In the early 1970s, with China and the United States locked in a Cold War struggle, it took Ping Pong to save the world.

With diplomatic ties severed between Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao, the US Table Tennis team were sent to China to mend relations. Things got off to a rough start when one member of the US team converted to Communism and two others played an imaginary game of table tennis in the street, almost starting a riot.

Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine the rise of Table Tennis in China and how the US Table Tennis Championships were once kicked out of a venue by El Mongol, a not-so-famous wrestler.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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The sport of table tennis or ping pong, or as it was once known, Whiff Waff, has arguably had a more significant impact on world history than any other sport.

In this episode, we look at the life of Ivor Montagu, the man who built table tennis into an international sport while also making films with Alfred Hitchcock, hanging out with Charlie Chaplin and spying for the Soviets during the War.

Mick Molloy and Titus O'Reily examine a sport that connects Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Chairman Mao, King Charles, HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw and General Douglas MacArthur.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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By the time Jimmy White was 13, he was skipping school and travelling around England in a black cab to play snooker and hustle adults out of their money.

Turning professional, Jimmy quickly became the most beloved snooker player in the world while living a lifestyle that involved month-long benders with Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy, UB40, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the career of one of the greatest snooker players of all time, a man who lost six World Championship Finals and once took his dead brother on a pub crawl.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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Completing our look at the early days of boxing, we pick up where the sport moves from having no rules whatsoever to having at least three of them. It's the nanny state gone mad.

We meet the man who lends his name to these new rules, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, whose main claim to fame, apart from his rules, is a high-profile dispute with Oscar Wilde which leads to Wilde's imprisonment.

Titus and Mick examine the civilisation of boxing, the invention of boxing gloves and Hezekiah Moscow, a boxer/bear tamer who quit boxing to tour England as a comedy sketch artist in 1892.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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In the seventeenth century in England, the earliest form of modern boxing emerged, a wild free for all style of fighting that included eye gouging, hair pulling, spitting, head-butting, shin-kicking, stomping and kicking downed opponents.

Out of this world emerged the first heavyweight champion, James Figg who fought a total of 270 fights and lost only once. 

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the early days of boxing, the first ever rules, the invention of boxing gloves and the first championship "belt"—made of lionskin and sterling silver.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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If you thought Part One was crazy, Part Two is looser than a night out with John Daly.

We pick up just after Daly had signed a sponsorship contract with a 'no alcohol or gambling' clause. What follows is an awful lot of drinking and gambling.

Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy finish off the series on John Daly, or as he is more commonly known 'Mick's Spirit Animal'.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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Golfer John Daly may be one of the most relatable sportspeople ever, having once said, “I don’t think I’ve ever stepped in the gym – they won’t let me smoke there.”

Daly took the golfing world by storm, winning the 1991 PGA Tournament with his impossibly long drives. Off the course, Daly racked up marriages, scandals and suspensions far faster than he ever won tournaments.

In part one, Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine a man who once got into a fight on a golf course with another golfer and that golfer's entire family.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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Despite a valiant effort to stay on holiday forever, Mick and Titus will return in 2023, with the first episode going out on the 6th of February.

Titus gives a brief overview of the year ahead and reveals the focus of episode one.

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It’s the final episode in our dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup series and our final show of 2022. Don’t worry, we’re back early in the new year.

This episode looks at the fall of Sepp Blatter, features more arrests than an episode of The Wire and proves that when it comes to corruption, FIFA is on another planet.

Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy put the bow on this tale of money, football and people behaving like the emotion shame had never been invented.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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It's part of five of our look at the beautiful corruption that is FIFA; we pick up with Sepp Blatter still ascendant, but the cracks are starting to appear. 

Facing challenges for the FIFA presidency and numerous legal problems, Sepp tries to stay one step ahead, but unbeknownst to him, one member of the FIFA committee has begun working for the FBI and is wearing a wire. And yes, that is true, not a made-up bit.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at how Sepp stays one step ahead, executing an escape that would have had Harry Houdini say, 'how did he do that?'

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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• A weekly bonus podcast
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