Boxing Life Stories

By Tris DixonSports

Boxing Life Stories episodes

June 22, 2022 Season 4: #34 Joe Mesi
Joe Mesi retired undefeated, at 36-0, but after issues with a brain scan he found it harder and harder to get licensed until he finally called it a day.

Now Joe still has a links to brains in his current profession, selling medical equipment.

In boxing, he is known as the 'brain fighter' because of the injuries he sustained following his big fight with Vassily Jirov, and it was fascinating to hear about the research he did about whether it would be safe for him to box again.

When the injury occurred, Mesi was being linked to fights with Mike Tyson, Wladimir Klitschko and a rematch with former amateur foe Hasim Rahman. Then everything changed…

Mesi and podcast host Tris Dixon met in upstate New York recently to talk about Joe's life in and out of the ring, his rise to becoming Buffalo's 'Third Franchise' and much more besides.

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1 hr 39 min
June 15, 2022 Season 4: #33 Lou DiBella
Promoter Lou DiBella is one of the most outspoken men in the sport. In his former role at HBO, he worked with the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Lennox Lewis and Pernell Whitaker and as a promoter he's been with Bernard Hopkins, Micky Ward, Sergio Martinez and many others.

He lost a brother to suicide, rescues animals (including a zebra!), was this week inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and here also discusses his relationship with the likes of Eddie Hearn and Al Haymon.

Lou's induction has caused him to be reflective in recent weeks, thinking about the best and worst the sport has to offer, while remaining positive that it is, overall, a force for good.

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1 hr 42 min
June 08, 2022 Season 4: #32 Kathy Duva
Promoter Kathy Duva was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020, but officially goes in this year as no induction ceremonies have taken place since the pandemic.

Kathy's journey includes plenty of star names, and we talk about Arturo Gatti, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Vinny Pazienza, Andrew Golota, Sergey Kovalev, Tomasz Adamek and many more.

But it's Kathy's own story that hits the hardest. She lost her husband Dan when he was just 44, brought up their three children, went back to university, survived cancer, has built and rebuilt Main Events several times over and she's been ringside at some of the biggest fights in history. She's also battled institutionalised discrimination on her way to a deserved plaque in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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1 hr 46 min
June 01, 2022 Season 4: #31 Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney
In 1982, Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney shared a historic night and wonderful 13 rounds in Las Vegas.

Holmes was the experienced champion, Cooney the untested but heavy-hitting contender yet the backdrop of the fight was about race, which made it the biggest money fight in boxing history at the time.

After the hostilities, however, Holmes and Cooney formed a friendship that endures to this day and they are something of a double act. The bad blood and the animosity has subsided but here they look back on the night they fought, their careers before and afterwards, and their relationship today, while answering some of the myths and stories that surrounded their battle.

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45 min
May 25, 2022 Season 4: #30 John Ryder
The super-middleweight 'Gorilla' talks about the highs and lows of his career that see him on the cusp of another big fight following a win over American Danny Jacobs.

Ryder talks about the many battles he's faced away from the ring, working with Tony Sims, struggling to make middleweight, big fights with Billy Joe Saunders, Nick Blackwell, Jacobs, Callum Smith and others as well as his stablemates, old and new, including Anthony Joshua, Darren Barker, Ricky Burns, Conor Benn, Felix Cash and many others.

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1 hr 34 min
May 18, 2022 Season 4: #29 Chris Byrd
Former world heavyweight champion Chris Byrd won a silver at the 1992 Olympics and thought it would be his springboard to fame and fortune.

It wasn't. Unable to get marquee deals or fights, he thought his best option was to balloon from middleweight to heavyweight to get his career going, so he ate anything and everything he wanted and found himself in the ring with the giants of his era, including the Klitschko brothers, David Tua, Ike Ibeabuchi, Evander Holyfield, Jameel McCline and many others.

Chris talks about facing the odds, about his hardships, the chronic pain he suffered with post-boxing that left him contemplating suicide, opponents using PEDs and, of course, the big nights and big fights in a powerful Boxing Life Story.

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1 hr 51 min
May 11, 2022 Season 4: #28 Conor Benn
Conor Benn is one of the hottest properties in world boxing. The exciting welterweight contender overcame. rocky start to life in the pros to race to 21-0.

But away from the highlight reel finishes and the glamorous social media profile, Benn has endured plenty of struggles. Here, the son of legend Nigel Benn (see episode 100) discusses the trials he has encountered, the problems he's had to overcome, his father's fights, family turmoil, trainer Tony Sims, struggling to get to grips with boxing, counselling and much more, in a wide-ranging and heartfelt interview.

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1 hr 19 min
May 04, 2022 Season 4: #27 Dave Harris
For too long, fighters have needed to have the option of high-level care available to them when they retire.

Dave Harris has a dream. He's started the Ringside Charitable Trust and wants to build a retirement home for damaged fighters who have nowhere else to turn. But he's doing more than that.

He's raising awareness about the troubles of life after boxing, he's started a dedicated call line for retired fighters to use to talk about the issues they face and he's trying to raise money to help those who have given us so much enjoyment over the years a brighter future when the bell tolls on their careers for a final time.

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1 hr 34 min
April 27, 2022 Season 4: #26 Frank Stallone
Frank Stallone has been involved with boxing his whole life. From mimicking a Jack Dempsey haircut when he was 10 to knowing and forming friends with legends of the sport, including Muhammad Ali, Dempsey himself, Jimmy McLarnin, Vinny Paz, Ike Williams and many more.

Yes, his ultra-famous brother Sylvester made more headlines, but Frank has had a superb career in his own right and boxing has never been far from it. He penned music for the Rocky franchise and here shares thoughts and memories of the movies, talks in great depth about boxing history and the memorabilia he's collected, what it was like being ringside for the big fights in Philadelphia in the 1970s and much more.

There are stories from his career as a musician and actor but it's his love of boxing that shines through in this entertaining, funny and timeless interview.

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2 hr 20 min
April 06, 2022 Season 4: #25 Marc Ratner
Marc Ratner is the former head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission who now has a top job with the UFC.

Throughout his years in Las Vegas and beyond, he witnessed some of the biggest fights of a generation and oversaw many controversies, from The Fan Man at Bowe-Holyfield to the Tyson-Holyfield Bite Fight to Zab Judah throwing stools and brilliant bouts featuring Corrales and Castillo and Barrera and Morales.

Here, Ratner reflects on some of the highs and lows during his time in the Chair.

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1 hr 3 min