There are a hundred-and-one things you never knew about James “Buddy” McGirt, and the two-division world champion and Trainer of the Year shared a whole bunch of them during an hour-long, story-packed conversation — probably the best interview we did all year on The Ringside Boxing Show.
McGirt, who will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June, tells tales about former trainer/manager Al Certo (a one-of-a-kind character who died December 26 at age 90), hanging out in a New Jersey parking lot with Certo, Joey Giardello, and a very angry Willie Pep, dining with the legendary Jersey Joe Wolcott, fighting “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, Frankie Warren, Saoul Mamby, Meldrick Taylor, Simon Brown, and Howard Davis Jr., training Arturo Gatti, Vernon Forrest, and his son, James McGirt Jr., and preparing the notoriously difficult Sergey Kovalev for his Feb. 2 rematch with the man who knocked him out in August, Eleider Alvarez.
This spectacular interview caps our year-end review show, in which expert analysts Travis Hartman, Rizwaan Zahid, and John J. Raspanti share their picks for Fight of the Year, Fighter of the Year, Knockout of the Year, Round of the Year, and Prospect of the Year, and British correspondent Paul McLaughlin reviews a sensational year of boxing in the United Kingdom.
Pop some popcorn for this truly amazing edition of The Ringside Boxing Show. You’re going to love this one, guaranteed.
Dennis Taylor is host of The Ringside Boxing Show, editor/publisher of www.ringsideboxingshow.com, and co-author (with John J. Raspanti) of “Intimate Warfare: The True Story of the Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward Boxing Trilogy,” an Amazon bestseller.
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