TheBoxingBar.com's podcast

Joe Cortez is considered one of the best referees ever. Cortez was born in New York, and is the son of Puerto Rican parents. He had a great amateur boxing career and fought some pro fights. He started as a referee in the 80's in New York and New Jersey, then moved to Las Vegas to work for the Nevada Athletic Commission in 1992. There he officiated all the biggest names in the sport until he retire...

Jsu Garcia, also known as actor Nick Corri, came on TheBoxingBar podcast a few months back. We talked about many of the classic films he was in like the original Nightmare on Elm Street , Gotcha! , Wildcats , Traffic , and We Were Soldiers . Today, Garcia is an ordained minister and spiritual counselor who helps people in need. It was a fun chat talking about these childhood movies that I loved wi...

It was great chatting it up with Buffalo's "Baby" Joe Mesi recently on TheBoxingBar podcast. The former top heavyweight contender came on to talk about his boxing career. He had a great run as an amateur almost making the 1996 USA Olympic team. As a pro, "Baby Joe" got so popular that people thought of him as Buffalo's third franchise after their two professional sports teams. Mesi left the sport...

A few months back, I went to a Jo Koy comedy show up here in Redding, CA. His opener was comedian, Joey Guila. Joey had the audience in the palm of his hands with his great delivery. I knew I wanted this guy to come on our podcast to say "Hi". Like Koy, Joey is a proud Filipino. In the late 1990's Joey was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. During that time, he watching a comedy show when he saw a guy...

It would be hard to find a fighter whose family was more involved with boxing than the Byrd family. His father was the head Olympian coach, his mother was also involved, his brothers, and his sister was three-time world champion, Tracy Byrd. Even his dog was a boxer. Chris was a silver medalist on the 1992 USA Olympic boxing team. He competed as a middleweight division at the time. In 2000, he was...

Check out my newest posted interview with special guest, Jim Lampley! Before talking to him, I didn't know much about him personally. I always figured that because he had covered so many sports for all those Olympic games, that was how he was placed to cover boxing. With no real knowledge of the sport. I guess his old boss at ABC thought the same. Boy, were we wrong! In April, Mr. Lampley came on...

Sam Firstenberg is an Israeli-American film director that was born in Poland and raised in Jerusalem. Firstenberg directed several low-budget films in the 80's and 90's such as the American Ninja movies, Revenge of the Ninja (my favorite), Breakin' 2 : Electric Boogaloo, and many more. The ex-director had so many great stories like when Muhammad Ali came out to hang out with the cast of Breakin' 2...

This past Wednesday evening, trainer Robert Garcia came on for his yearly interview with TheBoxingBar podcast. At that moment, he had just finished breakfast in Saudi Arabia where he is at for this afternoon's big fight between his fighter Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez (22-0, 15 KO's) and Fernando Daniel Martinez (18-0, 9 KO's). During the interview, Robert shared the news that Rodriguez's baby was born t...

In the next few weeks, I will be bringing on some interesting people from Ventura County to interview for TheBoxingBar podcast. The first one is historian, author, and well-known local ghost hunter Richard Senate. Mr. Senate talks about many of the local hot spots for ghosts in Ventura County. Richard has written a number of books which can be found on Amazon or his website richardsenate.com. Rick...

Here is our interview with 1996 boxing Olympian "Dangerous" David Diaz of Chicago, IL. He represented the United States in the Atlanta games on a terrific team which included Floyd Mayweather Jr., Fernando Vargas, and Antonio Tarver. Diaz debuted on November 30, 1996 in Albuquerque winning by unanimous decision. He won his first twenty-six straight professional bouts until losing to the crafty Ken...

Joel "El Platanito" Salas started his professional boxing career on June 25, 2000. Salas fought fifteen professional fights and stopped fighting in 2003. Joel is the son of Jose Salud "El Platano" Salas. Jose was from Puruandiro, Michoacan, Mexico but later trained in Mexico City and almost made the 1968 Mexican Olympic team for the games which were held there in Mexico City that year. "El Platano...

Gilbert Esquivel is what you would call a real "O.G." in the comedy world, especially in the Latino stand-up comedy scene. Gilbert started as an actor being an extra on TV shows and films. He is one of the most respected comedians around. He mostly does private shows today, but if you happen to hear he will be performing, go check him out! We had a great time talking to him on the podcast. Check o...

If you don't recognize his face, you probably don't watch boxing too much. Jacob "Stitch" Duran is one of the most respected and popular cutmen in decades. He's even been on many films like all the Creed movies working Michael B. Jordan's corner in those films. Duran is from a small town in the Central Valley in California, Planada. Recently, he was inducted into the National Boxing Hall of Fame c...

Many years ago, I had a boxing page called Oxnard IsBoxing in tribute to my local boxing community. At that time a Facebook friend stood out by the name of John Bray of Van Nuys, CA.   In time, we got to talk one-on-one about boxing and he would share his story in the sport. It was pretty amazing! At one time he was supposed to be the face of the sport. He was a young good looking "White-Latino" f...

It was a real honor to have legendary comedian/actor Paul Rodriguez on TheBoxingBar podcast recently for an "Outside the Ropes" episode. Paul is in the movie "Holy Cash" which was released in October featuring many familiar faces. You can watch it on "Must See Movies with Mario" (Lopez). We talked about his career, shows he did visiting prison, and his movies like D.C. Cab and Ali. Listen to what...

Here is our new episode of TheBoxingBar podcast with ring announcer, Christian Schmidt. In this interview, Schmidt talks about all the announcing experience he has which includes pro wrestling, MMA, bare-knuckle fighting, and boxing shows. He is a real professional, and a great guy. If you don't know who he is, get to know him as my cousin Ricky and I did during this interview. Thank you, Christia...

"Dangerous" David Rodela was a tough fighter from the Oxnard P.A.L.. Rodela was originally born in East Los Angeles but moved to Oxnard when he was about nine years old. Right before making his pro debut, Rodela walked into the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood to get some sparring. Trainer Freddie Roach asked David what his height and weight was. David said he was close to 6 foot tall. Roach thought it...

  Dr. Roger Anderson is the most popular chiropractor in Ventura County. His office on First Street in Oxnard neighbors the popular La Colonia Boxing Club and for decades he has helped the people in that area which is pretty much an all-Mexican community in the Eastside of town. In time, he started helping many of the fighters that were making some noise in the boxing community starting with Oxnar...

Sindy "La Alacrana" Amador was a very tough fighter during her career. She made her pro debut on October 28, 2010. In her twelfth professional fight, she won the vacant IBA World Light Flyweight title against Amaris Quintana in 2013. Only two fights later, she was forced to retire due to a detached retina in 2014. Today, it would not be a surprise to see a female match on a televised boxing card b...

"El Magnifico" Israel Vazquez recently passed away. Vazquez was an action-packed type fighter who never disappointed when it came to fight time. He had come on our podcast several months back. During the interview we discussed his life and career as usual. In this interview, he also explains his illness and all the symptoms leading up to the diagnosis in detail. In closing the interview, I asked h...

It was great to have Orlando Canizales of Laredo, Texas on TheBoxingBar podcast. Canizales was inducted into The International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009. Orlando's older brother, Gaby, was also a former bantamweight champion. Orlando holds the record with the most defenses in this weight class at sixteen. It was great listening to him tell his story. Check out the interview!

Dr. Randy Roberts is a very well-respected historian on many subjects including boxing. You might remember him from documentaries like "Unforgiveable Blackness: The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson", "Joe Louis: America's Hero … Betrayed", or different episodes of ESPN's Sports Century. He is a distinguished Professor at Purdue University, who at times, teaches a class on boxing history. He has written...