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Outlook: Boxing Helped Me Become a Barrister

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Tony Kent

12/03/2018 GMT

Boxing Helped Me Become a Barrister

BBC World Service - Outlook, Boxing Helped Me Become a Barrister

Tony Kent won several amateur heavyweight titles before becoming a successful lawyer

Tony Kent grew up in a family where everyone was taught to box. Tony went on to win several amateur heavyweight titles before becoming a successful barrister.

Tony Kent stands out somewhat among his lawyer colleagues in London - because he comes from a very different background to most of them. He comes from a council estate on the outskirts of London, from a family of Irish builders. He expected to be a builder too, until a chance encounter when he was a teenager made him dream of being a lawyer. Against all the odds he's become a hugely successful barrister. He defended a now-famous boxer called Anthony Joshua who pleaded guilty to drug possession and was temporarily stripped of his boxing licence. But Tony persuaded the judge to give him a second chance - Joshua gave up the drugs, and at the following year's London Olympics, took super heavyweight gold. Which meant a great deal to Tony - because boxing is in his blood. 

Nidhi Goyal is a funny woman. She does stand up comedy in and around Mumbai, where she's always lived. She cracks jokes about disability... and sex... and prejudice. She's blind. And she told Outlook's Jo Fidgen she often finds that the first thing she has to do when she gets on stage is justify why she's there.

Do you ever have ideas for completely useless inventions? Swede Simone Giertz has taken it to a whole new level. She describes herself as "the queen of bad robots, mistress of malfunctions and the mother of terrible inventions". They include: an alarm clock that slaps you awake, a machine for applying lipstick and a contraption for shampooing your hair. Simone videos herself making these things, puts them on the internet, and has a huge number of fans, but why does she do it?

(Picture Tony Kent. Courtesy of Tony Kent.)

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