The transcript… (unedited)
[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.
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.
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.
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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