Season 4: #20 Kevin Mitchell

Boxing Life Stories

Tris Dixon

Sports

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2022

⏱️ 143 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For more than 30 years, Kevin Mitchell covered boxing for The Guardian and The Observer. The award-winning author and journalist was ringside at the biggest fights and interviewed the biggest names and was unafraid of crossing swords with some of the most famous and litigious figures in the sport. Kevin also helped a young and naïve Tris Dixon take his first few steps in the world of boxing journalism. More importantly, he wrote the excellent books War, Baby: The Glamour of Violence about the tragic Nigel Benn-Gerald McClellan fight and Jacobs Beach: The Mob, the Fights, the Fifties, about organised crime’s involvement in the sport through the 1950s. Mitchell also penned Frank Bruno’s autobiography with him and is one of the most decorated writers of his generation. Now retired, Mitchell still follows the sport, unable to get it out of his system despite its flaws, the tragedies and the politics but he can also look back fondly on his meetings with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Don King and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	And what a fight he was, I mean he was an extraordinary fighter and it's sort of, it's
0:06.8	the sadness of Nigel's career that on his greatest night, that's what happened.
0:15.2	And it was peak hour.
0:16.2	I said, do you reckon you could stop the traffic done?
0:19.8	You said, all in America, and so he went out of this traffic car, I'm certain that I'm
0:26.5	a kid.
0:27.5	And he said, my lady friend here wants me to stop the traffic officer.
0:34.5	You think you can do it, watching that, which you'd imagine is based on some sort of actuality.
0:44.4	What did he feel about his life, because that was a low point, you know, that was a low
0:48.8	point.
0:49.8	And did he think that the movie is sort of resurrecting him?
0:53.4	I think he would have been honest enough to say, of course it would be.
0:57.1	Hello, and welcome to Boxing Life Stories, with me, Chris Dix.
1:00.6	What happened in the ring after he tasted only good with his child's play compared to that?
1:05.2	Still they've caused harm to this day.
1:07.0	You couldn't even take the tears from his eyes or the smile of his face, could you?
1:13.0	I know.
1:14.0	He didn't beat me.
1:15.0	He said, well, it's four years back.
1:17.0	And the baby didn't make me look like Al Capone.
1:19.0	And if he's going to beat you all night.
1:20.8	There's a winning and there's nothing else.
	...

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