Matt Christie leaves Boxing News

[Battlingsiki]

Thanks Mark for allaying fears about another Dixon love-in this week and the reasons behind last week's double bubble.

It's shocking to hear about Kelsey's behaviour regarding BM as it was a terrible shame when that mag closed. Is there any chance it could be revived now that they are out of boxing entirely?

I dont see how any boxing fan could be without BN, even if there are sometimes things to grumble about, so hope you and the team keep up the good work.

Thank you, Veriton. Not aided by Rhiannon losing either! Just put the new issue to bed and....on to the next.

ID bought the rights to BM, too, so we have the digital archive. It's still a possibility. It could be revived in some form. Unbelievably, Kelsey destroyed all BM's physical assets. Back issues, merch, photos, items of value, everything, Astonishing.

That's truly astonishing that Kelsey destroyed all of BM's physical assets. I never knew that. Interestingly, in the April 2020 issue (the last but one issue) an ad appeared headed "WANTED". The advertiser was "someone close to the magazine" who wished to buy a complete collection of BMs from 2008-2019. Would-be sellers were asked to contact [email protected]. That sure wasn't me who placed the ad. The "someone close to the magazine" caught my eye. Could it have been Kelsey itself wishing to buy up the magazines? And for what purpose?

Incredible Graham. They were scanning old issues to potentially sell as bookazines as I understood it. We have the scans but have to pay to get them from the company Kelsey had hosting them. This is our first week/issue without Kelsey. Divorce came through!

[Battlingsiki]

Well done on responding Mark. I've been subscribing since the 80s and that isn't about to change, keep up the good work.

Thank you. Really appreciate the kind support and years of loyalty.

[Battlingsiki]

Hey, this is Mark Butcher. Thanks for the comments haha (I'm rolling and covering up like a prime Kevin Johnson, perhaps speaking just as much nonsense). Feedback is always appreciated and never taken personally.

Someone told me about this thread and I just wanted to shine some possibly helpful light because I don’t know what the publishing and journalism background is here.

In 2020, you may remember Boxing Monthly, owned by Kelsey Publishing, ceased publishing and that I worked for BM 2014-2020. Before its purchase by Kelsey, BM wasn’t making stacks of money but was roughly solvent, headed by Graham Houston and energised by freelances like me as a labour of love. Kelsey surprised us by later buying Boxing News and then suddenly killing BM as its competition. I had lined up three credible buyers for BM, including my own business, but Kelsey refused to sell us the rights.

In 2023, Kelsey were looking to urgently sell/remove Boxing News from their portfolio. ID Sports Media essentially stepped in to buy BN and saved ‘the oracle’ from extinction. Boxing News would not be here now but for them. That’s the reality. Love it or hate it.

Later that year, as a publisher, I was brought in to move all the final elements of Boxing News magazine from Kelsey Media to independence. This is not an easy process and comes without the industry discounts and financial considerations given to a major operation like Kelsey.

Matt Christie then leaves for an opportunity with Tris Dixon at Boxing Scene, a big surprise to everyone and we wished him well. I step in further to help/edit as I am a trained, seasoned journalist who has worked in every aspect of the boxing media, while simultaneously running my business. Since April, I have worked seven days a week to produce BN almost singlehandedly alongside my main line of work.

The content of the magazine depends on variables and, again, I don’t want to guess/judge about what you know/don’t know about journalism. We had a Terri Harper feature and she wasn’t available, then another feature dropped out and so the extra Crolla/Dixon piece stepped in as a late, late sub, despite an earlier Rhiannon piece, on a limited timeframe. We’re not wearing Dixon t-shirts, I promise!

When I was a staff writer for Boxing News in the 1990s, there were five journalists working on a 36-page magazine, selling 20,000 a week. Now it’s a very different world and business, and essentially just me producing 52 pages, alongside my business, as long as the interest remains, You can email me at [email protected] at any time and I'll always be accessible and honest. We have an excellent Jack Johnson feature in the next issue, btw.... and a piece on Rhian....

Mark, truly a class act to show up on here with this type of spirit and goodwill.

In that same vein, I hope you take these thoughts as constructive feedback from a long-time reader who wants nothing more than the magazine to thrive, not just survive. I'm fully aware these things are subjective, but hopefully there is something of value here:

Fight reports - For me, they're still really rudimentary, bordering on meaningless lists at times - fighter x beat fighter y by 60-54 etc. At a time where you can't compete with online for speed, surely the benefit of having someone there in person is that you get more 'colour' and expert insight, including post-fight quotes and/or insights. For example, if you've got a guy at the York Hall, surely there's an opportunity get more 'behind the scenes' opinions and insights from the various fight figures in attendance. I'd also love to see a quality over quantity approach myself, with more space given to the fights that matter, and the meaningless fights (which you yourself criticised recently) relegated to a simple results box or equivalent.
Interviews - Same here a lot of the time TBH. For example, I read the Hamzah Sheeraz interview and was really looking forward to it, but was left with a lot of unanswered questions considering he's such a budding superstar. For example, the interview references him coming from nowhere.... and then leaves it at that! I want you to shed light on that and tell me more about why he was off the radar in the ams, and early in his pro career who he's sparred with on the way up, when he realised he has serious power and how etc, etc, etc.
In BM one of my favourite features used to be the polls when you got various experts to predict fight outcomes - would love to see that in in BN and presumably there could be smart ways of making it less labour intensive than contacting each individual every time e.g. get 20/30 trade 'faces' appointed to a BN 'advisors' panel at the start of the year and give them an opportunity to send a prediction in for each major fight - would presumably mean you'd get at least 10 for each one wthout having to do a lot of legwork.
Not sure if you've dropped the back page interview, but I feel this could have been good in the right hands, but instead the choice of boxers seemed completely bizarre - seemed almost a 50/50 split between male and female and frequently featured non-British fighters with no clear rationale. Questions were also really lame some of the time. Why couldn't this be something as simple as a Prospect to Watch section. For example, I've been hearing a bit about Cameron Vuong, but don't really know anything about him bar either the odd reference on this forum or a tokenistic fight report in BN - surely wouldn't be too hard to do a 1-pager detailing his fighting style, why he's one to watch, where he's based out of etc. Wouldn't even require investing time in an interview, as presumably this could be written off the top of a reporter's head if he's been following the scene enough?

In essence, while being respectful of bandwidth and financial issues, the one thing BN has is access and I feel this is really under-leveraged at times - you can get the insights and opinions from those in the trade that many others can't, and I feel this competitive advantage is not being fully capitalised on.
Relating to this, I think there should be a stronger focus on the British scene - I'm guessing the vast majority of your copy sales are from the domestic market but there are frequently interviews with overseas fighters that simply don't have the profile to be meaningful to most readers and/or they read like 'puff pieces'. Give me an interview with a British prospect like Hamza Uddin over an Angelo Leo one all day, every day. There are so many characters on the British fight scene and I think giving them more of a platform could be a win-win.
All the best. Will still be buying every week.

Thank you, Deserter. You make some excellent points. In many ways, it's unbelievable that Boxing News has carried on. A weekly boxing magazine shouldn't really exist in this era. And these are different times from when I started. If you pop into a WH Smiths, there are tumbleweeds near the magazine racks. BN had numerous staff in the past, but that is no longer the case so we have to make do with the resources available. The market dictates that video, website (being relaunched soon) and social media are covered by who we have. I took over in late April and there has been an evolution. But it takes time. Everyone has preferences and it's impossible to please everyone. We have inherited formats that maybe no longer work. I would prefer more colour to the reports, too. Safety-first, small hall matchmaking doesn't help. 60 Seconds isn't dead but the subjects were not good enough, as you say, and this was inherited. It should resurface with better names and questions. The Sam Gilley feature was excellent, and captured the spirit of British boxing, and ideally there is a balance between UK, US and historical features. The history and legacy of BN has been neglected and we're very lucky to have Miles Templeton. As Miles is aware, I want more of his work featured and this week is the start of that process. As mentioned earlier, access is down with PRs now limiting interviews to many fighters who you would simply text previously.

[Deserter]

Hey, this is Mark Butcher. Thanks for the comments haha (I'm rolling and covering up like a prime Kevin Johnson, perhaps speaking just as much nonsense). Feedback is always appreciated and never taken personally.

Someone told me about this thread and I just wanted to shine some possibly helpful light because I don’t know what the publishing and journalism background is here.

In 2020, you may remember Boxing Monthly, owned by Kelsey Publishing, ceased publishing and that I worked for BM 2014-2020. Before its purchase by Kelsey, BM wasn’t making stacks of money but was roughly solvent, headed by Graham Houston and energised by freelances like me as a labour of love. Kelsey surprised us by later buying Boxing News and then suddenly killing BM as its competition. I had lined up three credible buyers for BM, including my own business, but Kelsey refused to sell us the rights.

In 2023, Kelsey were looking to urgently sell/remove Boxing News from their portfolio. ID Sports Media essentially stepped in to buy BN and saved ‘the oracle’ from extinction. Boxing News would not be here now but for them. That’s the reality. Love it or hate it.

Later that year, as a publisher, I was brought in to move all the final elements of Boxing News magazine from Kelsey Media to independence. This is not an easy process and comes without the industry discounts and financial considerations given to a major operation like Kelsey.

Matt Christie then leaves for an opportunity with Tris Dixon at Boxing Scene, a big surprise to everyone and we wished him well. I step in further to help/edit as I am a trained, seasoned journalist who has worked in every aspect of the boxing media, while simultaneously running my business. Since April, I have worked seven days a week to produce BN almost singlehandedly alongside my main line of work.

The content of the magazine depends on variables and, again, I don’t want to guess/judge about what you know/don’t know about journalism. We had a Terri Harper feature and she wasn’t available, then another feature dropped out and so the extra Crolla/Dixon piece stepped in as a late, late sub, despite an earlier Rhiannon piece, on a limited timeframe. We’re not wearing Dixon t-shirts, I promise!

When I was a staff writer for Boxing News in the 1990s, there were five journalists working on a 36-page magazine, selling 20,000 a week. Now it’s a very different world and business, and essentially just me producing 52 pages, alongside my business, as long as the interest remains, You can email me at [email protected] at any time and I'll always be accessible and honest. We have an excellent Jack Johnson feature in the next issue, btw.... and a piece on Rhian....

Mark, truly a class act to show up on here with this type of spirit and goodwill.

In that same vein, I hope you take these thoughts as constructive feedback from a long-time reader who wants nothing more than the magazine to thrive, not just survive. I'm fully aware these things are subjective, but hopefully there is something of value here:

Fight reports - For me, they're still really rudimentary, bordering on meaningless lists at times - fighter x beat fighter y by 60-54 etc. At a time where you can't compete with online for speed, surely the benefit of having someone there in person is that you get more 'colour' and expert insight, including post-fight quotes and/or insights. For example, if you've got a guy at the York Hall, surely there's an opportunity get more 'behind the scenes' opinions and insights from the various fight figures in attendance. I'd also love to see a quality over quantity approach myself, with more space given to the fights that matter, and the meaningless fights (which you yourself criticised recently) relegated to a simple results box or equivalent.
Interviews - Same here a lot of the time TBH. For example, I read the Hamzah Sheeraz interview and was really looking forward to it, but was left with a lot of unanswered questions considering he's such a budding superstar. For example, the interview references him coming from nowhere.... and then leaves it at that! I want you to shed light on that and tell me more about why he was off the radar in the ams, and early in his pro career who he's sparred with on the way up, when he realised he has serious power and how etc, etc, etc.
In BM one of my favourite features used to be the polls when you got various experts to predict fight outcomes - would love to see that in in BN and presumably there could be smart ways of making it less labour intensive than contacting each individual every time e.g. get 20/30 trade 'faces' appointed to a BN 'advisors' panel at the start of the year and give them an opportunity to send a prediction in for each major fight - would presumably mean you'd get at least 10 for each one wthout having to do a lot of legwork.
Not sure if you've dropped the back page interview, but I feel this could have been good in the right hands, but instead the choice of boxers seemed completely bizarre - seemed almost a 50/50 split between male and female and frequently featured non-British fighters with no clear rationale. Questions were also really lame some of the time. Why couldn't this be something as simple as a Prospect to Watch section. For example, I've been hearing a bit about Cameron Vuong, but don't really know anything about him bar either the odd reference on this forum or a tokenistic fight report in BN - surely wouldn't be too hard to do a 1-pager detailing his fighting style, why he's one to watch, where he's based out of etc. Wouldn't even require investing time in an interview, as presumably this could be written off the top of a reporter's head if he's been following the scene enough?

In essence, while being respectful of bandwidth and financial issues, the one thing BN has is access and I feel this is really under-leveraged at times - you can get the insights and opinions from those in the trade that many others can't, and I feel this competitive advantage is not being fully capitalised on.
Relating to this, I think there should be a stronger focus on the British scene - I'm guessing the vast majority of your copy sales are from the domestic market but there are frequently interviews with overseas fighters that simply don't have the profile to be meaningful to most readers and/or they read like 'puff pieces'. Give me an interview with a British prospect like Hamza Uddin over an Angelo Leo one all day, every day. There are so many characters on the British fight scene and I think giving them more of a platform could be a win-win.
All the best. Will still be buying every week.

Thank you, Deserter. You make some excellent points. In many ways, it's unbelievable that Boxing News has carried on. A weekly boxing magazine shouldn't really exist in this era. And these are different times from when I started. If you pop into a WH Smiths, there are tumbleweeds near the magazine racks. BN had numerous staff in the past, but that is no longer the case so we have to make do with the resources available. The market dictates that video, website (being relaunched soon) and social media are covered by who we have. I took over in late April and there has been an evolution. But it takes time. Everyone has preferences and it's impossible to please everyone. We have inherited formats that maybe no longer work. I would prefer more colour to the reports, too. Safety-first, small hall matchmaking doesn't help. 60 Seconds isn't dead but the subjects were not good enough, as you say, and this was inherited. It should resurface with better names and questions. The Sam Gilley feature was excellent, and captured the spirit of British boxing, and ideally there is a balance between UK, US and historical features. The history and legacy of BN has been neglected and we're very lucky to have Miles Templeton. As Miles is aware, I want more of his work featured and this week is the start of that process. As mentioned earlier, access is down with PRs now limiting interviews to many fighters who you would simply text previously.

Thanks for taking the time to reply and I hear you completely regarding the state of the newsstand - I haven't worked in magazines since 2009, but that industry remains my first love, as I know how much craft and passion goes into producing them, especially the specialist titles.
As for PR access, it's probably best filed under shocking, but not surprising. Feel for you guys having to navigate such murky waters.

[orbtastic]

More Miles is always a good thing.

[Coco]

More Miles is always a good thing.

X2

We have Mark Butcher, Miles Templeton and Graham Houston posting on the same thread

If Carlsberg made boxing forums......

[Deserter]

More Miles is always a good thing.

X2

We have Mark Butcher, Miles Templeton and Graham Houston posting on the same thread

If Carlsberg made boxing forums......

[prewarboxing]

More Miles is always a good thing.

X2

We have Mark Butcher, Miles Templeton and Graham Houston posting on the same thread

If Carlsberg made boxing forums......

Real ale man myself, but go on then, I’ll have one with you. I don’t mind the odd Carlsberg.

Miles Templeton

[SeanBrennan]

Hey, this is Mark Butcher. Thanks for the comments haha (I'm rolling and covering up like a prime Kevin Johnson, perhaps speaking just as much nonsense). Feedback is always appreciated and never taken personally.

Someone told me about this thread and I just wanted to shine some possibly helpful light because I don’t know what the publishing and journalism background is here.

In 2020, you may remember Boxing Monthly, owned by Kelsey Publishing, ceased publishing and that I worked for BM 2014-2020. Before its purchase by Kelsey, BM wasn’t making stacks of money but was roughly solvent, headed by Graham Houston and energised by freelances like me as a labour of love. Kelsey surprised us by later buying Boxing News and then suddenly killing BM as its competition. I had lined up three credible buyers for BM, including my own business, but Kelsey refused to sell us the rights.

In 2023, Kelsey were looking to urgently sell/remove Boxing News from their portfolio. ID Sports Media essentially stepped in to buy BN and saved ‘the oracle’ from extinction. Boxing News would not be here now but for them. That’s the reality. Love it or hate it.

Later that year, as a publisher, I was brought in to move all the final elements of Boxing News magazine from Kelsey Media to independence. This is not an easy process and comes without the industry discounts and financial considerations given to a major operation like Kelsey.

Matt Christie then leaves for an opportunity with Tris Dixon at Boxing Scene, a big surprise to everyone and we wished him well. I step in further to help/edit as I am a trained, seasoned journalist who has worked in every aspect of the boxing media, while simultaneously running my business. Since April, I have worked seven days a week to produce BN almost singlehandedly alongside my main line of work.

The content of the magazine depends on variables and, again, I don’t want to guess/judge about what you know/don’t know about journalism. We had a Terri Harper feature and she wasn’t available, then another feature dropped out and so the extra Crolla/Dixon piece stepped in as a late, late sub, despite an earlier Rhiannon piece, on a limited timeframe. We’re not wearing Dixon t-shirts, I promise!

When I was a staff writer for Boxing News in the 1990s, there were five journalists working on a 36-page magazine, selling 20,000 a week. Now it’s a very different world and business, and essentially just me producing 52 pages, alongside my business, as long as the interest remains, You can email me at [email protected] at any time and I'll always be accessible and honest. We have an excellent Jack Johnson feature in the next issue, btw.... and a piece on Rhian....

the fact you have taken the time to come on here and post is welcome and humbling. More so is your context about working alongside editing/leading BN. Personally I'm a little embarrassed I've been so snidey with my barbed comments devoid of really knowing the picture. Perhaps another lesson to me to listen more and say less.

No problem at all, Sean. Appreciate how it must look from the outside so it's understandable. Given the limited timeframe and print deadlines, it's more helter skelter than a monthly. Not everything makes it over the line in time. Fighter availability has also decreased in recent times.

Thank you Mark. All the best with it.

[SeanBrennan]

I'm reinstating mine and ordering some humble pie too.

[Coco]

Any BN predictions for the Uysk v Fury rematch?

[veriton]

BN has just dropped through my letterbox on a Wednesday - first time ever it's been this early. Just had a flick through and looks like plenty in there to enjoy. Eubank Jnr, Bunce on being banned, double dose of Miles Templeton history (one big feature and one normal column), and features on two names I dont know: Anthony Olascuaga and Imam Khataev so will look forward to finding out more.

[MightyWarrior]

Started buying summer of 1980 and religiously carried on the next 20 years, then it was on and off and I really haven’t bought it regularly for the last 20 years

but I’m interested to see when new stuff happens and also always interesting to hear the behind-the-scenes stuff here from Graham and Mark.

I worked at Boxing monthly in sales in 1990 and they decided to bring the great Graham Houston on board, via his 2 old colleagues the Connolly brothers, which much to everyone’s horror caused the also great Harry Mullan to freak out and fired him or something like that …what a loss. we were hoping he could carry on in both mags but I guess that was a pipe dream..going from Memory by the way

I’ll be picking up the next boxing news to check it out and I guess I’ll start with the ATG light heavy fight next weekend, surely with Graham Houston doing the preview there. My prediction he’ll go for Bivol. Or possibly not

[mickey1975]

Got mine today, too, got last week's on Friday.

[Battlingsiki]

BN has just dropped through my letterbox on a Wednesday - first time ever it's been this early. Just had a flick through and looks like plenty in there to enjoy. Eubank Jnr, Bunce on being banned, double dose of Miles Templeton history (one big feature and one normal column), and features on two names I dont know: Anthony Olascuaga and Imam Khataev so will look forward to finding out more.

Great to hear, Veriton. I've changed the print deadline to hopefully lead to a more timely arrival. Royal Mail is a mess right now so the extra day helps.. I also received my copy today, which is modern day miracle.

[Battlingsiki]

Started buying summer of 1980 and religiously carried on the next 20 years, then it was on and off and I really haven’t bought it regularly for the last 20 years

but I’m interested to see when new stuff happens and also always interesting to hear the behind-the-scenes stuff here from Graham and Mark.

I worked at Boxing monthly in sales in 1990 and they decided to bring the great Graham Houston on board, via his 2 old colleagues the Connolly brothers, which much to everyone’s horror caused the also great Harry Mullan to freak out and fired him or something like that …what a loss. we were hoping he could carry on in both mags but I guess that was a pipe dream..going from Memory by the way

I’ll be picking up the next boxing news to check it out and I guess I’ll start with the ATG light heavy fight next weekend, surely with Graham Houston doing the preview there. My prediction he’ll go for Bivol. Or possibly not

The Connolly brothers, Tex Hennessy, Mike Gillender, some incredible characters around in those days.

[JamesPhilips]

Started buying summer of 1980 and religiously carried on the next 20 years, then it was on and off and I really haven’t bought it regularly for the last 20 years

but I’m interested to see when new stuff happens and also always interesting to hear the behind-the-scenes stuff here from Graham and Mark.

I worked at Boxing monthly in sales in 1990 and they decided to bring the great Graham Houston on board, via his 2 old colleagues the Connolly brothers, which much to everyone’s horror caused the also great Harry Mullan to freak out and fired him or something like that …what a loss. we were hoping he could carry on in both mags but I guess that was a pipe dream..going from Memory by the way

I’ll be picking up the next boxing news to check it out and I guess I’ll start with the ATG light heavy fight next weekend, surely with Graham Houston doing the preview there. My prediction he’ll go for Bivol. Or possibly not

The Connolly brothers, Tex Hennessy, Mike Gillender, some incredible characters around in those days.

Jim Brady (?) was fun

[Graham Houston]

Started buying summer of 1980 and religiously carried on the next 20 years, then it was on and off and I really haven’t bought it regularly for the last 20 years

but I’m interested to see when new stuff happens and also always interesting to hear the behind-the-scenes stuff here from Graham and Mark.

I worked at Boxing monthly in sales in 1990 and they decided to bring the great Graham Houston on board, via his 2 old colleagues the Connolly brothers, which much to everyone’s horror caused the also great Harry Mullan to freak out and fired him or something like that …what a loss. we were hoping he could carry on in both mags but I guess that was a pipe dream..going from Memory by the way

I’ll be picking up the next boxing news to check it out and I guess I’ll start with the ATG light heavy fight next weekend, surely with Graham Houston doing the preview there. My prediction he’ll go for Bivol. Or possibly not

Hi MW,

Yep, I've previewed Beterbeiv vs Bivol for BN. Very prescient of you.

Re. your references to the Boxing Monthly/Boxing News comings and goings over the years, I started to draft a reply but it quickly morphed into a kind of potted history and, being honest with myself, too much of the "All about me." But I will say this: The wheel seems to have turned full circle in that I am contributing to BN again after having been editor way back in the 1970s. (And a lot of water under the bridge in between.)

[SeanBrennan]

this thread escalated....in a very very good way. I actually laughed out loud in a happy way when I saw Graham Houston had commented! Brilliant.

Now we just need Thomas Hauser to pop in, Buncey to bob a comment on and we have officially completed the best boxing thread ever.

[margaret thatcher]

knowing bunce's form on forums he'd tell us all that we know nothing, threaten litigation, and tell us that big dave is on the way to sort us out

[Deserter]

knowing bunce's form on forums he'd tell us all that we know nothing, threaten litigation, and tell us that big dave is on the way to sort us out

[SeanBrennan]

knowing bunce's form on forums he'd tell us all that we know nothing, threaten litigation, and tell us that big dave is on the way to sort us out

hahahaha arrrr not Dave!!!

[SeanBrennan]

suing me would not help, I've got about 8p!

[MightyWarrior]

The Connolly brothers, Tex Hennessy, Mike Gillender, some incredible characters around in those days.

Yes, george zelany, OF Snelling, Barry hugman ( the driving force behind it ) one shot wonder Steve holdsworth, pictures by action images. All held together by our esteemed editor, Tony Connolly.

I recall Tone showing us the new JC Chavez cover for the next issue and me saying oh my god that’s exactly the same picture that ring magazine have used. Too late we’d already gone to press It didn’t matter, box monthly was months more up-to-date than the lagging ring magazine, and was much better

[MightyWarrior]

Hi MW,

Yep, I've previewed Beterbeiv vs Bivol for BN. Very prescient of you.

Re. your references to the Boxing Monthly/Boxing News comings and goings over the years, I started to draft a reply but it quickly morphed into a kind of potted history and, being honest with myself, too much of the "All about me." But I will say this: The wheel seems to have turned full circle in that I am contributing to BN again after having been editor way back in the 1970s. (And a lot of water under the bridge in between.)

Thanks Graham, though safe to say most of us would be very interested in hearing your potted history on how it went for you.
I remember you moved to Canada in the 70s and became their USA correspondence with your double page American update every week and big fight previews.

as I’ve said before I remember reading your Sanchez v Gomez superfight preview, picking Salvador Sanchez to win, and I’m thinking this can’t be right Gomez is 37-0 37 KOs most of them title defenses and a couple of ATGs on there - This guy is unbeatable. Needless to say one week later I was converted.

I often wonder what happened to your old colleague Tim Mo, another top class writer, who I think was shortlisted for the booker prize on a novel he wrote after leaving the fight game ( yes he ex was that good ) He all but disappeared, but for such a huge boxing fan surely he still watches it? time to bring him back on board?