Sport and Life

Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson is a former wrestler turned MMA star - the UFC and now Bellator. Anthony boasts of record of 22-6 (16 kos) and takes on Jose Augusto Azevedo in the quarterfinals of Bellator's Light Heavyweight Grand Prix on May 7th 2021 in Connecticut.  Anthony was adopted by his grandparents at the age of 2 and credits them, particularly his grandma, for steering him into profession...

Mark Halliwell is long serving and highly respected sports journalist who has covered Cheltenham Town FC for many decades and commentates on the club's games for BBC Gloucestershire. 

Michael 'Venom' Page is a welterweight contender in Bellator MMA with an 18-1 record. Michael, from London, also has a background in kickboxing and has boxed professionally. 

Longstanding sports journalist and lecturer Jon Palmer covers Cheltenham Town FC for Gloucestershire Live and speaks to the podcast about the club's - seemingly impending - promotion to League 1, the third level of English football. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonPalmerSport

Anthony Smith is an American UFC contender in the light heavyweight division and he takes on Australian Jimmy Crute in Florida this weekend. A year ago he deployed his MMA skills to subdue a home intruder until Police arrived.  Here Anthony talks candidly about the PTSD he, his wife and three daughters have suffered from the incident and his belief that all people would benefit from learning...

Manchester's Brendan Loughnane is featherweight contender in the Professional Fighters League. He makes his season debut in Atlantic City, Friday April 23.

James Golden has worked as  a fitness professional for 20 years, training athletes, celebrities and people from every walk of life. He's also ran gyms in the past and consults on gym design and construction. Here we talk about factors to consider as people return to gyms post lockdown - using equipment and maybe lifting heavier weights, in particular. Plus with summer in the UK looming, we di...

Run through answers to the below football scenario posted on Twitter March 26, 2021: " Footballers In the Mind's Eye  Striker pulls into hole & then turns and slides a pass down the side of the left-centre half for their fellow forward to run onto and score.  Who's the striker in the hole?   For me, Teddy Sheringham."

Leah McCourt, from Belfast, is a featherweight MMA contender in Bellator with a 4-1 record.  She's working her way back to fitness after shoulder surgery.

Ash Loveridge is a journalist who's been covering news and, in particular, sport in the Stroud area for decades. He covers and commentates on Forest Green Rovers' games week in and week out and has recently launched a news website: https://stroudtimes.com/

Tom McDermott is a journalist who supports Manchester United and has covered the team for decades for the national press in the UK. You can follow Tom here: https://twitter.com/MrTomMcDermott

Conversation with The Daily Telegraph's Gareth A Davies about the big heavyweight rematches in boxing (Povetkin-Whyte 2) and MMA (Miocic-N'Gannou 2) this weekend. If N'Gannou prevails could we see crossover bouts with boxing's champions, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury?  Conversation originally filmed for Sky Sports - video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuKZ4A9hev4

Aimee Fuller is a two-time Winter Olympian in snowboarding for Great Britain.  In 2019 Aimee the ran the Pyongyang Marathon in North Korea. She is a fitness fanatic and has worked as a broadcaster for the BBC and Eurosport and has a brand new podcast - Monday Mile with Aimee Fuller :  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/monday-mile-with-aimee-fuller/id1557746590#episodeGuid=tag%3Aaudio...

Dave Coldwell is a former professional boxer and highly acclaimed trainer, working with world champions like Tony Bellew and Jamie McDonnell among a flotilla of elite fighters. Dave talks candidly here about how the sport - beginning as a boy in Brendan Ingle's gym in Sheffield, England - has helped him forge self-respect and confidence and the interplay between fatherhood and coaching. 

Colin Hendry is a former professional footballer for Dundee, Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Rangers and Bolton Wanderers among other clubs. He won the Premier League title with Blackburn in 1995.  He also won 51 caps for Scotland and represented his country at Euro 96 and the 98 World Cup. 

Experienced and talented football broadcaster Jon Driscoll - known maybe most well for commentating on La Liga for Sky Sports - joins the podcast to discuss his new history book, The 50: Football's Most Influential Players (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifty-Footballs-Most-Influential-Players/dp/1785316907).

Fabian, from Birmingham in the UK is a middleweight contender in Bellator. His brother, Leon competes in the welterweight division of The UFC. Interview originally recorded for Sky Sports and you can see the interview on Sky Sports Youtube page.

Very cool conversation with Johnny Nelson, former Cruiserweight World Champion about the teachings of his boxing trainer and life mentor Brendan Ingle. Brendan's opening question when educating people through boxing: "Who are you?"

James Gemmell is a very experienced sports broadcaster, mainly presenting rugby union live coverage, including 12 years at Sky Sports in the UK. He's now pivoted into a role as Executive Lead Australasia for Whisper TV. He's a husband and father of two - and the family are preparing to return to James' native New Zealand for his new job. 

Jo Wilson is a presenter for Sky Sports News and has also presented basketball for Sky Sports. She's worked as a producer at Sky too. She's presented in-house coverage of the men’s Scotland rugby union team at Murrayfield and is a keen basketball and netball player.  She's been unable to work on site since the pandemic began as she discovered he was pregnant in the spring of 2020 and became a moth...

James Golden - distinguished fitness professional and friend of the podcast - is putting on fitness session for kids in association with the Bamford Wellness group over the UK half-term. Sessions are at 10:45AM Feb 15 - Feb 17.  Sign up at James' Instagram Page: aka_thefitnesspro Here we chat about what he's got in store for the kids in the sessions, the importance of fun in any exercise plan...

Adventurer Paula Reid is part of a team planning to row non-stop from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean in December 2021 - in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge.  The Mothership team is raising money for the Noah's Ark Children Hospice and The Felix Fund (the bomb disposal charity). To lean more and contribute: https://www.facebook.com/MOTHERSHIPTWAC/ It's the latest adventure for Paul...

Running through answers to the following football hypothetical posted on social media on February 3rd 2021:  "Footballers In the Mind's Eye:  Picture a player scoring with a wedged chip - bags of backspin, floating over a flat-footed keeper and dropping just under the crossbar into the net.   Who'd you see?  Glen Hoddle, for me." To join the conversation, I post these scen...

Alex Payne was a presenter at Sky Sports for nearly 15 years - for Sky Sports News and then covering rugby. He's the host of a fantastic podcast - The Good, The Bad and The Rugby with James Haskell and Mike Tindall: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-good-the-bad-the-rugby/id1524156217 He's also co-founder of a connection technology business that puts brands together with people of influenc...

Review of Conor MCGregor’s loss to Dustin Poirier. If MCGregor’s motivation was success does he have to recalibrate his goals now he’s achieved multi millionaire status? Do we all have to shift our ‘why’ to stay hungry and purposeful? Interview originally filmed for Sky Sports. Mark Weir runs MMA fitness classes in Gloucester and ie hosting them online during the pandemic.