The Main Event Boxing Podcast · Fox Sports Australia

KOEN MAZOUDIER - Wild journey from first professional loss to mental health facility and back to the big time

·55 min·3 clips

I sent myself schizophrenic and ended up in a mental health facility for the violently ill.

Ben Damon introduces Cohen Mazudia as one of the stars of the Glamour Super Welterweight Division in Australian boxing. Mazudia is preparing for Ben Marnie on Sunday the 12th of March. The opening stretch covers camp, timing, and why this fight has arrived now. Mazudia says preparation has been calm compared with much of the rest of his life, and makes it clear that this one has been a straightforward camp so far. The interview then shifts into the road that gave the fight its meaning. Mazudia talks about a rough period that included drug use and the way his grip on reality began to break down. The story includes police involvement and time in a mental health facility. He does not soften any of it. He explains that mushrooms led into heavier use. He describes smoking constantly and then taking acid on the 30th of December 2019 and the 1st of January 2020. After that, he says he smoked DMT and felt he met God and his spirit animal. At the time, he thought that meant he had reached something higher. Looking back, he sees it as going way too far. Mazudia says he learned that being too elevated in his own mind is dangerous. He talks about staying neutral, staying in the middle, and not letting himself get pulled around by highs or lows. He describes that balance as a kind of enlightenment. The tone stays direct rather than polished. He sounds like someone who has had to build his own rules the hard way. Damon asks what that period looked like for the people around him. Mazudia says it was one of the hardest times for everyone near him, including his closest people. The damage was not private. His partner becomes central to the conversation because she was the one who knew something had to change. Mazudia keeps returning to how difficult it was for everyone close to him. The episode stays grounded in boxing even while it moves through the worst of his personal history. Mazudia talks about wanting the Ben Marnie fight for a long time. He frames Marnie as one of the names at the top of the division, alongside Tim Zoo. He also points to the rankings and the timing. The fight is presented as a real test, not just a place on a card. Damon brings the discussion back to the emotional weight of the comeback. Mazudia speaks about what he wants to show in the ring. He does not want the night to be only about skill or movement. He wants to show that if someone tries to drag him into a scrap, he will answer. The language stays plain and physical. The later part of the interview leans into that edge. Mazudia says he wants opponents to know he can hold his ground on the ropes. He wants to hit back hard enough that they understand the cost. That mindset gives the fight preview a little menace without turning it into theatre. It also makes sense of the life story around it. Damon closes by calling the bout one of the true highlights of a huge boxing day. The card includes Tim Zoo and Tony Harrison at the top end. Mazudia ends by saying he is happy to share his story if it helps even one person. That is the note the episode leaves on: not redemption as a slogan, but recovery as something still being lived.

As heard by us

A fight-week interview that becomes a blunt, human account of rebuilding.

This fight-week interview frames the March 12 bout with Ben Marnie, but the stronger pull is the boxer’s frank account of a recent past marked by drugs, police, a mental health facility, and redemption inside and outside the ring.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want the fight, the fallout, and the comeback.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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