The Empire Fighting Chance podcast

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, we are excited to announce a brand new partnership between Empire Fighting Chance and arguably the biggest global boxing promotion team in the world; Matchroom . We've got together with their community department, to deliver a three year program to over 100 amateur boxing clubs across the UK. To commemorate this new collaboration, Neil has a c...

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, it's all about professional boxing. Neil chats with Empire coach and former British super lightweight title champion, Darren "Ammo" Hamilton. He's had 19 fights, 16 wins with three by knockout. He also had an illustrious amateur career with 27 amateur bouts, losing just four. But it's not all confined to the ring. He had to overcome many...

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, it's all about education. Empire works with schools across the city and beyond, and one of our key partners is City Academy the secondary school in St George. This week's guest is the Head of Inclusion at the school, Hardeep Konsal. Neil talks with Hardeep about the future of schools, challenges young people face, education, league tables and...

In this week's episode of The Empire Fighting Chance, Neil talks to Dayton Powell about youth violence, gangs and criminality. Dayton has lived experience of this having spent time in prison for violent offences. Today, he supports young people to move away from criminality into alternative positive lifestyles via his organisation Each One Teach One. Dayton also works at Empire Fighting Chance del...

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, host Neil interviews Dr. Craig Johnson, a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England and co-founder of the Alliance of Working Class Academics. Dr. Johnson discusses the impact of class on young people's lives, drawing on his own experiences growing up in a council estate in Scotland. He explores the challenges faced by young boy...

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast we go across the pond to Canada. Neil Maggs talks with Jan Fox, the executive director of REACH Edmonton, Alberta. REACH is an organisation which brings together communities to develop safety strategies for the city, they support current social programs and fill any gaps in the system. REACH have partnered with Empire Fighting Chance through th...

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, we go all celebrity. Host Neil Maggs talks with his old mate Joe Sims, an actor known for being in hit TV series Broadchurch who has recently become the presenter of the BBC radio Bristol breakfast show. Neil and Joe discuss his career and why he's crossed the rubicon into radio broadcasting as well as the difficulties of breaking into media a...

In this week's episode of Empire Fighting Chance, Neil talks about the role that business can play with young people in offering opportunities to avoid a path into youth violence, crime and unemployment. It's Nick Day; a businessman of 30 years who is supporting Empire through 'Box Careers' and recently became an Empire community ambassador. However, he is better known as the voice of Bristol Rove...

In this episode of the empire fighting chance podcast its back to urban violence. Neil talks to Oscar Santiago Uribe Rocha aka Santiago, who was the first Chief Resilience officer of Medellin in Columbia; formerly the most dangerous city in the world, it radically turned that reputation around over the last 15 years. Santiago was heavily involved in that process of reformation. He was th...

In previous episodes of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast we've spoken about young people and the challenges that they face in today's society. In this episode Neil Maggs talks to a young man that stepped into the gym several years ago lacking confidence, suffering from social anxiety and being bullied at school. Boxing, in his own words, saved his life.  So what was it that helped transform...

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, Neil talks to somebody that's been pivotal in the journey of the charity. It's sports psychologist Sam Kotadia. He cut his teeth in professional football, working at several clubs, including currently with Wrexham FC. He's also starring in Welcome to Wrexham , the behind the scenes documentary about the club which is streaming on Disney plus....

In this episode of the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, Neil talks to trustee and a founding member of Empire Fighting Chance, Charlotte Leslie. She's the former member of parliament for Bristol North West between 2010 and 2017 and is currently director of the Conservative Middle East Council.  Her work in Parliament saw her set up the all party parliamentary group for boxing in 2011 with the...

With the recent knife crime epidemic in Bristol, in this podcast we wanted to reach out to global experts, people that have solutions that have been successful in other cities around the world. So on the Empire Fighting Chance podcast, we talk to Alfredo Baldo. He is an Urban Violence Program Manager for Peace in Our Cities; A global network that look for solutions, in particular, in this case, ur...

The first guest of the series is the CEO of Empire Fighting Chance, Martin Bisp. Neil Maggs and Martin discuss the origins of the charity, the work they do and they impact they have. In light of the ongoing issue of knife crime among young people in Bristol, they talk about how to make Bristol safer and how to learn from other cities in order to reduce youth violence in a sustainable way. To suppo...