Boxing Life Stories

The late 1970s and early 1980s was arguably the hottest period ever in light-heavyweight boxing. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, former WBA champion, was one of the major players. He fought star names including Matthew Saad Muhammad, Michael Spinks, Bennie Briscoe, Victor Galindez and many more. He also had a role in the movie Raging Bull, was given a car as a gift by friend and old training partner Muham...

WBO super-featherweight champion Jamel Herring has seen the highs and the lows. He's mixed triumph and tragedy. As a US Marine he completed two tours of Iraq, his first born arrived while he was away, he lost a daughter and a niece to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) but now is one of the hottest properties in the sport. He's part of Terence Crawford's team and the two have become firm friends....

Former world super-bantamweight champion Bones Adams is now one of the go-to trainers in Las Vegas. But life has been challenging for him. Born into poverty in Kentucky, he soon found himself tied up with gang life in Detroit. His godfather, the infamous Johnny Ace, was shot and murdered. Bones started fighting. It was something that came naturally to him and it led him to big fights with the like...

At 73 years of age, Leroy Caldwell can be found in the City Boxing Gym in Las Vegas waiting for the break he never had as a fighter. He fought the best heavyweights of the 1970s and 1980s and caused a few upsets. He's been to prison, he's been screwed and now he's trying to claim a debt he feels boxing owes him for services rendered. He sparred the likes of Muhammad Ali, Bob Foster and Sonny Listo...

Former fighter Robert Smith is now the general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control. As a boxer, he sparred the likes of John Mugabi, Dave Green, James Cook and Mark Kaylor while getting in the ring with Lloyd Honeyghan at late notice at the Royal Albert Hall. But he was plagued by injuries and found work as an engineer. From a family of fighters, Smith is now one of the major players...

Former two-weight world champion Joey Gamache is becoming one of the sport's in demand trainers. He recently guided Otto Wallin through a big step-up as he pushed Tyson Fury hard during their bloody Las Vegas fight but it's no surprise Gamache is now a coach. He's learned from the likes of Teddy Atlas, Emanuel Steward, Jimmy Glenn and many others. He fought the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez, Chil-Su...

To kick-off season two, Tris Dixon is in Las Vegas where he spent time with veteran Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler. For some 40 years, Trampler has been one of Bob Arum's right-hand men, working with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, George Foreman and Oscar De La Hoya. Bruce is one of the most popular guys in the sport, though he doesn't receive much of the spotligh...

It's episode 50 and it's the UK's favourite fighter, former WBC heavyweight champion Frank Bruno. In one of his most candid interviews in years, Bruno reflects on his life and times, from his rough childhood, starting boxing, being sent to borstal and then fighting his way through the ranks and into huge fights with the likes of Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson (twice), Lennox Lewis and Oliver McCall....

For more than 50 years, The Sun's boxing scribe Colin Hart has been at the biggest fights, delivered the biggest interviews and broken the biggest exclusives. Here, he looks back on a half century in the sport that has seen him earn the top awards in boxing journalism, the Nat Fleischer award via the Boxing Association of America and his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He was...

Don Charles is perhaps most famous for his work with heavyweight enigma Derek Chisora. Yet the story of the African-born Charles is fascinating. Yes, he takes us on the wild Chisora ride but he also talks about escaping war-torn Biafra after the Nigerians won a three-year war, he talks about his upbringing in 1970s London, his businesses (running florists, working as a clothing seller in the marke...

After the explosive nature of his first Life Story podcast, heavyweight Richard Towers returns with more prison stories, more sparring tales and more on the men he's looked up to and admired, Adam Booth, Brendan Ingle and Dan Pena. Richard talks about his future, his business outlook and, of course, there are stories that will blow your mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices....

Many regard Kevin Mitchell as one of the best British fighters to never win a world title. In his storied career, he fought the likes of Jorge Linares, Breidis Prescott, Michael Katsidis, John Murray and Ricky Burns. Mitchell was known as a hard fighter and a hard liver. He was a boxer who sold tickets in pubs, and drank in the pubs where he sold tickets. His story is in part about missed opportun...

Sheffield super-middleweight Callum Hancock held onto a dark secret for a long time. When he was 10 years old, he was raped by a local bully. Now unbeaten in 10 professional fights, and trained by Ryan Rhodes, he discusses the traumatic burden he has carried for almost two decades, why he remained silent of so long, his thirst for revenge, his quest for inner peace and why he is left wrestling wit...

Former unbeaten professional welterweight Tunde Ajayi is training Anthony Yarde ahead of his WBO light-heavywieght tittle shot against Sergey Kovalev. The son of a chartered accountant, Ajayi's path in boxing is not a typical one. It has taken him to the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles and the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas but fighters have come and gone and he has become a divisive figure on s...

The first lady of British boxing, Jane Couch fought a war with the establishment that you cannot even imagine today in order to get her license to fight. Jane talks about her case, her struggles, the attitudes she faced while discussing her biggest nights in the ring, fighting the likes of Lucia Rijker, Jamie Clampitt, Holly Holm and many others through her decorated and ground-breaking career. Sh...

Sheffield heavyweight Richard Towers sparred some of the best of his era, the likes of Wladimir Klitschko, David Haye, Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin and Deontay Wilder. In amassing a 15-1 (12) record before retiring in 2014, he learned from the likes of Brendan Ingle, Emanuel Steward and Adam Booth. But before boxing, he was part of a criminal underworld that saw him serve the best part of a deca...

Former British and European light-middleweight champion Jamie Moore is now one of Britain's leading fight trainers. The Salford southpaw is one of the best fighters to never box for a world title but he was involved in several fight of the year winners and contenders against the likes of Matthew Macklin, Ryan Rhodes and Michael Jones. But Moore also made headlines out of the ring after he was shot...

Former heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney fought the likes of Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, George Foreman and Michael Spinks but it was his huge showdown with Larry Holmes in a racially charged war in 1982 that he is best remembered for. Cooney was brilliant that night, as he obliterated the naysayers who thought he had not earned his shot, but he was up against a 39-0 legend at the top of his game and H...

For more than 30 years Ian Darke was the voice of boxing. Alongside Jim Watt and Glenn McCrory, Darke covered all the big names from Tyson, Bruno and Lewis to Hamed, Hagler and Barrera. In this wide-ranging interview, Darke talks about his break into the sport – which was covering the Ali-Holmes heavyweight fight – his biggest nights ringside, some of his fondest memories and the bedlam of the nig...

Trainer, promoter, ex-fighter, Sky Sports pundit, Dave Coldwell has worn many hats in boxing but it is as a trainer to world champions Tony Bellew and Jamie McDonell and now Derek Chisora, Gavin McDonnell, Jordan Gil and Anthony Fowler where he has risen to prominence. Here, in a full and frank interview at his home near Rotherham, Coldwell talks about his motivations, how he's been driven in life...

A change in his brain scan meant former Commonwealth title challenger Adam Harper hung up his gloves. Harper talks here with searing honesty about the concerns over his long-term health, the hardest part of becoming an ex-fighter, the pressure of being a ticket-seller and much more. But it was following a gruelling fight in Australia, in a bout against Michael Zerafa, that he knew the course of hi...

Award-winning author and sports writer Donald McRae talks about his varied journey through the sport. He discusses his newly released book, In Sunshine or in Shadow: How Boxing Brought Hope in the Troubles, as well as his previous boxing classics, including Dark Trade, In Black and White and A Man's World. As the Guardian's sports interviewer, McRae has interviewed more than 1,000 prominent athlet...

Sky Sports pundit or long-reigning WBO cruiserweight champion, however you know Johnny Nelson you may see him differently after this enthralling interview. Johnny, who lost 10 of 13 amateur fights and had a disastrous beginning to life in the pros, started to learn after being publicly shamed in two world title fights and then going on the road, in Europe as a sparring partner and around the world...

Welsh star Joe Calzaghe retired unbeaten, at 46-0, following a career that brought him world titles in two weight classes and the scalps of the likes of Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones, Richie Woodhall, Robin Reid and countless others. Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014 alongside Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad, he was trained by his late father E...

Trainer Ben Davison has risen to prominence as the man behind Tyson Fury's incredible return to the sport and the heavyweight division. Initially condemned when he cornered Billy Joe Saunders to a poor performance against Artur Akavov at short notice, Davison has become one of the most-talked about trainers in boxing and here discusses life in the Fury camp, his featherweight hope Isaac Lowe and h...