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Hardeep's Sunday Lunch

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Hardeep Singh Kohli travels the UK cooking Sunday lunch for people with remarkable stories

Hardeep Singh Kohli travels around the UK cooking Sunday lunch for people with remarkable stories

Hardeep's Sunday Lunch: Series 4

Hardeep's Sunday Lunch: Series 4: Journeymen Boxers

03/01/2016

Journeymen Boxers

Series 4

BBC Radio 4 - Hardeep's Sunday Lunch, Series 4, Journeymen Boxers

Hardeep Singh Kohli cooks a protein-packed lunch for journeymen boxers Johnny and Frank.

Hardeep Singh Kohli cooks a protein-packed lunch for journeymen boxers Johnny and Frank. Journeymen show young stars the ropes, but it is a tough and sometimes dangerous lifestyle.

Hardeep cooks up a meal that packs a protein fuelled punch when he enters the world of the boxing journeymen - the men who are paid to show young hopefuls the ropes and not to win. Hardeep meets Johnny Greaves, one of the best in the business - 100 fights, 96 defeats, 4 wins. As Johnny says "turn up, fight, lose, get paid. Happy days." Johnny Greaves is refreshingly honest about the realities of being a mid-ranking professional boxer. Johnny makes losing look like an art form and is very proud of his craft. He first started boxing as a 9 year old against his older brother Frank in the family's back garden in London's East End. When he turned pro, brother Frank became his trainer and manager and Johnny spent the next six years getting beaten up for the pleasure of a baying, paying public. Hardeep discovers what keeps people like Johnny fighting and gets an insight in to the tight-knit world of boxing that's a very long way from the glamour of big money title fights. 

Journeymen are the life-blood of boxing and many have skills that belie the stats in their losses columns. They accept fights against ambitious, highly trained fighters and must always put on a show to make sure fans have a good night, whilst making sure they don't hurt them too much - or get hurt themselves. It takes enormous physical skill and courage, but the journeyman also has to be mentally tough; there's a stigma to being a journeyman and no one relishes being labelled a loser even if they're getting well paid for it. Now though, the tables have turned. Frank Greaves, at the veteran age of 37 and despite his wife's concerns, has decided that it's time he stepped into the ring and his brother Johnny has become his trainer. Can Frank make it as a journeyman boxer?

Producer: Phil Pegum.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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