Macklin's Take - Boxing Podcast: Recent Episodes
Andrew Clarke
My name's Andy Clarke and I'm a boxing commentator and pundit, mainly for Sky Sports. This page is the home of a boxing podcast me and 3-time world title challenger and Sky colleague Matt Macklin are doing called Macklin's Take. Topical debate, big name guests and boxing insiders, we'll bring you all of it. Hope you enjoy it,
Macklin and Andy react to the news of Joshua v Whyte being cancelled and delve into the topic of PED's in boxing.
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Macklin and Andy review a fine week in boxing as Inoue, Fulton, Spence and Crawford not only gave us a week to remember but represented the sport in the finest of manners. A good week for boxing.
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The excitement builds on a monster fight week as Inoue and Fulton clash in a fight for the ages in Tokyo, while across the North Pacific Crawford and Spence will finally get down to business. All of this and more in this week's Macklin's Take.
@MattMacklin @MrAndyClarke / #MacklinsTake
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In this episode, Macklin and I are joined by the brilliant Steve Kim! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Teddy Atlas is back for part 2! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week on Macklin's Take it's the one and only, Teddy Atlas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week Matt & I are joined by IBO World Featherweight champion Jazza Dickens.
And I invite the pair of them to tell me what cliches and general nonsense talk, peddled by the likes of me, winds them up the most! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
He's back, the Macklin's Take franchise champion, Jon Pegg.
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Joining us for our first podcast of 2023, Joe Gallagher and Spencer Oliver.
Matt was actually held up in traffic but we were able to keep the ship afloat without him and he did manage to make it in time to join us towards the end.
We had a look at what we can expect in 2023, where the sport sits currently in terms of its popularity, the impact of Misfits boxing, and even had time to talk commentary and corner work.
It was a great fun chat with two top blokes.
For our final podcast of 2022 me and Matt welcome back Board of Control General Secretary Robert Smith.
It's been an interesting year, in boxing it always is. We've had stadium fights, scoring controversies, the re-emergence of a robust small hall scene post Covid, the death of a monarch and the Conor Benn saga.
And whilst Robert may not have loved every single second of it, as he rightly told us, the good has outweighed the bad and we head into another year with the sport in good shape.
Merry Christmas everyone, and a happy new year, we'll be back mid-January probably.
Take it easy :)
In this one me and Matt look back at Fury vs Chisora and give our take on how the fight and the whole event played out.
We take a look at the state of the current promotional and TV landscape within boxing.
And we talk a bit of Josh Kelly as well.
Lewis Van Poetsch, better known as Poochi, is one British boxing's finest away corner warriors, and along with his manager and trusted cornerman Rich Farnan, travels the land taking on all comers.
It's a crucial role, one that's unique to boxing really, and one that's maybe changing a bit too.
There have been a number of away corner wins recently and Poochi has notched a few himself, so me and Matt thought it was about time we had a proper chat about life on the road with two of the sport's most seasoned campaigners.
This week we embark on another Big Fight Deep Dive.
Our leader on this expedition is top boxing journalist Steve Lillis who takes back almost 20 years to Louisville, Kentucky and Mike Tyson vs Danny Williams.
It was a hell of a week and a hell of a result, with stories to match!
Our pals George Groves and Dec Taylor have created their own boxing club, 'The George Groves Boxing Club' and it's well worth your time and attention. They've given us a taster to share with you and here it is.
Search 'The George Groves Boxing Club' in any podcast platform and you will find it there.
Macklin's Take will return next week!
By popular request this week sees the return of the Big Fight Deep Dive, where we take an in-depth look at a key clash from years gone by in the company of somebody who was there.
A fight that's been on the list for a long time is Chris Eubank vs Steve Collins from March 18th 1995.
Eubank was the long-reigning WBO Super Middleweight champion and maybe the biggest name in British boxing at the time whilst Collins was WBO champ at the weight below and moving up to 168lbs for the first time.
It was a tale of the unexpected from the very beginning with the fight ending up in the tiny town of Millstreet in County Cork and with all manner of things happening in the build-up. Ringside calling the action for Sky Sports was legendary commentator Ian Darke and it was our pleasure to welcome Darkey on board to look back at what was a memorable night.
In this special extra episode me and Matt discuss the ongoing Conor Benn saga.
We first discussed it when the news very first broke but have deliberately kept our powder dry since because no new information had come to light and we're not in the business of indulging in pointless speculation.
But last week saw some revelations so we decided it was time to address what has become one of the British sport's burning issues.
We know all the parties involved, Conor Benn, Eddie Hearn and Board of Control Secretary Robert Smith have all been on Macklin's Take, but we have no personal allegiances in the matter. We tried our best to look at it from the perspective of those parties and try and work out exactly how the whole situation was allowed to become the PR disaster that it undoubtedly has become. And to identify the lessons that can and must be learnt from it all because one thing we can all agree on I think is that there have truly been no winners in this, none at all.
We love a boxing insider on Macklin's Take :)
And this week me and Matt sit down with a man who was right on the inside of boxing's premier broadcasting flagship for over 25 years.
Mark Taffet was head of HBO Pay Per View and with the company from 1983, all the way through to 2015.
He was fundamental in putting together some of the biggest fights the world has seen and a key player in HBO fight cards and broadcasts becoming the gold standard that their competition strived to match.
We chatted about the challenges of the job, the glory nights and of course got his take on the modern boxing landscape and the shelf life of the current PPV model.
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This week it's part 2 of our chat with the one and only Ambrose Mendy.
Last time out Ambrose regaled with some great tales of adventure from his early days, promoting alongside Frank Warren and cracking the cartel.
Today he gives us the inside track on the formative years of his relationship with Nigel Benn and tells us the whole story behind how Benn vs Watson ended up being contested in a huge tent in Finsbury Park on what has gone down in history as one of British boxing's most legendary nights.
This week me and Matt caught up with the one and only Ambrose Mendy.
Best known for his days with Nigel Benn, Ambrose has been an influential figure in British boxing for decades, these days working as an advisor to Boxxer.
There are very few things he hasn't seen in the sport and he has the stories to match.
In this episode he takes us back the early days, casting his mind back to the very first promotion he was involved in and giving us the inside story of how he and Frank Warren cracked British boxing's legendary cartel back in the day.
We'll be back with more from Ambrose very soon :)
After a glorious night at the 02 me and Matt decided we needed to take a look back at what was a fantastic night for boxing.
The build-up, the cast of characters, the fights, the atmosphere, it was all sensational.
And it gave us a glimpse of what could be a very bright future.
In this one me and Matt continue the build-up to the big Shields vs Marshall card in the company of Top Rank and ESPN commentator Crystina Poncher.
Crystina's calling the fight for the US audience so was the perfect person to talk to about the card, the fighters and the significance of the event and we even had time to delve into the story behind her own boxing journey.
She was great company, especially considering she was fighting chronic jet lag!
This week on Macklin's Take we're back in East London for the Shields vs Marshall/Mayer vs Baumgardner card at the 02.
It's a huge week for this modern era of women's pro boxing and we had the good fortune to sit down with both WBO Middleweight champion Savannah Marshall ahead of her fight for Undisputed vs self-proclaimed GWOAT Claressa Shields and WBC Super Featherweight boss Alycia Baumgardner as she prepares to take on IBF & WBO belt holder Mikaela Mayer.
One was just about to go training, the other had just finished; it was great of them to fit us in.
Seemingly Ordinary
The guests of this podcast appear ordinary, but they have amazing things going on.
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What a day.
At the time of recording the Board of Control had just decreed that as far as they were concerned Eubank vs Benn was "prohibited" and would not be going ahead.
That came just a couple of hours after the promoters issued a joint statement saying that it would.
Chaos.
So we decided we needed to convene for an emergency pod.
We were actually planning to do one today anyway previewing the fight :)
Conversations with Rich Bennett
I encourage you to eavesdrop on the conversation
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This week me and Matt are joined by Hall of Fame boxing writer and friend of the pod Thomas Hauser.
I bumped into Thomas at York Hall a couple of weeks ago. It was his first visit to one of British boxing's finest institutions so we thought we'd better check in with him and see how he enjoyed it.
It wasn't all we discussed of course.
TV was the main talking point.
The pros and cons of exclusive deals between networks and promoters and the power struggles they create. The sad departure of HBO and the abandonment of the model they created and successfully implemented for so many years. The confusion that multiple sanctioning bodies and multiple champions can create amongst the viewing public. Oh and PPV of course.
There was a lot to get into and a lot pf problems to address but we did also offer some solutions :)
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This week on Macklin's Take we're joined by the legend that is Colonel Bob Sheridan.
The Colonel has been calling fights since the 1960s, over 10,000 for TV radio in total, and has been ringside for most of the sport's biggest bouts over that period: The Rumble in the Jungle, the Thriller in Manila, Tyson Douglas in Tokyo, The Bite fight, to name just a few.
And that's not all he's done, amazingly.
He's also been a pro baseball player, a rodeo rider, a politician and a cattle farmer.
All of which and more will feature in his book, set to be released next year, All The King's Horses and All The Queen's Men.
It was fantastic to spend some time with him, it really was.
This week we're joined by Clifton Mitchell, a man who's career in boxing has served him up more experiences than most.
He boxed as a pro, out of the famous Ingle gym, taking the ring moniker of Paddy O'Reilly.
As soon as he hung up the gloves he opened his own gym, the One Nation in Derby, that's going strong 25 years later.
He also started the most successful boxing security firm in the UK.
Oh, and he's been to Neverland to meet Michael Jackson and is on first name terms with Jennifer Lopez and Naomi Campbell.
And luckily, Clifton was happy to tell us about all of it :)
This week we sit down with top trainer and friend of the pod Peter Fury.
It's always great fun having a chat with Peter, someone who knows the boxing game inside out and is never afraid to say exactly what he thinks.
It was our first time recording in person with our guest for a good while, it really is great to be back :)
After abandoning you for nine months me and Matt Macklin are back and all over you like a cheap suit with our second pod in two days!
With the talks around the Fury vs AJ potential mega fight hitting the boxing world like a lightning bolt we thought we'd better get together for a chat.
Could it really happen?
It looks like it really could.
Well it is a comeback really :)
After a long nine months away Macklin's Take is back!
We never intended to be absent for so long but there was never any chance we wouldn't return so thanks everyone for your patience.
And thanks for all the messages we got from people telling us we needed to get our s*** together and get back to it, you were absolutely right of course.
We'll be doing our best to bring you an episode every week from now on, or as near to it as we can.
This week we ease ourselves back in by discussing the Drama in Jeddah and subsequent fallout and have a look ahead to the promotional wars that will be waged over the next few months.
This week on Macklin's Take me and Matt welcomed new British Light Heavyweight champion Dan Azeez to the podcast.
Dan turned in a dazzling display a couple of weeks back to claim the Lonsdale belt and having already won the Southern Area and English titles has done it the traditional way.
He's an old school fighter who, like his hero Marvelous Marvin Hagler, just wants to give the public the fights they want to see and mix it with any and all of the other British 175lb fighters.
We love his attitude and it was a pleasure to have him on.
It's the Return of the King :)
Our Franchise champion, the one and only Jon Pegg, had a brief sojourn in hospital recently so we thought the perfect tonic for him would be another appearance on MT.
And he was on fine form as usual.
We got into a number of subjects, including what it's like running small hall shows post Covid, something Jon's doing with great success, and why it is that although everyone seems to love the Rocky films, they seem to be less keen on real life Rockys.
As usual with the Peggmeister, it got deep.
This week me and Matt welcome back to the pod our good friend; top trainer, manager and now also promoter, Mr Joe Gallagher.
And Joe was bang on form :)
We went deep into a few different topics: The current UK promotional and broadcast battlegrounds, the seemingly lost art of talent spotting and with Anthony Joshua touring US gyms recently in search of a new trainer we asked Joe what he felt AJ needed to do to get back on track. He had plenty to say about that!
After being away for the last couple of week's at the Men's World Amateur Championships in Belgrade me and Matt decided to delve deep into the amateur code in this episode.
We wanted to talk about all levels, from club to country to elite international level, and we wanted someone with some longevity too, someone who's been around the sport for longer than us and who basically knows better than us.
And we had the perfect man for the job in Kelvyn Travis.
A long time club coach, former international coach of Matt's, Kelvyn has seen it all and was more than happy to give us his views on the amateur scene, the condition it's in now and the changes it's seen down the years.
This week me and Matt are joined by top boxing manager Sam Jones.
Sam has become a very familiar figure with British fight fans over the last few years and someone we've seen around a lot.
But we only ever really knew him just to say hello to so thought it was time we found out a bit more about the man who co-founded the very successful SJAM an who has recently become one of Probellum's big new signings.
And unsurprisingly his back story is a very interesting one, starting pretty much with a nerve-shredding make or break five minute meeting with none other than Floyd Mayweather! Sam was in at the deep end and has stayed there ever since.
After the Fury vs Wilder trilogy concluded in Las Vegas at the weekend, just two weeks after we saw Usyk beat Joshua, we decided it was time to delve into the Heavyweight division and see how the land lies now those 2 results are in.
We were both at Spurs for AJ whilst I was lucky enough to be at the T Mobile last Saturday too. It's been some fortnight.
This week on Macklin's Take me and Matt park up for an hour with Robert Smith, General Secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control.
We see Robert ringside all the time and have meant to get him on the pod for ages, to get the inside track on what it's like working for the sport's oldest and best governing body; the highs, the lows, the ups, the downs, the tears and the laughter.
It was great fun and Robert even felt relaxed enough to give us his top 10 Most Difficult People in British Boxing.
Spoiler alert: That last bit isn't true. Maybe next time :)
Welcome back to Macklin's Take everyone!
To celebrate our return, this week we welcome to the podcast top trainer Manny Robles.
Manny was in town last week for the Joshua vs Usky bill and me and Matt seized the opportunity to accompany him on a deep dive into that magical night in Madison Square Garden when he and Andy Ruiz shocked the boxing world.
Little did we know when we sat down and hit record that another huge heavyweight result was looming!
Hope you enjoy it, it's great to be back :)
YORK HALL - the spiritual home of british boxing. (Boxing News - The opening bell podcast) for the full version.
***Join Darren Rees on an atmospheric deep-dive into the magic of the old venue that’s provided fight fans of all ages with so many special memories.
From its 1929 opening as public baths in which Londoners would wash, right through to the present day - via visits from the likes of Tapia and Lomachenko - this audio documentary relives the great nights, fights and events that are pillars of British boxing history.
Boxers, promoters, referees, trainers, commentators and journalists relive their own personal highs and lows as the past, present and future of York Hall are explored in detail.***
Written and produced by Darren Rees
Engineered at: Untapped talent recording studios (Southampton)
Please get in contact with your York Hall memories via Twitter: @ReesBoxing89 or theopeningbellpodcast@gmail.com
As we canter towards our summer break, me & Matt thought it was about time we invited our good pal Joe Gallagher back onto the podcast.
As we said a few weeks ago, we've decided on MT that the pandemic is over, we're nothing if not a glass half full enterprise after all, and so with that in mind are taking the opportunity to have a look back at a unique period in boxing history.
And Joe was an ideal man to do that with 😁
This week we welcome Dennis Hobson onto the podcast.
Dennis has been involved in boxing as a promoter at all levels of the sport. He's taken the likes of Clinton Woods, Stuey Hall & Jamie McDonnell to world titles and conquered America with Ricky Hatton.
He has plenty of tales to tell and we were only too happy to hear them. And he's now back on the front line with Fight Zone too so we also had a good chat about that.
This week me and Matt welcome back our Franchise champion, the one and only Jon Pegg.
Macklin's Take will be taking a summer break in a few weeks and we reckon that when we return boxing will be back, crowds will be back and the Covid era will finally be coming to a close.
So we decided that over the next few episodes we'd have a bit of a light hearted look back at what has been a crazy last 15 months or so in the company of some selected guests. And unsurprisingly Jon was one of the first names on the team sheet, as he's definitely a man who can find the humour in almost any situation.
This week on Macklin's Take me and Matt are joined by Mike Altamura.
Mike is a genuine boxing insider; a matchmaker, agent and fixer, he's been involved in the sport at pretty much every level from organising local shows in his home country of Australia, to scouting for Top Rank at Olympic Games, to managing fighters to world titles.
Mike's got one of those great, "only in boxing" kind of stories and it was tremendous fun hearing it.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week me & Matt catch up with Daily Star boxing writer Chris McKenna.
A few weeks ago it was Chris who broke the news that AJ vs Fury wouldn't be happening because Tyson would have to first give Deontay Wilder a third fight.
It was a huge story, the biggest of Chris' career to date so we were keen to know how it came about and just what it's like working on the boxing beat for a daily newspaper in the current climate; a job where you have to combine the old school values of the printed daily edition with the more modern approach demanded by the instant digital platform.
The conversation went in all sorts of directions and we finished off with a good chat about the Matchroom/DAZN news, which had been confirmed the day we recorded this with Chris.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
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This week on Macklin's Take me & Matt are joined by our good friend Tris Dixon.
A former editor of Boxing News, Tris has long been one of the most respected figures in British boxing journalism.
And he has a new book out.
It's called Damage; The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing. It's a must read for everyone who really cares about the sport, absolutely everyone. It's the kind of book that could bring about real change and it was fascinating to talk to Tris about how he came to write it.
And we also took him back to his early days as a journalist, including his treks to all corners of the USA in search of old champions. It was great fun.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
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This week me & Matt Macklin welcome back to the podcast a newly retired Carl Frampton.
The 2-weight world champion talks about hanging the gloves up, Belfast roots, childhood ambitions and we give him a few ideas for what he might want to do next, apart from boxing punditry of course.
It's been over a year since we last spoke to Carl so it was great to get him back on; we hope to catch him ringside soon.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
Back in March we had a long and very enjoyable chat with a 15-0 Sunny Edwards about the trials and tribulations of a boxing life and how he'd managed to drive his career to the brink of a world title shot.
A couple of months later he's now 16-0 and the new IBF Flyweight champion of the world after dethroning Moruti Mthalane, a man who hadn't lost since 2008, in immaculate style.
That ladies and gentlemen is the power of Macklin's Take :)
But seriously, we had to get Sunny back on the pod to hear all about that night and how life has been for him since realising his lifelong dream.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week me & Matt welcome Carl Greaves to the podcast.
Carl's our favourite type of guest, a true insider of the sport, a genuine boxing lifer!
He was a pro fighter and is now a trainer, manager, promoter and matchmaker. He's done it all; from taking fighters on the road to guiding David Avanesyan to a world title.
It was great fun chatting to him about the ups and downs of the fight game.
This week on Macklin's Take...
It's the Return of the Cobra.
Me and Matt Macklin welcome back our good friend and colleague, 3-time world Super Middleweight champion, Carl Froch.
As usual the conversation took a number of turns with Carl and Matt discussing how fighters condition themselves to pain, how your formative boxing years shape you as a fighter, and why Carl wouldn't want his son to box pro.
And we had time for a chat about Canelo vs Saunders and a bit of Tyson Fury too.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
It's Chisora vs Parker at the weekend so we though we'd bring you an extra podcast this week.
In this one we catch up with our good friend Andy Lee, who now trains Joseph Parker to get his thoughts on life in the corner and of course Saturday's main event.
It was a very enjoyable conversation and just as I was thinking about bringing it to a close a message popped up on the screen saying that a certain Adam Booth had been admitted to the Zoom waiting room. I had no idea how that had happened but we were only too happy to let him in!
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week me and Matt had the great honour of being joined on the podcast by legendary, Hall of Fame boxing writer Jerry Izenberg.
Jerry's been covering boxing for the Newark Star Ledger in New Jersey since 1950 and has seen it all; from the post war period when the Mafia controlled boxing right up until the present day.
Name an iconic fight during that period and Jerry was ringside. Patterson, Liston, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Spinks, Holmes, Tyson, Holyfield, he's known them all so it was an absolute pleasure to talk to him about his life following the Noble Art.
Jerry's book, Once There Were Giants, the Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing comes out in paperback on May 11th and is available now for pre-order via Amazon.
This week on Macklin's Take we plunge into another deep dive into a big fight, journeying back half a century to Madison Square Garden and the Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.
It was a boxing occasion like no other an ringside that night, reporting on the fight for the British press, was a young Alan Hubbard so me and Matt were absolutely delighted when Alan, now a true Don of the boxing print media, agreed to join us on the podcast and give us his memories of March 8th, 1971, when the eyes of the world were firmly fixed on that squared circle just feet way from him.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
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This week on Macklin's Take me and Matt are joined by Welterweight contender Michael McKinson.
Mikey scored the biggest win of his career, a make or break win really, in Gibraltar against fellow unbeaten fighter Chris Kongo recently and has had a very interesting upbringing and journey through the sport so now seemed like the right time to invite him on and let him tell it.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week on Macklin's Take me & Matt Macklin are joined by Boxing News editor and recent SJA award winner Matt Christie.
We talk to Matt about his route into the industry, his career, the pressures of his role, the current boxing scene, anything and everything basically.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so if you could find your way over there and click subscribe, that would be great.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week on Macklin's Take me & Matt talk to Professor Damian Hughes, co-host of the High Performance podcast, author, and son of the legendary Manchester trainer Bryan Hughes MBE.
Damian grew up surrounded by boxing and has spent his career in large part studying why elite coaches and athletes do what they do and how they go about doing it; the behaviours they insist upon and the logic they employ.
And we started off with a question that has always intrigued me: Why does anyone choose a boxing life? A big question and our attempt to answer it led to a really enjoyable conversation.
Macklin's Take is also now on YouTube so if you could take a minute to head over to the channel, check out the content and subscribe, that would be much appreciated.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
With Povetkin vs Whyte rapidly approaching Barry Jones joins me and Matt from his bedroom on the Sunborn yacht in Gibraltar to look ahead to Saturday.
Barry's been on the ground for a couple of days so was the perfect man to bring us up to date with what's been happening and to give us his verdict on the weekend's fights.
He has managed to sunburn his bald head though :)
This episode is also up on our YouTube channel:
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
With Povetkin vs Whyte coming up at the weekend we decided to bring you some extra pods this week.
In this one we catch up with the 10-0 Fabio Wardley who takes on two-time world title challenger Eric Molina in the chief support.
Fabio's route into pro boxing was an unusual one and he's made huge strides since turning over just 4 years ago, in no small part due to his mental approach to the sport and the self-belief he discovered early on in his boxing journey and has managed to successfully nurture since.
Me and Matt talked to him about all the above and plenty more besides. It was an absolute pleasure.
Macklin's Take is now also on YouTube so please do go over, have a look & subscribe:
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week on Macklin's take me and Matt are joined by top trainer Adam Booth.
We take Adam on a deep dive back to his days working with David Haye, tracing their journey through from amateur days at Fitzroy Lodge, to the Playboy Mansion, and take it right up to their make or break night in Paris when David dethroned WBC & WBA Cruiserweight King Jean Marc Mormeck to become world champion.
Any conversation with Adam is always fascinating and this one was no different.
Macklin's Take is also now on YouTube so please do check us out and subscribe!
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week sees me and Matt welcome former IBF World Middleweight champion and good friend Darren Barker to the podcast for a long overdue Macklin's Take debut.
Matt and Darren, were the same weight and their careers ran in parallel lines really. They very nearly boxed at one point, posters were printed and it was all ready to go top of the bill on the much-vaunted Magnificent Seven card, but an injury to Darren prevented it. So we revisit the fight that never was and the two of them compare notes and stories not just from their fighting days but also from their new careers as media pundits.
If you enjoy the podcast then please do check out our YouTube channel where we bring you extra content consisting of excerpts from old episodes as well as weekly topical debate centred around what's happening in the world of boxing.
http://bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week on Macklin's Take me and Matt are joined by the 15-0 British Super Flyweight champion Sunny Edwards.
Getting noticed as a young pro fighter, if you don't turn over with Olympic pedigree, has always been a challenge. Boxing is a business and as a fighter you have to market yourself, promote yourself, drive your own career; in short you have to sell yourself as best you can. And you have to be able to fight too. It's a long, hard game and you have to have a plan.
Sunny has always had a plan and in this episode he tells me and Matt about the philosophies that underpin the moves he makes, the mistakes he's made and what he's learnt from them. It was an enlightening conversation, it really was.
In this episode we take you back to Christmas 1997 and NYC for a deep dive into Prince Naseem Hamed's sensational US debut at Madison Square Garden vs Kevin Kelley.
There was never a dull moment with Naz and nobody knows that better than Sky Sport's Adam Smith, who was on the inside of the Sheffield fighter's career through its many highs and also its controversial lows. Adam was in New York 24 years ago, spending 2 weeks out there wrapped around a fight that with hindsight was probably the highlight of Hamed's extraordinary career. Luckily for us he remembers it like it was yesterday.
And just a reminder that Macklin's Take is now on YouTube so please do click on the link below, subscribe and check out all the great content we have up there.
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC89PBQcrYSU1L6TOjCNO-Ww
This week we welcome Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith back to the podcast.
Plenty has happened in the 16 months since we last spoke to him and we talk to him about the challenges attached to promoting the sport during the Covid era and Matchroom's plans to take boxing global over the next couple of years. And plenty else besides.
And please do check out our new YouTube channel. Loads of content from recent podcasts up there, as well as the new Macklin's Weekly Take, where we react to current boxing news and fights.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC89PBQcrYSU1L6TOjCNO-Ww
In this episode me and Matt Macklin talk the Art of the Deal with boxing Hall of Famer Lou DiBella.
With a mega fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury in the pipeline we decided we needed to get the inside track on how fights like that actually get made, how negotiations get over the line and what the major obstacles often are.
Lou has performed pretty much every role in the business of boxing and at the very highest level too so he was the ideal man for the job. It was a very illuminating conversation with one of the sport's most lucid and straightest talkers.
And just a reminder that Macklin's Take is now on YouTube. So please do head over to our page and subscribe; there's already a lot of great content on there, including a new, shorter weekly podcast that me and Matt have started doing, looking at what's currently happening in the weird and wonderful world of boxing.
YouTube link: bitly.com/MacklinsTakeYouTube
This week on Macklin's Take we bring you an episode people have been asking for over the last year or so.
An in-depth discussion of strength and conditioning training. What is it? What's it designed to achieve? How much should you do and when should you do it?
There are plenty of misconceptions out there so we recruited MMA fighter and top S&C coach Chris Miah to guide us through the whole thing as well as the weight-making process and plenty else besides.
Cus D'Amato once said that fear is like fire: If you can control then it can give you heat and light but if you can't control then it will burn you to the ground.
This week me and Matt Macklin are joined by former WBC Super Middleweight champion, now clinical psychotherapist Glenn Catley to talk about fear, about how fighters have to be able not to just overcome it but to harness it, control it, to "make it their friend" as Matt often says.
It's a key issue, one that affects not just boxers but people in all walks of life. We all know what it's like to feel nervous, afraid or at the very least apprehensive and how inhibiting or even destructive it can be so it was great to pick Glenn's expert brain.
This week me and Matt are joined by one of the best commentators in the business; the smooth voice of BT Boxing, John Rawling.
John's called countless big fights from ringside over the last few decades and his enthusiasm for the job remains undimmed so it was great to talk to him about the demands of the role and how he believes it should be done.
We also had time to have a look at how the industry has changed in the time he's been in it and in an effort to boost everyone's morale turned the clock back 11 months to Tyson Fury's epic rematch victory over Deontay Wilder.
This week me & Matt Macklin bring you our first episode of 2021, so welcome back everyone! And we revisit the Make or Break theme we came up with over the summer where we talk to fighters about pivotal fights in their careers, fights that had they lost them then their lives would not have been the same. Our guest is Curtis Woodhouse, who has one of the best stories in all of sport, not just boxing. A premier League footballer, he turned his back on the game in his mid-20s to become a professional boxer. People laughed at him, they thought he’d lost his mind. He vowed to win a British title. They laughed even harder. But he silenced them all. You couldn’t make it up, you really couldn’t.
Merry Christmas everyone and welcome to a Macklin's Take Yuletide special.
Like last year, our top producer Darren Rees has put together a Festive Selection Box featuring some of the best bits from what has been a highly unusual year.
Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren, Conor Benn and Dave Coldwell all feature as do Paul Ramsay, Shaun Cogan and Anthony Maynard who joined us for our This Boxing Life episode back at the start of the year.
Obviously it's been an absolutely bizarre last 9 months. It's been beyond strange but we've loved doing the podcast through it all. It's been great fun and a great distraction for both of us so thanks to everyone who's listened and to all our guests of course.
We'll be back in 2021, in the meantime have a great Christmas and New Year everyone.
In this episode me and Matt tackle one of our favourite subjects: Matchmaking.
Good matchmaking is crucial not only to the development of individual fighters but to the overall health of the sport. It’s a genuine art and good matchmakers are worth their weight in gold. They know how to pick the right opponents at the right time, how to provide boxers with the in-ring education they need to develop and improve and also of course how and when to deliver to the paying public the fights we want to see.
One of the best around is Goldenboy Promotions matchmaker Robert Diaz and we were lucky enough to catch up with him in Yucatan, Mexico.
It was an education so we hope you get as much out of it as we did.
And we talked a bit of Canelo vs Smith and Garcia vs Campbell too.
This week we celebrate the 100th episode of Macklin's Take by inviting on to the podcast former European Welterweight champ, and old friend of Matt Macklin's, Mr Matthew Hatton.
Matt went 12 rounds with Canelo back in the day for the WBC Super Welterweight title so we have a chat about that and the big fight at the weekend between the Mexican and our very own Callum Smith.
We also talk to Matt about the new adventure he's embarking upon as trainer to his nephew and new Matchroom signing Campbell Hatton.
And the two Matts also have plenty of time to reminisce about their days as gym mates. Mumba-gate is revisited as is the time Macklin and Michael Gomez rebranded themselves as a modern day Batman and Robin. It was great fun; we'll definitely be getting the Magic Man back on in the future.
And finally we'd like to say a big thank you to all of you who listen to the podcast. It's great to get to 100 episodes, we love doing it, so here's to another 100!
For this one we welcome Peter Fury back to Macklin's Take.
And I ask Peter and Matt a question that's been hotly debated in British boxing over the last week or so.
How much can we reasonably expect fighters to give in the ring?
How far through the pain barrier can we really demand that they push themselves in pursuit of victory?
It was fascinating to listen to their take on what is a complex issue.
And we talked a bit of Joshua vs Pulev and of course Hughie Fury vs Mariusz Wach.
This week on Macklin's Take me and Matt are joined by none other than Top Rank boss Bob Arum.
Bob turned 89 this week and has now been promoting boxing for 54 years. During that time he really has been there and seen and done it all so it was great to sit down with him for an hour and get his thoughts on AJ vs Pulev, the current state of the boxing industry, the future for Top Rank and plenty else besides. We even had time to get his take on the assassination of JFK as back in the early 60s, before he turned to boxing, Bob was working at the US Department of Justice when it happened. The man is history in human form!
We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
This week me & Matt Macklin are joined by esteemed boxing scribe and author Kevin Mitchell to look back at the two showdowns between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis in 1999 that eventually saw Lewis crowned undisputed King of the Heavyweight division. The 90s was a mad decade in the top division; a 42/1 upset, Fan Man, a belt in the bin, the return of George Foreman, the Bite Fight, Andrew Golota. It was chaos. Luckily for us Kev was right in the thick of it and ringside at both Madison Square Garden and the Thomas & Mack for those Holyfield vs Lewis mega fights.
This week me & Matt Macklin are joined by Ashley Theophane. Ashley, and I mean this in the best possible way, is not the kind of man you meet every day, even by boxing’s unusual standards. He’s been a pro for the best part of 2 decades, winning a British title almost 10 years ago before leaving these shores to join Floyd Mayweather’s Money Team in Las Vegas, appearing on some huge Mayweather cards and boxing for a world title before emabarking on a world tour that has seen him take fights in Mexico, Ghana, Romania and Dubai to name just a few of his destinations. He’s back in the UK and fights on December 11th vs Sam Eggington so we thought it was about we caught up with him.
This week me & Matt Macklin are joined by top boxing writer Ron Lewis as we take a deep dive into the March 2006 World Super Middleweight unification clash between WBO champ Joe Calzaghe and IBF ruler Jeff Lacy. It was a make or break fight for Calzaghe. After years of defending his WBO title finally he had the big fight he’d been waiting for but when he walked to the ring in the early hours in Manchester Joe found himself the betting underdog against the big punching “Left Hook” Lacy. What followed was a complete masterclass from the Welshman and a win that both captured the attention of the boxing world and led to the great fights that crowned his career.
This week me & Matt Macklin take a deep dive into the biggest upset in boxing history, James Buster Douglas’ stunning win against the unbeaten, undisputed Heavyweight champion of the world Iron Mike Tyson. Douglas 42/1 with the bookmakers when he walked to the ring in Tokyo in February 1990 and had been written off by everyone. Well, not quite everyone. Tim May was ringside covering the fight for the Columbus Dispatch, Douglas’ local paper in Ohio, had known Buster for years and was the only person to predict a Douglas win. Tim joined us to turn the clock back 30 years and it was fantastic to talk to him about his memories of the build-up and the fight itself. He still remembers it like it was yesterday.
This week me & Matt Macklin take a deep dive into another big fight, this time in the company of our good friend Steve Bunce. For this one we turn the clock back 30 years to a Sunday night in November 1990 when Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank met in the ring for the first time. It was the greatest rivalry British boxing had ever seen and probably will ever see. The build-up was electric and the fight was a classic. Buncey was ringside that night and had followed both fighters from the beginning so was the perfect man to help us get under the skin of a legendary night.
This week me & Matt Macklin take a deep dive into another big fight, turning the clock back 13 years to December 2007 and the clash between Floyd Mayweather and Ricky Hatton. Two undefeated fighters, the build-up was like nothing we’d seen before involving a British fighter and fight week was the same as 1000s of Hatton fans invaded Las Vegas. Ringside that night calling the fight for the BBC was commentator Mike Costello and Mike joins us to give us his recollections of how the fight happened, the events of fight week, what transpired in the ring and the ensuing aftermath. We absolutely loved doing it so hope you enjoy it.
Ahead of Usyk vs Chisora at the weekend me and Matt talk to former WBC Cruiser champ Tony Bellew about what it was like to share the ring with the Ukrainian. And we also investigate the art of self-promotion, a key element in any boxer’s career and one that Tony was a master of. There was serious method behind his apparent madness and it was fascinating to have a look behind the curtain.
With Usyk vs Chisora coming up at the weekend me and Matt are joined by David Haye, former unified Cruiserweight champ and WBA Heavyweight champ, now Del Boy’s manager and a man who knows exactly how to sell a fight! He told us exactly how Chisora is going to take the Ukrainian down and afterwards we took him on a little trip down memory lane to the night he beat Mormeck in Paris to scoop those Cruiser belts and also back to a certain press conference in Munich…
People have been asking for a while if we could do an episode on all aspects of boxing training so we thought it was about time we did. Sparring, drills, S&C, recovery, making weight, rehydration, we get into it all in depth and detail. And who better to get chapter and verse from than our good mate, former WBO Cruiserweight champion and fittest 40-year-old on the planet Enzo Maccarinelli. Enzo’s 20 year career has seen a lot change in terms of attitudes to training and him and Matt had plenty to say about all aspects. It was an education to be able to sit and listen in so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
On this week’s bonus episode we look back at conversations we’ve had with world champions. There’s Carl Froch, the 3-time World Super Middleweight champion, Frankie Gavin, who is still the only Englishman to win a world amateur title and WBO Cruiserweight king Johnny Nelson. They’ve all achieved amazing things in boxing and it was fascinating to listen to what they had to say.
This week on Macklin’s Take me and Matt take a deep dive into one of our favourite areas: International amateur boxing. And we do it in the company of Paul Walmsley, who’s just hung up his GB pads after 21 years as a top international coach, and Stephen Smith, a former protégé of Paul’s and a highly decorated amateur fighter back in the day. It was great fun, there’s nothing like tales from the amateur days.
This week for our bonus episode me and Matt look back at conversations we’ve had with fighters from the Emerald Isle. Ireland has long been a hotbed of boxing talent and has produced some great champions, amateur and pro, and here we feature 2004 Olympian and WBO Middleweight champion now trainer Andy Lee, 2008 Beijing silver medallist Kenny Egan, his old international amateur team mate now campaigning as a pro Eric Donovan and, last but not least, 2-weight world champion Carl Frampton. They were all great fun to chat with and we hope to have them all back on before long.
This week on Macklin’s Take myself, Matt Macklin and author Brian Doogan turn the clock back to 1987 and the Super Fight between Marvelous Marvin Hagler & Sugar Ray Leonard.
It was a fight that will forever have a place in boxing folklore and for good reason. A fight that was years in the making between two men who pursued different career paths and who lived different lives. Hagler vs Leonard is an epic boxing drama of Shakespearean proportions. Controversy still reigns over the result to this day and will do for years to come yet so it was an absolute pleasure to put it under the microscope and take a really close look.
This week’s bonus episode on Macklin’s Take sees us revisit conversations we’ve had in the past with trainers.
We did a part one earlier in the year but we’ve had so many trainers on the podcast that there’s more than enough material to do ten of these probably! And trainers do love a chat, which is perfect for us. In this one we bring you excerpts from pods we’ve done with Stefy Bull, a man who’s seen and done it all in pro boxing, Jedi mind games master Joe Gallagher, the understated trainer of champions that is Graham Everett and, last but not least, Mark Reigate, the gaffer at the famous Fitzroy Lodge club. A wide range of subjects gets covered so we hope you enjoy it 😊
This week on Macklin’s Take we welcome our first Olympic gold medallist in Luke Campbell.
As an amateur Luke did it all and as a pro he’s come perilously close to winning a world title against the very best opposition in Jorge Linares and Vasiliy Lomachenko. There’s still time to land that elusive belt though; the Hull Lightweight has been through a lot in his career and whilst there have been some amazing highs there have also been some extremely difficult lows. He’s not one to court the limelight but he’s always good company so it was great to catch up with Luke in camp in Canterbury where he’s preparing for his fight against Ryan Garcia.
After our chat with Al Bernstein earlier in the week, Macklin’s Take brings you a bonus episode where we revisit some earlier conversations we’ve had with similar luminaries of boxing journalism.
We start with the inimitable Thomas Hauser, a man who’s long been one of the finest fight scribes in the business, then merge into a discussion with another Hall of Famer in Steve Farhood who’s achieved great longevity in the fields of both print and broadcast, and last of all, but certainly not least, we finish with an excerpt from a very enjoyable hour we spent with our good friend John Dennen, himself a published author and also of course a leading light at the excellent Boxing News. They all had plenty to say so we hope you enjoy hearing from such a fine trio of pugilistic sages!
This week on Macklin’s Take myself and Matt Macklin are joined by Hall of Fame broadcaster Al Bernstein.
In boxing, and in all sports, the media is always changing but one of the constants of the last 4 decades for all boxing fans have been the dulcet tones and informed, insightful analysis of a certain Mr Bernstein.
He’s called many of the biggest fights we’ve seen and has stayed true to his principles from day one. As Al says, “you’re never bigger than the event you’re covering” and it’s that ethic, along with his undoubted broadcasting skill, which has allowed him to enjoy the kind of longevity that only the best manage to achieve.
This week on Macklin’s Take myself and Matt Macklin are joined by Frank Warren
Frank doesn’t really need any introduction. A Boxing Hall of Fame promoter, he’s been at the top of the sport for decades and the driving force behind some of the biggest fights and most successful careers in British boxing.
There have been ups and downs along the way but never a dull moment and it was an absolute pleasure to have him on the podcast.
Boxers have all sorts of journeys and Conor Benn's has been a pretty unique one so far. He’s not the first son of a famous father to follow his Dad into the squared circle and he very likely won’t be the last. And although there are advantages to bearing a well-known surname, there are drawbacks too. People often have the idea that it’s all sweetness and light but nobody can do the fighting for you, the pressure is intense, and the younger Benn is brutally honest in his appraisal of what his pugilistic life has been like so far and even admits there have been times when he’s questioned whether he has what it takes to prosper in this most demanding of sports. It was great fun talking to him so we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
This week on Macklin’s Take we’re doing something a little bit different. Top trainer Dave Coldwell joins me and Matt Macklin for an in-depth philosophical discussion. That’s right, the key questions of the sporting universe are addressed. Such as: Does natural talent really exist? What does it take to be a winner? Does sporting success equal happiness? Over the course of 63 minutes we do our best to supply the definitive answers to all the above! It was ambitious admittedly but made for an interesting discussion. If people enjoy it then we can definitely do a part II.
This week on Macklin’s Take me and Matt are joined by Natasha Jonas. We saw Tasha in the ring recently, headlining week 2 of Fight Camp, where she challenged WBC Super Featherweight champion Terri Harper and fought her way to a thrilling draw. It was her biggest night in professional boxing and a performance to be proud of so it was great to catch up with her and get her thoughts on it and on what might come next now the dust has settled. But it’s only part of her story. Tash has been in boxing for 15 years; she’s done and seen a hell of a lot during that time so we also took the opportunity to wind back the clock and reminisce about how and why she started, her time with GB, London 2012, her retirement and then her comeback. It was great fun.
This week on Macklin’s Take me and Matt are joined by Eddie Hearn to look back at what was an epic finale to Fight Camp and to discuss the very unique demands and pressures life as a boxing promoter places on a person. As he tells us, it’s not all private jets and ringside seats; success comes with a significant personal price tag in many, many ways.
This week on Macklin’s Take me and Matt are joined by top trainer Joe Gallagher to discuss the key role that psychological warfare or mind games can play in the build up to big fights.
It’s something Joe pays a lot of attention to and he was happy to discuss what is a fine art, and one that can play a big part in elite level contests.
This week me & Matt Macklin are joined by fighter and trainer duo Eric Donovan and Kenny Egan. Back in the day these two travelled the world together as amateurs boxing for Ireland and competing at European and World Championships and Olympic Games. You name it, one of them did it, and usually both.
And after a few years apart the pair of them are back together. Eric’s 12-0 as a pro and on Friday faces the biggest fight of his career in Eddie Hearn’s back garden vs new Matchroom signing Zelfa Barrett.
The two most punctual men ever to join us on the podcast, it was great fun talking to them.
This week me & Matt Macklin are joined by Adam Harper who on Friday night fights Anthony Fowler at Matchroom Square Gardens.
Adam’s got one of the best stories out there. 3 years ago me & Matt commentated on his Midlands Area title win. He followed it up by travelling to Australia to challenge for the Commonwealth title after chasing and getting the fight on Facebook. Then he came back home and won an English title. Then on the brink of a British title challenge failed a brain scan, retired and started training to be a referee. Then he got the failed scan overturned, hassled the life out of Eddie Hearn and got himself the Fowler fight. Oh, and he got engaged during lockdown too.
It’s a rollercoaster.
This week me and Matt make British podcast history and bring together two of the most agile boxing brains in the country.
Do you remember that scene in Heat when DeNiro and Pacino come face to face for the first time? Well it’s exactly like that only with much less hair and much more nonsense.
On one side of the table we have the Birmingham Scorsese, aka Jon Pegg, and opposite him the Cardiff Philosopher King, also known as Barry Jones.
A number of topics were covered, some serious, some not so, but all 100% boxing.
This week IBF Featherweight champion Josh Warrington joins me and Matt on our Make or Break series.
Josh has had a fascinating career. There have been plenty of doubters, every step of the way, from his very first title fight when he travelled to Dudley to take on Chris Male for the vacant English title in 2012, to six years later when he landed his world title at a sold out Elland road, and he’s silenced them all.
In many ways his has been a Make or Break career and we really enjoyed listening to him tell us all about it, so we hope you do too.
In this latest episode in our Make or Break series me & Matt are joined by former World title challenger and British and Commonwealth champion Derry Mathews
Back in early 2012, after 10 years and 37 fights as a pro, a bruising defeat against Emiliano Marsili for the European title saw Derry call it a day. Enough was enough. But then he got the call to challenge reigning British Lightweight champion Anthony Crolla and answered. It was his last chance to land a Lonsdale belt and reignite his career, a true Make or Break, underdog story, and one that led to a great final chapter of the Liverpudlian’s story.
The Saint was in some huge fights during his career but there was none more crucial than his 2011 showdown with James Degale. It was a bout that brought together two former club mates and amateur rivals, by then both undefeated as pros, in a genuine grudge match. The kind of clash that boxing fans yearn for but rarely get to see. George was a big underdog and knew that a defeat would see him written off as a genuine prospect, that it would be a very long road back…
In this latest episode in our Make or Break series me & Matt are joined by none other than former unified world Lightweight champion Nate Campbell.
The Galaxxy Warrior takes us back to March 2008 and Cancun, Mexico, where the day after his 36th birthday he faced his last chance to win a world title. In the opposite corner was the undefeated, 33-0, WBA, IBF & WBO 135lbs champion, Juan Diaz, who was the house fighter and at 24, 12 years Nate’s junior. Everybody expected Diaz to win but that never bothered the challenger from Jacksonville who was 100% confident it would be his night.
In this latest episode in our Make or Break series me & Matt are joined by former WBO Cruiserweight champion and Sky colleague Johnny Nelson. Johnny takes us back to 1989 when he boxed Andy Straughn in the Finsbury Park Super Tent for the British title and then to 10 years later in 1999 when he faced his third, and what definitely would have been his final, world title shot vs Carl Thompson. If he’d lost then he’d have packed boxing in so it really was Make or Break.
In this latest episode in our Make or Break series me & Matt are re-joined by former 3-time World Super Middleweight champion, now Sky colleague Carl Froch. The Cobra takes us through his key battles with Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor, the fights that established him as a major player on the world stage. We’ve made a technical leap this week too, so the sound’s better.
In this week’s Lockdown Bonus Episode me and Matt revisit conversations we’ve had with our Boxing Insiders. We have the inimitable Jon Pegg; the Winston Wolf of the fight game in Al Siesta; top cornerman Mark Seltzer; Sky presenter Anna Woolhouse and the hugely experienced trainer and hand-wrapper to the stars Russ Anber. Between them they’ve performed pretty much every role you care to name and it was great fun getting their take and insight on all aspects of the sport.
This week me and Matt continue our Make or Break series, where we talk to fighters about their most pivotal career wins, and in this episode we talk to our good friend Spencer Oliver. We turn the clock back to 1997 to when Spencer was a 9-0 prospect and about to face his first big test, a battle with fellow undefeated fighter on the rise Patrick Mullings for the vacant Southern Area Super Bantamweight title. For the winner bigger fights would beckon whilst for the loser it would be a difficult road back so the pressure was on The Omen.
This week me and Matt have a look back at some of the conversations we’ve enjoyed with world champions on Macklin’s Take. We’ve had plenty on so we’ll probably do a couple more of these but for this one we’ve picked out Barry Jones, Glenn McCrory, George Groves and Carl Froch. If you haven’t listened to the full individual episodes then do check them out (the ones with Grove and Froch came early on, when MT was only on Soundcloud 😊).
This week me and Matt kick off a new series we’re calling Make or Break. In it we talk to fighters about pivotal fights in their careers, fights that had they not won them then their stories would have been very different or in some cases over. Fights that whilst they might not have been their biggest in terms of titles or purses or profiles, were in so many ways their most important. And we kick off with an old gym mate of Macklin’s, Anthony “Million Dollar” Crolla, who had more of those kinds of encounters than most.
This week me and Matt look back on conversations we’ve had with people operating on the front line, carving out careers in boxing trenches. This episode features away corner legend Peter Buckley, the hammer-fisted Cello Renda, aspiring world champion Cherrelle Brown, Fitzroy Lodge stalwart Mark Reigate and seasoned pros Paul Ramsey, Shaun Cogan and Anthony Maynard. It takes in all aspects of life in the sport, the highs, the lows and everything in between. Hope you enjoy it.
This week me and Matt are in the company of Light Heavyweight contender Craig Richards. Craig was all set to challenge for the vacant British 175lbs title at the end of March before being laid low by Covid-19. He tells us what it was like contracting and battling the virus, how he’s managing to deal with lockdown and what level of unusual of conditions he’s willing to fight under when boxing does return.
For this week’s Lockdown Bonus we’ve decided to bring you a USA Special. We’ve had so many good guests on from the other side of the Atlantic and in this episode we revisit chats we had with legendary boxing scribe Thomas Hauser, print and broadcast doyen Steve Farhood, the one and only Michael Buffer, former world champion turned elite level pundit Paulie Malignaggi and current 3-weight world champ and double Olympic gold medallist Claressa Shields. We loved doing all of these so we hope you enjoy it
After a grim few weeks it looks like plans are underway for the return of professional boxing. So what will shows look like in those early days of any resumption and how will they work? There are so many questions and to try and answer them me and Matt called upon Kugan Cassius, a good mate of ours and one of the mainstays of the boxing media.
With no big fights on the horizon for a while me and Matt have decided to wind the clock back to early December and the Andy Ruiz vs Anthony Joshua rematch in Saudi Arabia. It was a huge week for British boxing. The build-up was tense and it was of course all played out in unfamiliar surroundings which only added to the drama. We thoroughly enjoyed it and in podcast terms it was a joy as we had so many people, all in one place and all with very little to do. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many guests.
This week we’re joined by our Sky colleague and old international team-mate of Matt’s, Paul Smith. Paul and Matt go way, way back so he was the perfect person to lift the lid on Matt’s early years. It was great fun listening to them re-live their old amateur days as well as hearing all about what it meant to Paul to win the British title and challenge for world titles on behalf of his beloved Liverpool.
As promised here’s another Lockdown Bonus episode and this week we concentrate on promoters. So with that in mind we revisit chats me and Matt have had with Frank Smith, Stefy Bull, Lee Eaton and a certain Kalle Sauerland. These 4 have seen it all at every level and have the stories to match.
This week we’re joined by an old acquaintance of Matt Macklin, fight scribe Glynn Evans. Glynn was at Boxing Monthly from the beginning and fills us in on what life was like working for the famous magazine, tells us how the written media has changed over the last 30 years and gives us an insider’s view of the famous Calzaghe Newbridge gym.
With another 3 weeks of lockdown looming we’ve decided to up our game and bring you some extra bonus episodes. So we’ve made some new ones by going through our back catalogue, stealing some of the best bits and sewing them together. This week we concentrate on the role of the trainer and revisit conversations me and Matt had with the likes of Jim McDonnell, Jamie Moore, Joe Gallagher and Dave Coldwell. They were really interesting chats so we hope you enjoy it.
Who better to stave off isolation boredom than Jon Pegg? We all know Jon as a boxing trainer, manager and promoter but what you may not know is that he’s also an award-winning scriptwriter and film director. So this week the second city’s Renaissance Man joins me and Matt for a good chat about boxing’s long and close relationship with the silver screen.
This week Macklin's Take goes remote! He's in Solihull, I'm in Forest Gate and this week we decided to take your questions.It led to some interesting conversations particularly around the issues of the mental stresses and strains of the loneliness and isolation involved in being a pro boxer, a subject everyone can relate to at the moment.
This week Adam Smith joins me and Matt to look back on over a quarter of a century on the Sky Sports boxing team. The highs, the lows, the ridiculous, the sublime and everything in between.
This episode was recorded on March 6th.
This week me and Matt are joined by on of the most respected trainers in UK boxing, Graham Everett.
Herbie Hide, Jon Thaxton, the Walsh brothers, all of them, and many more were brought through by Graham and away from the traditional bright lights of boxing hubs such as |London, Liverpool, Manchester or Sheffield.He hasn't just developed boxers, he's built careers and knows the business inside out.
This episode was recorded on February 20th.
This week me and Matt are joined by 2 weight world champion Carl Frampton. The Jackal will soon be challenging for a world title in a third weight division so we took the opportunity to rewind the clock a few years and have a look back to Carl’s early years, early fears and plenty else besides.
This week we’re joined by 3-weight world champion Claressa Shields and former IBO champion Hannah Rankin. Back in late 2018 these two fought each other for 3 world Middleweight titles and were sworn enemies yet now they’re the best of friends. Their journeys and backgrounds could hardly be more different but now they’re both standard bearers for women’s pro boxing. So what’s it really like being a top female professional? How are women treated by the sport? Both gave us very honest answers.
This week me and Matt sit down with British Middleweight champion Liam Williams. The Welshman trains at the world-famous Ingle gym in Sheffield and is on the brink of a world title shot. It’s an exciting and frustrating position to be in, and one that Matt’s been in himself, so it was the perfect opportunity for the two of them to compare notes on the stresses and strains of a boxing life.
This week me and Matt catch up with WBA Super Flyweight champ Kal Yafai. Kal’s the UK’s longest reigning world champ and on Saturday faces the biggest test of his career when he defends his title against 4 weight world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. He feels he’s at the peak of his powers but as the oldest of the 3 Yafai brothers told us, it hasn’t always been plain sailing, far from it.
This week we catch up with the Boxing Don of Doncaster; trainer, manager and promoter Stefy Bull. Stefy, who held a Central Area title back in his boxing days, has brought so many fighters through the ranks with his latest star being new WBC Super Featherweight champion Terri Harper who followed in Jamie McDonnell’s footsteps to a world title. But there’s Area champs, English, British, Commonwealth and European champs too as well as good, honest away corner warriors. He’s been there and done it all and has plenty of stories to tell.
This week me and Matt sit down with our Sky colleague and very good friend Anna Woolhouse. "The Raging Wool", as we like to call her, presents the boxing on Sky and has done for the last 3 years so we were very curious to know what he's made of the boxing world since she entered it and whether she had any idea what she was getting herself into.
This week on Macklin's Take me and Matt are bringing you a new idea which we're calling This Boxing Life. The idea is that we get a few seasoned, former pros together, not huge names but fighters who have done it the hard way, who know first hand how the sport and business of boxing work, and take a deep dive into their lives and careers. And we kick off in Birmingham at Cogan's Corner gym with Paul Ramsay, Anthony Maynard, Darren Sweeney and Shaun Cogan. Hope you enjoy it.
By popular demand this week sees the return of our top boxing insider Jon Pegg. As always Jon had plenty to say and painted us another vivid picture of the workings of the sport. And we finally lay to rest the issue of Mumba-Gate, a controversy that has been raging since Jon’s first appearance.
To kick off 2020 we bring you top boxing writer, published author and Classical scholar John “Demolition Man” Dennen. As well as being the owner of the most feared southpaw jab in journalism, John is also one of the elite team of scribes that brings us Boxing News every week and always great company. He gave us a cracking insight into life on the road as a member of the written press and with the Olympics on the horizon filled us in on the international amateur scene.
As the year draws to a close me and Matt bring you a festive selection box of some of our favourite bits of the very first year of Macklin’s Take. It was very difficult to choose as we’ve loved every episode and would like to thank all our guests for giving up their time and of course everyone who’s listened. It’s been an absolute joy and we’ll be back next year, but for you now, we give you some 2019 highlights…
This week me and Matt sit down with MTK promoter Lee Eaton. Lee started out by putting on a charity boxing night a few years ago and now finds himself co-promoting shows with Bob Arum's Top Rank and mixing with the great and good of the sport at major conventions. It's been a hell of a ride and it was great fun hearing about the highs and lows.
After Anthony Joshua beat Andy Ruiz to regain his WBA, IBF and WBO Heavyweight titles at the Diriyah Arena in Saudi Arabia me and Matt Macklin sat down in the hotel lobby and canvassed the thoughts, opinions and recollections of a Who’s Who of boxing afficionados. Carl Froch, Tony Bellew, Spencer Oliver, Eddie Hearn, Dave Coldwell, Adam Smith, Anna Woolhouse and Kugan Cassius all joined us to look back on what was an historic week in the desert. There were even Christmas carols at the end. Seriously. No really, there were.
Ahead of Ruiz vs Joshua myself and Mr Macklin sat down with Rob McCracken, AJ’s trainer and a long-time friend of Matt’s.
Me and Matt Macklin are in Saudi Arabia and bring you an all-singing, all-dancing Ruiz vs AJ preview with an array of star guests: Dave Coldwell, Tom Little, Dean Whyte, Gerald Washington and, last but certainly not least, Barry Hearn.
Frank Smith started his Matchroom career handing out leaflets at Romford train station. Little did he realise that not much more than 10 years later he'd be chief exec at one of the biggest promotional companies in world boxing. It's been a hell of a ride and Frank joined me and Matt Macklin to share a few of the highs and lows.
Self-belief is crucial for all athletes; without it you’ll get nowhere. Nobody knows that better than Johnny Nelson and this week Johnny joins me & Matt Macklin and tells us how he managed to find the inner strength to ignore the doubters, and after a very rocky start to his pro career, fight his way to a world title.
This week myself & Matt Macklin are joined by one of Matt’s old taskmasters, British Boxing’s Trainer of the Year Joe Gallagher. A proud Mancunian, Joe’s never afraid to say what he thinks and shone a light on some important issues within boxing as well as illuminating just how difficult life in sport’s public eye can be.
This week myself & Matt Macklin have the great pleasure of presenting to you, King Kalle Unplugged. An hour of pure, unbridled honesty from the top promoter Kalle Sauerland. It was an absolute pleasure. “I’ll never do a podcast at night” he says, well we’ll have to see about that next time.
Glenn McCrory is not the kind of man you meet every day. After becoming the North East’s first ever world boxing champion he’s now aiming to become the first world boxing champ to summit Everest and stand on the top of the world. His has been a life well and truly lived; from turning up to spar Tyson in a vest and Bermuda shorts to being ringside at the world’s biggest fights, it was a pleasure for me & Matt to sit down with him.
The mid to late 90s was a hell of a time to be young. It was the era of Britpop and Cool Britannia and boxing was booming. Nowhere more so that at Sheffield’s Ingle gym. Joining us this week is a man who was in the middle of it all, the Spice Boy himself Ryan Rhodes.
Cherrelle Brown was an outstanding amateur and as a pro is now unbeaten at 6-0 and WBC International Super Lightweight champion. With that resume you could be forgiven for thinking that success always has and always will come easily to her. But you’d be wrong. The world of professional boxing as a novice pro is a battleground, a treacherous landscape laden with pitfalls and trapdoors. Cherrelle joined me and Matt to tell us all about it and didn’t hold anything back.
By popular demand Macklin’s Take Franchise Champion Andy Lee re-joins me and Matt this week. It’s been 6 months since we last spoke to him and a lot’s happened in that time. Andy’s taken the plunge as a trainer and manager so we talk to him about that, Tyson Fury, AJ vs Ruiz and Top Rank’s imminent arrival on the UK promotional scene.
Former WBO Super Featherweight champ Barry Jones is one of the best boxing pundits on the circuit. And he’s very good company too so me & Matt Macklin decided to pay him a visit at Bunter’s Café, or Barry’s Corner, as he likes to call it, to see how the transition from fighter to analyst happened for him and to discuss TV coverage of the sport and how he sees his role in it.
Every fighter needs a good corner, and every good corner needs a good cutman. So this week on Macklin’s Take me & Matt Macklin sought out one of the best in the business in Mark Seltzer and discovered just what his job entails and what the view is like from the inside of huge fights involving the likes of AJ and Froch.
Boxing clubs are the lifeblood of the sport, often the lifeblood of their local community. Tucked away under railway arches, perched above pubs, nestled on estates, they play a crucial role in saving and shaping lives. So this week on Macklin's Take me and Matt Macklin decided to head down to Fitzroy Lodge in South London to talk to head coach Mark Reigate about the unique challenges and rewards of running a club.
This week myself and Matt Macklin sit down with one of the sport's truly fascinating characters, Mr Al Siesta. Having moved to England after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Al, via a successful music career, has manoeuvred his way in his own inimitable style into his current position as one of the sport's influential inside men. A promoter, manager, matchmaker, agent and fixer he is truly boxing's Winston Wolf. We had great fun recording this episode so we hope you have as much fun listening to it.
This week me and Matt are joined by Peter Fury who tells us what life is like for young men in the travelling community and why fighting is such a big part of traveller culture. He has plenty of stories form life on the road and in the ring and lucky for us he was very happy to share them.
This week myself and Matt are joined by former 2-weight world champion and Sky colleague Paulie Malignaggi. Paulie's one of the most articulate and insightful pundits in the sport and he gave us his verdict on just how healthy the sport of boxing really is. The New York gym scene, the small halls, the PED crisis, Broadcasting and promotional wars, we covered the lot and the Magic Man had plenty to say.
Peter Buckley is the original King of the Journeymen. He had 300 fights but there's barely a scratch on him. He'd have it with anyone, anywhere, at any notice, only ever turning down one fight and that was because he was injured from a street fight he'd had earlier that day! Naz, Acelino Freitas, he wasn't bothered, names meant nothing to The Professor. And as a 2 weight Area champion he could box a bit too. He keeps a low profile these days but still follows the sport closely and was happy to sit down with me and Matt Macklin and treat us to a very entertaining hour.
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." It's a mantra you see written on gym walls the world over. So how hard does an elite fighter have to work? And do today's elite fighters work hard enough? Are there too many people involved in a fighter's training now? What do they all do? Top trainer Jim McDonnell joined me and Matt to discuss all of this and more.
Cello Renda's not the kind of man you meet every day. After knocking out a couple of rugby players in a street fight he turned pro at 18 with no amateur experience, no trainer and took the hard road, travelling all over the country to spar and learn on the job vs elite fighters. One of those fighters was a certain Matthew Macklin, who describes him as one of the hardest punchers he's ever faced. Cello's retired now and coaching the sport he still loves and met up with me and Matt to tell us how he survived and thrived in the hardest sport of all.
He's the man with the most recognisable voice in sport and on his latest trip to London Hall of Fame MC Michael Buffer found time to sit down with myself and Matt Macklin. Michael took us through some career highlights, some stories from behind the scenes and also divulged a few secrets of his success. He's very good company; we'll definitely be doing it again.
Russ Anber is one of the most experienced cornermen in world boxing. With over 40 years experience in the sport as a trainer, he's currently recognised as the best hand-wrapper in the business and performs that role for Lomachenko, Usyk and Callum Smith amongst many others. Me and Matt caught up with him when he was over as part of Team Rivas a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed tapping into his huge knowledge of and passion for boxing.
Myself & Matt Macklin are joined by WBO World Middleweight champion, Demetrius Andrade. On a trip to London, and fresh from watching Dillian Whyte vs Oscar Rivas at the 02 the night before, the 2-weight world champ took us through the highs and lows of his career so far, painted us a picture of what the future looks like and filled us in on his burning ambition to fight in the UK.
The boxing media has evolved hugely over the last 10 years. We've experienced a digital Big Bang and at the forefront of it has been Kugan Cassius and IFLTV. Kugan sat down with me & Matt to tell us how it all happened, how difficult it's been to keep it all going and how almost impossible it is to keep everyone happy. A true boxing insider, Kugan gives a great insight into life behind the camera.
What's it like being a boxing referee and judge? And how do you become one? Me & Matt have been keen to get the answers to those questions for a long time and this week British Boxing Board of Control A Star ref and judge Marcus McDonnell lifts the lid on what life is like for the third man in the ring. Big thanks to the BBBofC for giving us permission to chat to Marcus, it was much appreciated.
This week me & Matt Macklin sought out one of our best ever amateurs, 2007 World champion Frankie Gavin. He's always shied away from the media spotlight but sitting in his Birmingham gym we discuss the pressure on top amateur fighters who turn pro, the difference between the 2 codes and the chaotic nature of life as a boxer. Regrets? It's fair to say that Gavin has a few but he also achieved a lot and I'm pleased to say that we found him in a good place. It was an interesting hour.
In this one me & Matt sit down with Jon Pegg at his Birmingham Eastside gym. Jon's a true boxing insider and holds almost every Board license that there is. If you want to know how boxing really works and hear stories that will make you laugh out loud then this is for you. Nobody was safe, not even Matt 😊
Whilst in NYC me and Matt Macklin were absolutely determined to get legendary boxing journalist Thomas Hauser onto the podcast and luckily for us he agreed. The hour we had with him was one of the most illuminating we've experienced on Macklin's Take. Thomas pulls no punches, cares deeply about the sport and its future and bows in the face of no governing body, promoter, manager, fighter or fellow journalist. Plenty claim to "say it as it is" but nobody says it quite like Hauser.
Whilst in NYC me and Matt Macklin sat down with Showtime commentator, analyst and scorer Steve Farhood. From the comfort of Andy Ruiz's dressing room at MSG on the afternoon of the big fight we talked to Steve about his route into boxing, the role of the analyst, boxing politics and memorable moments and characters. Oh, and we also made Joshua vs Ruiz predictions right at the very end...
After the boxing shock of the century so far at Madison Square Garden Carl Froch and Boxing News editor Matt Christie join myself Andy Clarke and Matt Macklin to look back at a night of intoxicating drama that saw Anthony Joshua crushed by Andy Ruiz on his US debut.
Me and Matt are in New York for AJ vs Ruiz fight week and ahead of the big night at the Garden we're joined by Jamie Moore. Trainer of Tommy Coyle, Jamie will be in the corner for the Hull man's fight vs Chris Algieri, so we talk about that but mainly about the classic fight Jamie and Matt had in September 2006, and a few other things besides.
Andy Clarke and Matt Macklin are joined by our Sky colleague and former 3-time world Super Middleweight champion Carl Froch. The Cobra is definitely not the kind of man you meet every day and over the course of an hour he shows us exactly why. We talk boxing, world titles, retirement, flat earth, conspiracy theories and holistic health. I doubt we'll ever do another episode of Macklin's Take quite like this :)
First Episode of our new podcast, Macklin's Take, with Matt Macklin and Andy Clarke. In this one we discuss heavyweight negotations, the art of manouevring fighters into mandatory position and also address the thorny issue of PEDs.
Episode 2 of Macklin's Take, the boxing podcast brought to you by Andy Clarke and Matt Macklin. For this one we're joined by Tony Bellew and Spencer Oliver and we talk the joy and pain of retirement, discuss the heavyweight negotiations and the gents also have a few words for Mr Carl Froch! Hope you enjoy it
Former WBO Middleweight champ Andy Lee joins me and Matt Macklin on Macklin's Take. Andy and Matt both had fascinating careers and the 2 friends discuss the highs and lows and sheer madness of life as a professional fighter.
On Episode 5 of Macklin's Take me and Matt are joined by Dave Coldwell. Dave's been a fighter and promoter, is now a top trainer and manager and has experienced pretty much everything the boxing world has to offer. Oh, and he nailed the Crossbar Challenger on Soccer AM :)
St George Groves joins me and Matt Macklin for episode 4 of Macklin's Take. We grabbed George whilst he was on Sky Duty with us last weekend and in the comfort of David Allen's dressing room chatted retirement and the art of psychological warfare as well as getting his thoughts on PEDs and the demise of Jarrell Miller.