A boxing enthusiast from Cirencester has made a career out of his passion for the sport – and has just launched a new podcast with former world champion, Tony Bellew.
At the age of just 22, Charlie Parsons has already rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in the boxing industry, from promoters like Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, to fighters including Tyson Fury, Chris Eubank Jr., and Oleksandr Usyk.
He has travelled all over the world to broadcast fights, from Sydney to Mexico, and has even launched his own boxing media organisation, The Stomping Ground, which has garnered more than 27,000 followers on Instagram and over 44,000 TikTok followers.
Meanwhile, Charlie himself boasts more than 40,000 Instagram followers and a whopping 200,000 TikTok followers on his personal social media accounts, sharing content under his surname, ‘Parsons’.
His latest project is a new podcast, Fight Your Corner, which he has launched with former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew. The first two episodes are available now, and the pair hope to invite some of the biggest names in boxing and combat sports to be guest stars on the podcast.
But despite his success in the sporting world, Charlie still lives in Cirencester, having moved to the town as a teenager – and says he is “massively fond” of the Cotswolds.
He said: “I love the Cotswolds. What a lovely part of the world. Hopefully I never move. Cirencester is a place that has been nothing but kind to me since I moved here, I can’t speak badly about the place.
“Moving here shaped me into who I am as a person, and I feel like I have to do my little bit for the town off the back of that.”
In fact, it was while Charlie was studying at Cirencester College that he began creating boxing content.
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He said: “It started in lockdown, really. I was at Cirencester College, and I did quite well academically but it just wasn’t really for me, it wasn’t my thing.
“I noticed that people were bored and they were on their phones a lot during lockdown, and I thought the best thing to do was just to utilise that and pepper people with messages. Relentlessly, I went on and on for months, messaging people in the industry, fighters, former fighters, pundits.
“Then former heavyweight champion, Shannon Briggs, came back to me and said, ‘Let’s do an interview’. So I ordered a MacBook for next day delivery and thank God he stuck to his word, and we did an interview on Zoom.
“And it was just a bit of a spiral from there. I really enjoyed doing it, but realised that putting it on my own channel with probably 10 subscribers wasn’t the best way to distribute the content.
“So I would just give that content out to different channels and platforms for free, just for an opportunity to get my work seen. And that was all throughout Covid, and it kind of just took off for me.”
Speaking about boxing facilities in the Cotswolds, Charlie said: “I’ve got to give a big shout-out to boxing promoter, Mark Neilson, who’s based out of Cirencester, who works hard on the small hall circuit.
“There are also a fantastic couple of gyms that do a great job, one of them in Gloucester, one in Swindon. There’s a community gym called JJ’s in Cirencester that does a really good job.
“But the funding in grassroots boxing altogether is shocking – both in Cirencester and in a lot of the UK. Grassroots boxing just is underfunded, it isn’t catered for.
“It’s a shame really, because for a lot of kids it’s a way off the streets. But in the south-west there’s nowhere near what there could be for grassroots boxing.”
However, Charlie has also put Cirencester on the map by becoming good friends with leading boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn – who has frequently teased Charlie about the town.
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Charlie said: “It’s all nice, it’s all good fun. When I first started doing what I’m doing I wanted to find a way to differentiate my content and stand out a little bit, and that gave Eddie the opportunity to rip into me a little bit.
“I’ve got to give credit to him, Eddie stands there and does every interview, no matter how small, no matter how big your platform. He’s been very good to me.
“We’ve talked about getting him down to Cirencester at some point, and hopefully we will still do that. I love a Cotswolds pub, you can find me on a day off sat in a Cotswold pub with a Guinness somewhere.
“So I’d probably take Eddie to The Stump for a Guinness and a pizza. That would be my choice.”
And it’s not just boxing stars that Charlie has had the opportunity to meet in his line of work. He has even interviewed big music names including Ed Sheeran, as well as footballers such as Declan Rice.
So does he ever get starstruck? “Not really, not anymore,” he said. “I think sometimes when you’re young you can let it get to you a little bit, and develop a bit of an ego.
“But I think what I realised very quickly from working with these people and developing professional relationships is that everyone’s the same. A lot of people know who they are, but they’re just normal people.
“My mum always brought me up to treat people how you’d like to be treated, don’t put people on a pedestal. So usually I’m okay.
“There are people every now and then, like when Ed Sheeran’s team said he’d watched some of my videos, that will always be mad to me. That was mind-boggling.
“And I think Declan Rice is a great character and a great person, so when I was introduced to him, that was a cool feeling.”
‘I can’t thank Tony enough,’ Charlie said(Image: Tom Harrison)
Speaking about his new podcast, Fight Your Corner, Charlie said: “Launching this podcast with Tony Bellew has been incredible. He’s such a lovely bloke, he’s very supportive. He’s been fantastic.
“For my Christmas present in 2018, my mum got me tickets to go and watch his fight against Oleksandr Usyk at the AO Arena. I was in Year 10 at the time. So working alongside him on Fight Your Corner has been incredible, it’s a real privilege. I can’t thank him enough.
“When you admire someone like that and then work with them up close, and they’re as good and decent as he is, it’s lovely.”
New podcast episodes will be released each Wednesday at 5pm – and Charlie has teased there are big things to come.
He said: “We’re still working on it, but we’ve got a long list of talent and different names that we’d like to get on the podcast. I really think that we’ll be speaking to the biggest names in the combat sport space.
“My dream guest would be Tyson Fury, I think. Him and Tony together would be fantastic. They’ve had their clashes in the past, I think they get on quite well now, but I think it would make an incredible episode.”
And for those looking to follow in Charlie’s career footsteps, his main advice is “be relentless”.
He said: “I would say just be relentless in reaching out to people and networking. When I first started as a 16-year-old I didn’t know anyone in the space, but I always think the worst you can do is reach out and someone says no. I did a lot of that, and I think you’ve just got to prepare for a lot of rejection.
“It can be quite scary and intimidating at times when people aren’t getting back to you. But I think always back yourself, be good to people, be relentless with it. As long as you’re not being too rash and just come across like a decent, polite person with good intentions.
“I never thought any of this would be possible, but it is. Just give everything your best shot, and everything will work itself out.”