Round 13: Becoming a Father ft Scotty Cardle

Former British lightweight champion Scotty Cardle spent most of his life preparing for fights - the discipline, the training camps, the walkouts, the pressure, the lights.

But when the final bell rang on his boxing career, a very different fight began.

In this episode of Dadversity, Scotty opens up about life after boxing, the depression that followed retirement, becoming a dad during lockdown, supporting his wife through postnatal depression, selling the family home, travelling with his daughter, separation, co-parenting, and the lessons he hopes his daughter Darcy carries with her.

This is not just a conversation about boxing.

It is a conversation about identity, regret, love, fatherhood, and what happens when the life you planned starts to change.

00:00 — What is harder: boxing or fatherhood?

Scotty compares the hidden work behind fight night with the unseen work of being a dad.

01:38 — Boxing teaches control. Fatherhood takes it away.

Scotty reflects on frustration, patience and why parenting is nothing like a one-man sport.

03:28 — Growing up in Blackpool and finding boxing

How Scotty’s dad first took him to the boxing gym and why the sport captured him.

04:39 — Losing his first fight