Sports Journalist · 87 articles
The Covid-19 virus means that we live in unprecedented times and we are seeing falling viewing figures across some sports as sporting events need crowd colour to survive and thrive on TV. Back in 2011, Sky TV made the decision to hand sole control of their boxing content to Matchroom, which seemed a fitting move […]
Boxing has made its tentative return to our screens across various platforms in recent weeks. Frank Warren has hosted shows at the BT Studios. Scott Harrison made his return on a BIBA event. Fights have been taking place up and down America — there has also been some boxing, too. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom has […]
Scotland’s Scott Harrison (27-3-2, 15 KOs) fought for the first time since 2013 when beating Paul Peers (who was 0-2 when fighting with a BBBoC licence) in three rounds on Saturday night. The 140lbs contest took place at the Northern Hotel in Aberdeen under the auspices of the British and Irish Boxing Association, who are […]
Everyone in attendance at the Sheffield Arena on April 27, 2013, knew that Audley Harrison’s fight against Deontay Wilder was as good as over when the visitor landed a wild right hand that floored the former Olympic Super-heavyweight champion and clearly separated him from his senses. Despite Harrison (31-7, 23 KOs) beating the count, Terry O’Connor […]
Audley Harrison MBE (31-7, 23 KOs) was born and bred in London. He is still a proud Londoner and Englishman. You can still hear it in the 48-year-old’s voice when he talks about his city and country yet he relocated to Los Angeles in the mid-2000s when the British press and some parts of the public, who […]
Last month, Boxing Social talked to Steve Wood about the obstacles that will be faced by promoters who put on small hall shows. Dave Coldwell doesn’t like that term. Back in February 2012, I followed him around the Bowlers Exhibition Centre for a piece on those type of shows and he objected when the term popped up. Coldwell was […]
I can’t be mithered with arena shows. Post-lockdown I probably won’t attend any, either. It had reached the point where I thought to myself that if I wanted to sit in a row of self-obsessed egomaniacs I should probably just start going to church again. I’d get to sing Colours Of Day rather than Sweet […]
British boxing has had some brilliant commentary teams in recent decades. For instance, ITV’s Reg Gutteridge and Jim Watt. Then you had the one-two of Ian Darke and Glenn McCrory when Sky Sports was on the rise, with the ever-present Watt adding the left hook off the one-two. Pairing a fighter with an eloquent broadcaster […]
WHEN Boxing Social caught up with Glenn McCrory (30-8-1, 12 KOs) the former IBF cruiserweight champion of the world was knocking up a chicken curry. Hopefully he turned the fire off from under it as the 55-year-old was in a garrulous mood, covering his entire career from his time in the ring to his decades as a pundit with […]
BOXING has a culture of vilifying people. As a collective we enjoy nothing more than dragging someone out of the chorus line and saying, to quote the film that all boxers love, “There goes the bad guy.” Former prisoner (he did five-years for armed robbery pre-boxing), boxer and now working actor Larry Olubamiwo (11-19, 9 KOs) was […]
THE Greater Manchester market town of Bury — initially named Buri, an early form of the word borough — was given its name because a stronghold grew around an ancient marketplace during the Roman occupation of what we now know as the United Kingdom. It is close to the river Irwell. Indeed, Bury Castle was […]
A common convention long-held in boxing was that a defeat is the end. Promoters, trainers and fighters went to great lengths to preserve the mighty ‘0’ when, for some, it was a sign that a fighter has not been through and overcome genuine adversity. Things have eased up a bit in recent years, though, as […]