Tris Dixon: “People need to find a niche and make themselves stand out.”

Tris Dixon: “People need to find a niche and make themselves stand out.”

There is always much trepidation when I interview people who are in my opinion, journalistic heavyweights. Thoughts flicker to being a great imposter in a world that I have stumbled into and one where I don’t really belong. If I am, I know the likes of Tris Dixon will realise that pretty quickly. Within a few minutes of talking to the author of such books as Road to Nowhere and Damage, I very much realised, an imposter I most certainly am. The causal namedrops of fighters like Curtis Cokes and Leroy Caldwell, fighters that I had not thought of in many a year, reminded me of the oldest cliche in the sport, ‘there are levels to this game.’

Dixon needs little introduction to the boxing world. The former editor of Boxing News, numerous TV punditry gigs, and multiple books already on the shelves, including his latest, Warrior, the excellent biography of Matthew Saad Muhammad.

I caught up with Dixon in what was supposed to be a week off from the daily grind as a freelance journalist. But as well as the tiresome chore of having to speak to me over Zoom, Dixon was arranging more interviews for his timeless Boxing Life Stories. The work seemingly never stops for Dixon:

“With freelancing, you just have to take it when you can get it. People think because I’ve been at it a long time I am in a privileged position and I have got staff jobs and such, but I haven’t got that base. I do regular stuff for Boxing Scene, but as for a regular staff job I haven’t got one and I haven’t had one since I left Boxing News. I have to grind like everyone else to make it work.”

Boxing media is a saturated market. New websites and YouTube outlets pop up on a daily basis. The outlets are endless, the quality of them far less so. But competition for the required views is beyond fierce and making any kind of living from boxing is difficult, even for someone as well-established and respected as Dixon:

“It’s really difficult to make a living from it. Dixon told me. People think because I did a year of TV stuff that I have got regular work. They see you on TV and think that’s it. In terms of an annual thing, a day rate doesn’t go far and basically, everything is a day rate or a piece rate. There’s no monthly salary and it’s tough. Like everyone else I have to earn more than I spend to keep my head above water.”

There are obvious problems with the hundreds of outlets that are out there. The lack of quality, originality and creativity stands out in the vast majority of websites and channels. Video interviews are conducted with a seemingly set standard of repetitive questions, and designed not to challenge too deeply. Some dare to be different, and they are the ones that deserve further attention. Written websites are littered with short throwaway articles that look as though they have taken five minutes to write, and largely offer nothing that captures any kind of real interest. It is a sign of the times, the need to generate clicks and revenue determines what content is out there. And while I understand that side of the market, it still leaves you wanting a little more for your time.

Boxing offers a quicker route for aspiring journalists. No qualifications are needed, just a camera and a website, and with little investment, it can get you a long way. It is a totally different world from the one that Dixon entered all those years ago:

“The quickest way in is the clickbait stuff. Someone like Craig Scott has built himself up by doing the long pieces and the clever interviews but nobody has the patience to do that. Craig is still young himself, but the only way to build that pedigree is to stick with it. Craig has been at it for a few years but he might have to stick at it for ten years to get a break. That’s the more slow methodical way. There is space for what anyone wants to do. I’m not adverse to people coming in and making progress quickly but when I started in 1996, the only way you would get a job is if someone retired because the positions were few and far between. But now there are different channels and outlets springing up left right and centre. But in many respects, it is hard to stand the test of time in media. Some people might get in aged 18-20 and do all the big stuff now, but is it going to pay the bills for ten years. That is probably the main difference now. When I was cutting my teeth the first show I covered was an amateur show at a cattle market in Somerset. Then it was British titles, then Commonwealth and European titles and so on. It was like a rite of passage, there was no way I could have gone to a Mike Tyson press conference as a fan or a periphery media member. It was tough, probably in the same way as it is to go to a Premier League press conference now. You don’t just start a social media platform or a YouTube channel and then apply for credentials. I guess you would get laughed at if you tried to go to the World Cup as a professional journalist, but boxing does allow it.

“I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, but it’s a very different way into the sport from what I experienced. I see people going to big fights after only a few weeks or months. Again no problem with it, but by the time I got to that level, I felt I was ready for it because I was experienced. You build up getting that experience, and again not meant as a criticism, but you get guys now who don’t have that experience. I might be tempted to read a piece by Steve Bunce who has years of coverage experience because they have seen so much more and they can compare it, compared to someone who is 19 and says this is the best fight I have ever seen. The gap in experience is huge.”

When the market is so overpopulated you can be swamped with a plethora of content to watch. But the consumption needs to be selective. For someone who has to juggle a day job around the passion, I know this better than most. I don’t have time, or in truth, the desire to spend 24/7 scrolling down my Twitter feed to keep up to date with everything boxing related. And the same goes for trying to catch every single fight on every single channel or App that is out there. Life kind of gets in the way.

The same even applies to Dixon, someone who makes his living out of the sport:

“I’m still quite old school with my consumption. I’m not from the YouTube era. I’ll read a Donald McRae piece. I still read Matt Christie in Boxing News, and I’ll read some Thomas Hauser stuff. I like a Craig Scott piece. I read articles from people I enjoy. Of course, algorithms give me all kinds of stuff, it’s generally that clickbait stuff that I tend to stay away from, the type of thing that generates clicks but there is no substance to much of the content. Throughout my career, I’ve tried to provide something that is different and valuable. I’m deeply impartial and I want to get beneath the fingernails of the sport and cover a different side to it. When you look at journalists now you want them to come out and start and create their own thing rather than copy what has been done before. It’s like my Boxing Life Stories, I don’t want people coming in and doing exactly what I’ve been doing, that’s not using your own initiative. There are gaps in the market for what anyone wants to try, something that is clever and can resonate with an audience. That’s my biggest gripe I suppose, people come along and they just try and do the same as other people. What jumps out is someone trying to be different. My niche when I was at Boxing News was going around America trying to find the old-timers. That created a niche for me and I ended up living and breathing it, and I felt that it was my responsibility to try and find these old guys who had been forgotten. Even when I was the editor of Boxing News, wherever a fight would take me, I thought it was my responsibility to find the old guys from that city, because I knew there weren’t loads of people doing it. That’s what I mean, people need to find a niche and make themselves stand out.”

But there are outlets out there that are more than deserving of your time, especially if you try and escape the room of the expected and the familiar. Boxing UK is more worth a look as are Boxing King Media, but the new kid on the block ID Boxing, albeit with familiar names like Rob Tebbutt and Andi Purewal at the helm, are certainly making waves since their inception earlier this year, something that is not lost on Dixon:

“ID Boxing are catching the eye with what they are doing, but what we don’t need now is people copying them. ID has its niche and they are doing things differently and being very creative and thinking outside of the box. And I think they have made other people up their game as well.”

Dixon spent five years as the editor of the long-running and still unequalled trade paper Boxing News. But the relentless never-ending workload of his time there very nearly saw Dixon leave the sport for good:

“When I left Boxing News I was planning on doing what my predecessor Claude Abrams did and leave the sport and put a complete stop to it. But then I got asked to write a book on Floyd Mayweather and Sky Sports wanted me to do some research and stats for them. I was exhausted at Boxing News, I was fed up with the job and fed up with what was going on there. I was there for eight years, five as the editor, but all I seemed to be writing about was Mayweather/Pacquiao not happening, failed drug tests and no suspensions for any of the guys who had done serious issues. The constant bickering between promoters and that kind of stuff. I was disillusioned with the sport and one of the things that broke the camel’s back was the CJ Ross scorecard for the Mayweather/Canelo fight. I was there covering that fight and I think I scored every round for Mayweather and then when they announced that scorecard as a draw and I just thought how can you explain that and tell your readers that this sport is not fixed or corrupt. It was a majestic boxing display from Mayweather, it was wonderful, one of the best I have ever seen and how someone managed to score that a draw I have no idea. But there were a lot of things combined, fights not happening, ridiculous scorecards and referee decisions, use of drugs and the lack of suspensions, promotional arguments, it was all making me pull my hair out.”

Thankfully, Dixon did stay in the sport. The balance was found and the sport is better for it:

“I’m glad I’m still in the sport now but I am not as immersed in it as I once was. If I go away on holiday now I can just switch off. People expect the Boxing News editor to know everything about everything at all times. If I miss a fight on a Saturday night and someone says to me what did you think about the fight, there is a fair chance I haven’t caught it yet. So now I can enjoy it on my terms. Yes, it is still my career but it’s not 24/7 like it used to be. I now sleep eight hours a night, when I was at Boxing News I would be lucky to get four. I can now walk my dog and not take my phone, when I was at Boxing News it was glued to my ear. I was working hundred-hour weeks routinely, it was relentless. But now with Boxing Life Stories, that is my baby and I can speak to who I want and consume what I want.”

Twenty or so minutes into our interview, I realised I hadn’t even touched on the subjects I had wanted to talk about with Dixon. His latest book Warrior, a touching meticulously researched book on one of the great light-heavyweights in boxing history, had just been released, and his previous book Damage about long-term brain injuries in boxing, was still incredibly fresh in my mind. These were the topics initially designed for the interview, we did have those conversations. Another story for another day. In another interview.