TheBoxingBar.com's podcast

It was great chatting it up with Buffalo’s “Baby” Joe Mesi recently on TheBoxingBar podcast. The former top heavyweight contender came on to talk about his boxing career. He had a great run as an amateur almost making the 1996 USA Olympic team. As a pro, “Baby Joe” got so popular that people thought of him as Buffalo’s third franchise after their two professional sports teams. Mesi left the sport as an undefeated fighter with a record of 36-0. I never quite knew exactly why he had left the sport. He came on to explain it in detail! Since his retirement, Mesi became a politician in New York and is an award-winning salesman of medical implants spending a lot of time in operating rooms with neurosurgeons. It was a real pleasure for Ricky and I having Joe Mesi on to interview. Check it out!

Joel Diaz has been one of the best boxing trainers for many years. Joel is the older brother of Julio “The Kidd” Diaz and Antonio “Tono”, both had stellar boxing careers. In the early 90’s, Joel had a tremendous amateur resume but was not able to represent the United States since he was not a citizen. His professional career was cut short due to a detached retina. After a few years of struggling to find out what he was going to do with his life, he took his mom’s advice to help guide his brothers in their path in boxing. Diaz has guided a couple of his fighters to defeat two of the biggest name fighters in this era, Manny Pacquiao and “Canelo” Alvarez. Due to a late start for this interview, we were only able to cover his childhood through his boxing career. He agreed to do a “Part 2” anytime to cover his training career. I can’t wait for it! This story of his upbringing will explain to you exactly who and why he is, who he is. Cheers to “The Coach from Coachella” Joel Diaz!

“The Bulldog” Scotty Olsen was a very tough boxer during his era. The Canadian boxer represented his country in the ’88 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea in which he defeated “The Pocket Rocket” Wayne McCullough, but lost to American silver medalist Michael Carbajal. He fought many of the best fighters during his career. It was a pleasure having him on to interview on TheBoxingBar podcast! Listen to him talk about his career …

Clarence “Bones” Adams was one tough guy! Whether he won or lost he always proved that he was a game fighter. Many remember him in his bouts with guys like Orlando Canizales, Paulie Ayala, Nestor Garza, and Kevin Kelley. Today, “Bones" trains pro and amateur fighters. It was a true honor to have him come visit us on TheBoxingBar podcast.

Junior “Poison” Jones was on TheBoxingBar podcast recently. Jones fought many of the top fighters during his time like Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Orlando Canizales, Kennedy McKinney, Tom “Boom Boom” Johnson, and Tracy Harris Patterson to name some. He was a tremendous puncher that was very fun to watch. Thank you, Mr. Jones, for coming on to talk to us!

Augie “Kid Vegas” Sanchez came on TheBoxingBar podcast. As a pro, he had a fan friendly style with teriffic punching power and he had a stellar amateur career. Sanchez is also remembered as the last guy to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the amateurs, not counting his controversial loss in the 1996 Olympics. Today, Sanchez still trains pro and amateur fighters in the Las Vegas area. Check out this interview with “Kid Vegas”!

Most of my all-time favorite boxers are punchers. Many weeks back, we had “The Knock-Out King” Randall Bailey on TheBoxingBar podcast to talk about his life and career. Ricky and I had a blast talking to him about all of his top fights and listening to his stories. Check out our interview with Randall Bailey!

For many years I followed Stephen DeBro online to read updates of a project he was working on. The project was a documentary called “18 & Grand: The Olympic Auditorium Story” about the historic venue in Los Angeles. “The Olympic” was the Madison Square Garden of the West Coast. It was built in 1925, and held some of the biggest and most memorable events in the city’s history during its heyday. The film was released in 2021. DeBro came on TheBoxingBar podcast to talk about this film and the exhibition that ends this Sunday May 19th at La Cultura de Artes in Los Angeles. Check out the interview, and go check out the exhibition before it is over. Links to all information including the film and related events is on TheBoxingBar.com! All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

In January, I had Houston’s “Sweet” Reggie Johnson on TheBoxingBar podcast. The former Middleweight and Light-heavyweight champion had a stellar career and faced many of the best fighters in those weight classes that included James Toney, Roy Jones Jr., Steve Collins, William Guthrie, Julio Gonzalez, and Antonio Tarver to name a few. As an amateur, Johnson was eliminated in the Olympic trials by the eventual 1984 gold medalist Frank Tate of Detroit. Congratulations Mr. Reggie Johnson on this achievement! Check out our interview … All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

 Adam “Bomb” Flores was a Ventura County heavyweight prospect back in the 1990’s. It was rare but exciting to see a Latino heavyweight when the city of Oxnard had just started to make some noise in the boxing world. I first saw Flores on an undercard fight in Oxnard which featured the debut of the city’s 1996 Olympian “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas that was televised on the popular “Tuesday Night Fights” series on March 25, 1997 on the USA channel. Since ending his career in 2000, Flores has managed, coached, and mentored local fighters in Ventura County. He has also done some acting appearing in the 1998 film “Snake Eyes” starring Nicholas Cage and Gary Sinise. We talk about all this and more. Check this interview out! All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

Rocky came on recently to talk about his standout amateur and professional boxing career. The 2000 USA silver medalist would take on many of the best fighters in his time as a professional. In this interview Juarez shares some great memories and stories with us. All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

This Saturday February 24, 2024 - Teresa Tapia Promotions will be hosting an amateur boxing event at The Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico starting at 2:00pm. Nicco, son of Johnny "Mi Vida Loca" Tapia, will be in action. Nicco and his mother, Teresa, came on TheBoxingBar podcast to talk about the event. Check it out! All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

Alvaro “Yaqui” Lopez was one of the most popular and best light-heavyweights during his time. Although he never won a world title, he fought everyone during one of the best eras of the light-heavyweight division in history. Listen how “Yaqui” made his way into boxing after arriving from Mexico and representing his city of Stockton, CA. (This interview is partially in English but mostly in Spanish.) All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

Jesse James Leija was one of the best boxers during his time in the sport. He was a very tough fighter that had a very fan friendly style that made his fights fun to watch. He had a stellar resume and a lot of great memories he shares in this interview with us. All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

This is our third interview with top boxing trainer, Robert Garcia. In this interview we talked about the current state of boxing, everything he has going on at the moment, and what awaits him in 2024. Also, check out our last two interviews with this former champion. In our first interview in 2013, we discussed his Trainer of the Year honor he had just received. We discussed his start as a trainer. In our second interview we spoke about his life growing up in Oxnard, CA and his whole professional boxing career. All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

Frank Garza is a long time and very respected boxing referee because of his work and professionalism. He has been a referee for matches with some of the biggest names like Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather Jr., “Winky” Wright, Deontay Wilder, Adrien Broner, Arthur Abraham, ect. He was the third man in the ring in the big fight between Mike Tyson – Andrew Golota in June 2000. A few weeks ago, he came on TheBoxingBar.com to interview to talk about his life and career. He’s a great guy! Check it out … Interview Date : 1/28/2023 All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

You might remember Jack O’Halloran playing the villain Non in the first two Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve. But did you know he was a professional heavyweight boxer that fought some of the best fighters of his time? He fought George Foreman, Ken Norton, Mac Foster, Ron Lyle, Cleveland Williams, and many more during his career. Many years back, he authored a book called “Family Legacy” in which he wrote about his upbringing and finding out about his real father, mobster Albert Anastasia. We talked about all this and more in my recent interview with him. It was an honor to have Mr. O’Halloran on as a guest on TheBoxingBar.com podcast! All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

If you've watched the Netflix docu-series "The Night Stalker" or know the story of Richard Ramirez, I'm sure you'll know the name Gil Carrillo. Carrillo and his partner Frank Salerno (from the Hillside Strangler case) were the investigators put on to solve that case. Today, Gil is the co-pilot on George Lopez's podcast "OMG Hi". Just a bit ago, Gil came on to chat with me on TheBoxingBar.com. It was an honor to have him on to talk about these subjects and more. I will be posting the interview on TheBoxingBar.com's "Outside the Ropes" page. All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html  

Former professional boxer , Joey Medina of The Bronx, came on TheBoxingBar.com podcast. The ex-fighter took on Nicky Perez for the vacant NABF Super Featherweight title in their second fight together in 1987. We'll be talking about his career and how he got into comedy during the show. You might remember Joey as the opener in one of the biggest Latino comedy DVD's of all time starring George Lopez, Paul Rodriguez, and Cheech Marin called, "The Original Latin Kings of Comedy". Today, Joey still performs doing standup comedy and wears all hats working on films. All interviews on TheBoxingBar podcast : https://www.theboxingbar.com/interview-page.html