Boxing Life Stories Tris Dixon

'The Omen', Spencer Oliver is perhaps now best-known for his media work on Sky Sports, talkSPORT and through his own Pound for Pound podcast, which he co-hosts with Jake Wood.

But don't be fooled, Spencer was a terrific fighter, a European bantamweight champion who was on the verge of world title fights and possibly big money when his entire world was flipped upside down. He was badly injured in a 1998 fight with Sergey Devakov and would never box again.

Not only that, he had a life to rebuild. He emerged from a two-week coma and had to learn the basics again, including how to walk and how to eat. Soon, a life of good health rather than world titles was his goal and a different kind of fight, one which featured acceptance, denial and depression, was at hand.

John Conteh is a British boxing icon who was a part of an incredible era of light-heavyweights.

He was a 1970's star and his fights with Chris Finnegan, Jorge Ahumada, Yaqui Lopez, Mate Parlov and two battles with Matthew Saad Muhammad have gone down in history.

But things haven't always been straightforward. Here, he talks about his childhood, growing up in Liverpool as part of a big family, the death of his trainer, George Francis, coping with depression and his public battle with alcoholism. There are plenty of highs and lows in this intimate picture of a British sporting hero.

Liverpool's former super-middleweight contender Tony Dodson saw a lot in his 17-year career. He won 32, lost eight and drew once, fighting the likes of Carl Froch, Paul Smith (twice), Tony Quigley, Brian Barbosa and Ovil McKenzie.

He'd been a top amateur and as a professional he was promoted, at one time or another, by Barry and Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren, Kellie Maloney and Hayemaker.

Here, among many topics, he talks of his friendships with David Haye and Tony Bellew, a dangerous addiction to sleeping pills, depression, his battles to make 168lbs over two decades, his mother's battle with cancer, his son starting to box, mental health and why fighters need to take their career seriously from the start to finish.

Doug Fischer is the editor-in-chief of The Ring and has one of the most glamorous-looking jobs in the sport.

However, it's all grind and it took him years to rise to that position. Here he details his story, from helping boxing break into new media with House of Boxing and the move into Maxboxing before joining The Ring.

He, with an early team, was a boxing pioneer who started filming sparring, behind the scenes interviews and uploading audio files as boxing coverage moved into the 21st century. Along the way, there were brushes with the likes of Edwin Valero, Shane Mosley, Shannon Briggs and James Toney.

Fischer talks about working for Golden Boy (who own The Ring) and the troubles that has brought him, tips about how to break into the business and his long-term hopes both for himself and for The Ring.

Super Scot Alex Arthur won British, Commonwealth, European and world honours but his career didn't reach the heights he had hoped.

Arthur boxed the likes of Willie Limond, Ricky Burns, Kobo Gogoladze and many more but missed out on the big nights and the big fights with the likes of Joan Guzman and Marco Antonio Barrera that he craved.

Arthur now trains his sons but here talks about his dramatic battles with the scales, with Michael Gomez and with retirement – as well as his friendship with Scott Harrison – as he reflects on the wonderful highs and dramatic lows.

The late International Boxing Hall Of Famer Curtis Cokes was a world welterweight champion who became a top trainer. Universally liked and respected Cokes welcomed Boxing Life Stories host Tris Dixon into his home on the outskirts of Dallas back in 2010.

Then 73 years of age, Curtis looked back over his career, talked about training fighters and some of the lows he experienced through his life in the sport.

Cokes won 62 fights (30 inside the distance), suffered 14 losses and was involved in four draws.

He fought the likes of Jose Napoles, Joe Miceli, Gypsy Joe Harris, Luis Rodriguez, Kitten Hayward, Stan Harrington, Manuel Gonzalez and many others and as a trainer he worked with Ike Ibeabuchi, Kirk Johnson and Quincy Taylor.