Over the last couple of years, I have become increasingly a boxing fan almost to the point of nerdom. Part of what has gotten me there are boxing podcasts. I have been thorough in giving tons and tons of different boxing podcasts a listen, and I've whittled my subscriptions to boxing podcasts down to 12. Of those 12, these are the five I rate the highest:
5. The Unofficial Scorecard Podcast
The host of this show isn't merely a boxing pundit, but one with (at least theoretically) a job with boxing clout: he works for Boxrec, "Boxing's Official Record Keeper." As Boxrec has their own criteria for included and excluded fights, and publishes their own rankings, they are not without their critics, but by my lights there is no single more indispensable boxing resource, and I for one trust their work and their ethos.
Anyway. "Boxrec Grey," the host of the podcast, is the funniest and most irreverent podcaster on this list, and he would most likely be higher if he posted new episodes more regularly.
Hosted by Chris Carlson, each episode is satisfyingly long and Carlson does a great job both recapping the week that was and previewing the week to come (as well as giving due treatment to the boxing news of the day.
Two things I particularly like about Carlson and this podcast: one, he goes out of his way to be fair to everyone and makes a point to examine all points of view for any given boxing debate. Two, he just has a relaxing, low-key delivery that makes it a perfect bedtime podcast.
Note: You do have to sort through episodes of Minnesota sports talk and other non-boxing episodes, but he does do a boxing episode at least once a week.
Of all the podcasts on the list, this one has the honor of being the only one that I support via Patreon. I also post (but mostly lurk) on their Discord. The host of the podcast itself is "Angelo," who goes by "realrollingpin" on Twitter and "Noir" on Discord (can more of you guys please use your actual full names? Boxing has a seedy reputation enough without half my favorite boxing podcasts using pseudonyms).
The podcast often takes the form of a panel discussion, which I wish more boxing podcasts did, and did as well as Sunday Puncher does (I won't mention the boxing panel podcasts that suck, but I will say that I wish "Pound 4 Pound Boxing Report," which hasn't had an episode since March 8, would come back). All the panelists are sharp and even-keeled, not bombastic, and Angelo is the sharpest.
It makes me grimace a little bit to include a corporate interest on the list at all, let alone this high, but the cohosts Eric Raskin and Kieran Mulvaney, are just great. They don't take themselves too seriously, Mulvaney in particular is very funny, and they don't shill for Showtime boxing anymore than they have to. Indeed, they were pretty candid in the light of Showtime acquiring the right to the stupid upcoming Floyd Mayweather/Logan Paul exhibition about approaching it with a sense of professional duty rather than necessarily finding it any more ... desirable? ... then anyone else who would rather stick to non-celebrity boxing cards.
They are only five episodes in, but this is already my favorite boxing podcast by a country mile.
People familiar with my column (if any such people exist) know that I enjoy getting to know about both obscure sports (I once did a candlepin bowling piece in this space) and obscure events of mainstream sports.
Tim Boxeo (argh, another pseudonym!) is the king of obscure boxing. Long before he started a podcast, Tim Boxeo's work was known to me as the master of finding every damn boxing card out there, from Texas to Tanzania, where it is possible to watch or stream somewhere, somehow.
But he doesn't just post this tremendous resource and call it a day. He watches the cards himself too. He joyfully takes screenshots and posts updates on Twitter on his discord.
The operative phrase here is "club boxing." Wherever you live, you're probably closer than you realize to a boxing club that puts on low-level-but-still-professional prizefights, often among fighters who have never taken a match outside of their home state, province, or oblast.
Tim Boxeo has seen a countless number of these shows and this is what this podcast is all about — the weird and funny tales from the underbelly of boxing. Each episode brings new stories, new prospects that you can claim to know Before They Were Famous by listening, and new laughs. I'm so pleasantly surprised that Tim turns out to be talented at expressing himself on top of being such an impressive curator of events. Another pleasant surprise I found when listening to this podcast for the first time: it's co-hosted by Angelo from No. 3 on this list.
A lot of new podcasts run out of steam and their hosts lose interest before they put out very many episodes. I hope this doesn't happen with the Tim Boxeo Show, because no one else is equipped to do what they do.
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