur knows better than most that boxing can take as much out of a fighter as it gives back. He knows what it is to push the body too far, to make weight at a cost and to discover that the consequences can follow you long after the fight is over.

Now, with his sons Alex Jnr and Machlan embarking on their own professional careers, the former WBO super-featherweight champion is determined that they learn from his experiences rather than repeat his mistakes.

Arthur has plenty of memories of his own career, including the brutal five-round defeat to Michael Gomez in one of the finest fights in modern British boxing. But some of his most valuable lessons might yet come from watching his sons make their way in the sport.

Both are now promoted by Frank Warren, as Alex Snr was, both have ambitions of their own, and both have a father who knows precisely how difficult the road ahead can be.

Alex Jnr is 5-0 (1 KO), a super-middleweight who has not yet come in at 168lbs, instead weighing around the 170lbs mark. But his dad boxed many a fight in a depleted state, and now he won’t let his son make the same mistakes.

“My dad was very unwell in that [Gomez] fight and you hear a lot of fighters say how, why they lost or excuses and reasons and stuff like that,” Arthur Jnr says.

“But that’s another way that I can take a bit of that experience from my dad. That fight against Michael Gomez probably would never have played out that way if he had just listened to his body and didn’t take the fight because he was unwell and really weight drained. So hopefully I’m never in a position where I’m in a life-or-death fight like that because of fighting through an illness or fighting through a bad weight cut or something.

“If the signs are there and my dad sees it and says it, then it won’t happen. But I believe I’ve got the skills and the ability to avoid being in situations like that for the time being.”

Arthur boxes on the Queensberry bill topped by Joshua Buatsi and Willy Hutchinson this weekend in Manchester.

Arthur Jnr has a healthy respect for his countryman, Hutchinson, and praised his ability.

“Willy Hutchinson was born in Livingston,” Arthur Jnr said, knowing that Buatsi is the pre-fight favourite.

“I don’t understand how anyone could write Willy off, period. The guy’s unbelievably talented and he’s phenomenal at boxing. There’s no two ways about it. It’s sheer, natural, God-given ability. Willy did [only] six rounds of sparring for his fight against Ezra Taylor.

“His whole training camp is pure, natural ability. And listen, I know how seriously Willy’s taken this camp with Buatsi and how hard he’s trained. And I honestly can’t see any other way apart from a Willy points victory.”

Hutchinson and Buatsi couldn’t be more different from each other, and Arthur Jnr has identified the differences between his five opponents to date as building blocks designed to give him a solid grounding to commence his professional journey.

“I’ve learnt that everyone’s very different,” he said of his start in the pros.

“All my opposition has been very different, which I think has been a very calculated and tactical approach from my dad. He’s made sure that I’ve seen something different in every fight, which has allowed me to focus and train for something different every fight. I feel like I’m much more of a well-rounded fighter now than I was before my professional debut.”

Arthur Jnr has also gone the distance in four- and six-rounders, banking important ring time as the tall southpaw continues to progress.

“I’m learning. I boxed at a very high level as an amateur in a very short space of time, which was a pro and a con for me because I was getting beat by them all, but I was with them, you know what I mean? So I won my first Scottish title the year before Covid, and then I missed out on a whole year of boxing. And I came back and then I got onto the Scotland team.

“After 15 fights, I was boxing people with hundreds of fights in Lithuania, France, Macedonia, the Netherlands, and I was getting beat, but I was going three rounds with them all and I was giving them all good fights. So it’s been a good start for me in my pro career to just keep that ball rolling, face different styles and fight different opposition and stuff like that. And I’ve taken to it really well.”

And while he makes his way down to 168lbs, he knows he will not rush anything when it comes to the scales.

“We’re definitely going to do 168,” he said. “We’ve just not had to do it yet. I think my dad’s probably got a bit of PTSD when it comes to discussing weight and making weight and stuff.

“Fortunately for me, he would never let me do that if he thought it was going to be dangerous. But I can make 168 comfortably.”

And there’s no way his father would encourage him to pull any of the weight-making stunts his dad used to do, including spending hours in hot baths.

“No, it’s the polar opposite,” Arthur Jnr insists. “If I wake up in the morning and I’ve got a sore head, he’s like, ‘Listen, you tell me if something’s wrong, you tell me right away’ because he’s obviously made mistakes and pushed through and fought through illnesses and injuries and everything like that.

“And it obviously didn’t end up good for him. So we’re in a good position with each other where I’m able to be totally honest with him and he’s very good with me. We’ve agreed that we’re going to do 168. We’ve hired a nutritionist who works with me. We’ve done tests and stuff and we can make 168 safely. I think this fight is only at 172 and my last couple have been as well. So until I have to go and take somebody’s belt away from them, I will not be in a rush to make 168.”

Arthur Jnr has been joined in the professional ranks by his brother, Machlan, and big things are expected of his sibling.

“To be honest with you, Machlan could have probably turned pro when he was 11,” Arthur Jnr smiled.

“I suppose I am the big brother and I’m the one that leads by example.”

Does he want them to be billed as a double act in Scotland, or will they follow their own paths?

“I think that’s a good question. I think it will probably be a bit of both,” he said.

“I would say once we both build big enough profiles, Queensberry will put on a show in Edinburgh and it will be based around us both. I think it’s probably not that far away.

“There are small venues here, such as Portobello Town Hall, that’s like York Hall, Bethnal Green. And then you’ve obviously got Meadowbank, which my dad fought in, which can hold 2,000 or 2,500. And I think it would just make so much sense for it to be promoted that way, the Arthur boys. But we’re both very different and we’re both individual personalities. I think that we’ll both go our own paths, but along the way we’ll always be together.”

And, of course, Alex Snr will be watching over them protectively. For it is a road the sons chose, not one Snr sent them down.

“We weren’t brought up in the sense that anything was forceful,” Arthur Jnr said. “We were never made to do anything we didn’t want to do. I think once we made it clear to my dad that we were boxers and that we wanted to fight and he noticed that in us, he would push us and test us because it’s not an easy road, you know? So he couldn’t be soft and gentle with us.

“It was just the way that it had to work. And it’s obviously paid massive dividends now because look at where we both are.”

Fifteen years ago, the world was a very different place. You didn’t have talk about Donald Trump, pandemics and vaccines. Michael Jackson died, Barack Obama was inaugurated and “Avatar” knocked off “…

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On Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the 36-year-old Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez scored a comfortable win over WBC super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli. The future Hall of Famer has opened up a plethora of future options and has one fight left on his existing deal with the Saudi Arabian powerbrokers. Here are some takeaways from Saturday.

1. Canelo’s still really good

It’s not that we didn’t know this, but there really were no signs of decline from what we’ve previously seen. It had been more than a year since his last fight, a defeat to Terence Crawford. Sure, Canelo might not be the same marauding force of his prime, but this more considered, adapted version of Canelo is more than a handful for the world’s leading super-middleweights, as Christian Mbilli discovered.

2. There is a difference between world level and elite

Mbilli was a good fighter who was, I would say, world level. He will beat most of the fighters in his weight class. Yes, he got the benefit of a dubious draw against Lester Martinez, but he’d start favourite over many fighters in his division, bar possibly Eye of the Tiger stablemate Osleys Iglesias and maybe Hamzah Sheeraz. Canelo, however, would open as favourite against all of them.

3. The person sitting next to Turki Alalshikh is super-interesting. Apparently

We all know how much Turki Alalshikh loves boxing and how much respect he has for all of the fighters. Well, if that’s the case, what does he make of the chap he sat next to in the front row, with whom he conversed almost all the way through the Mbilli-Canelo fight, scarcely looking at the ring?

Even during the few moments of drama in the fight, with many around him – including Oleksandr Usyk – standing to applaud or react to what was happening in the ring, Alalshikh remained rooted to the spot, chatting away, oblivious.

How can he expect people to be interested in his events all around the world if he can’t be bothered to watch when it’s happening three metres in front of him? There’s no way Canelo will find that respectful when he watches it back, at least until he starts counting his fight purse.

4. Money talks

Should the show have even gone ahead? Fortunately, despite the recent missile attacks in Saudi Arabia, it apparently passed without incident, and now those – like me – who felt the show should have gone elsewhere or been rescheduled can be gaslit into thinking it was perfectly okay for the show to have proceeded.

But there was a reason why Mexican, American and British nationals were advised against travelling to the region. There was a reason DAZN broadcast the event from London, and there was a reason why all of the non-TKO-related events were moved from the region, postponed or cancelled.

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has been so good for so long that the numbers barely do him justice. But perhaps the more pressing question now is how much of that greatness remains.

The Mexican has been a professional boxer for 21 years, a world champion for 15, and the biggest name in the sport for the best part of a decade. He has won titles in four weight divisions, from light-middleweight to light-heavyweight, and across 68 fights has lost only to Floyd Mayweather, Dmitry Bivol and Terence Crawford.

But reputations are built on what fighters have done, not necessarily what they can still do.

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“Any day of the week,” wrote Conor Benn on social media on Tuesday, alongside a mock fight poster advertising a 2027 showdown with Conor McGregor.

Pour scorn on it all you want, but Benn-McGregor makes sense for several million reasons.

And given the TKO/Zuffa/UFC marriage, it makes sense on several levels beyond the money, too.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say it is the fight to save Zuffa Boxing, but it is precisely the type of attraction that could open doors, draw new audiences and provide a platform from which a myriad of other shows and fights could be built.

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Two fighters, one on each side of the Atlantic, preserved their titles in differing fashion on Saturday.

In Sheffield, WBC junior welterweight champion Dalton Smith squeaked by Alberto Puello via split decision in a fight I thought would be nip and tuck, though perhaps a little more physical.

I had no gripes about the type of fight it was. I know it wouldn’t have suited the more bloodthirsty fight fans, but it would have appealed on other levels to the more tactical and considered connoisseurs. I enjoyed it.

The action then headed to Texas, where O’Shaquie Foster dominated Emanuel Navarrete in what could possibly be the finest performance of any boxer this year.

What did we learn from Dalton Smith vs. Alberto Puello?

Not a lot. We knew Smith was very good and he probably had the edge in power. We knew Puello was a handful, particularly if he could find any kind of rhythm and disrupt Dalton’s flow. You could also say we learned that the ‘home’ fighter will always get the call in a close fight, but that doesn’t take into account the one card that read big for Puello. It does, however, remain part of the conversation. I had Puello edging it (115-113), but that is not entirely fair (because my DAZN stream buffered in the storm, so I would lose the feed for 15-20 seconds here or there). That said, I was scoring round by round and keeping a tally, so I didn’t pluck the figures from thin air. But that’s the cap on a big year for Dalton, who grabbed the title with an excellent stoppage win over Subriel Matias in January and now has beaten Puello.

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Here is the final rundown of career high spots and memorable moments. As I’ve stated, there is no specific order because I wouldn’t even know how to measure it, although they all standout in their own ways.

It’s been some journey. And hopefully there are a few good things ahead.

Almost made the cut

Watching Floyd Mayweather’s mastery against Canelo Alvarez was phenomenal, and being ringside for Carl Froch’s wars with Mikkel Kessler was brutally memorable.

A trip to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with fight historian and friend George Zeleny probably should have made the list, and it’s worth noting I was at Ward-Gatti 1 and 2, as a fan.

Then there was the time I visited light-heavyweight contender James Scott in prison, going to Hopkins-Trinidad at the Garden with Saad Muhammad, and writing War and Peace with Ricky Hatton.

Part 1 – 20-16

Part 2 – 16-11

Part 3 – 10-6

(Me with Benton and Saad)

5. Meeting Joe Frazier and George Benton in Philly

There was a day, in 2001, when I travelled to Philadelphia (from Atlantic City) with light-heavyweight great Matthew Saad Muhammad and a mutual friend in order for Matthew to catch up with some old friends. We started off going to Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philly and cold-called Joe, who saw us in his office. Matthew and Joe talked about people they knew, people who had passed, life after boxing, and Joe then came out and took some pictures with us.

My lasting memory of Joe was that he was a small man – the former heavyweight champion of the world – who kept trying to tell us he was still a heavyweight when he was clearly the smallest man of the group. He repeatedly made references to how big he was, how large his hands were, how broad his shoulders were, and I thought he was playing. But when I, or perhaps it was the mutual friend, pulled him up on it, he was offended and doubled down.

(A 22ish me and Joe Frazier)

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