Episode 018

Title: Voices of Hope: A Professional Boxer's Hidden Fight (with Danny O'Connor)

In this episode, Jenni Gaines and Laura Cohen sit down with Danny O'Connor, a former elite professional boxer, Olympic team member, and author of Weight Class, to hear his firsthand account of battling an eating disorder across more than two decades of competition. Danny traces the origin of his disordered behaviors from his wrestling days in high school — where no one taught him healthy weight management — through his professional boxing career, where he spent years cutting weight in secret while hiding a binge eating disorder from coaches, nutritionists, and nearly everyone around him. He talks candidly about the difference between weight cutting and an eating disorder, what it felt like to lose control of the one thing he'd always been able to discipline, and the role his wife Diane played in keeping him afloat. Listeners will come away with a deeper understanding of how eating disorders hide in plain sight in weight class sports, why men are particularly isolated in this experience, and what caregivers can do — and be — when someone they love is struggling.

00:00 Introduction and Disclaimer

01:02 Guest Introduction: Danny O'Connor

03:18 Childhood: Family, Food, and a Sandlot Life

06:02 Wrestling, Weight Cutting, and No One Telling Him Anything

13:33 Downward Spiral: Academics, Arrests, and Losing Wrestling

18:10 Finding Boxing: How a PAL Gym Changed Everything

20:57 How Weight Classes Work in Amateur and Professional Boxing

26:53 From Weight Cutting to Eating Disorder: When Control Vanished 31:08 Binge Eating and the Behavior He Couldn't Stop

36:25 Hidden in Plain Sight: 15 Nutritionists and Still Silent

41:58 Isolation, His Wife Diane, and Finding the Right Supports

49:00 Recovery Isn't Linear: Treating the Eating Disorder Like an Opponent

01:01:12 What Danny Wants Caregivers to Know

SUPPORT & RESOURCES

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FEAST website:

https://feast-ed.org/

FEAST programs and services:

https://feast-ed.org/programs-and-services/

Danny O'Connor's book, Weight Class:

https://www.amazon.com/Weight-Class-Fighters-Life-Death/dp/B0GMY44348

Guest Bio:

Danny O'Connor is a former elite professional boxer who grew up outside of Boston and was a member of the 2008 United States Olympic Boxing Team. As an accomplished amateur, he captured multiple national titles, including the US National Championships and the National Golden Gloves, establishing himself as one of the top fighters of his generation.

O'Connor turned professional in 2008 and competed at the highest levels of the sport for more than a decade, compiling a professional record of 31 wins and holding the WBC International Silver Super Lightweight Championship. Following his professional career,

O'Connor became a vocal advocate for greater awareness around weight class sports and eating disorders in men. Through his book Weight Class, he gives a voice to the many men who suffer in silence, drawing directly from his career in boxing and his firsthand experience battling an eating disorder in and out of the ring.