http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/BN08/detail.asp?id=1179What state is British boxing in, not just from the perspective of your stable but overall?Well, I think from a talent point of view it’s probably in a better shape than it’s been for a long, long time. There are some really good young fighters coming through, some guys that are on the verge of fighting for world titles and some brilliant young guys who have a good future ahead of them.
So let’s talk about the pluses first. As far as live gates are concerned everybody – certainly we are – we are getting good live gates and very good attendances for the shows. TV is the problem. You’ve got the uncertainty of Setanta, and I believe tomorrow [Friday, June 19] they will be told they are still in business, which is great for the game. Sky mostly focus on Friday night shows which I think restricts the development of bringing stars through. It’s not a good slot. It’s a good slot for them and as a promoter you’ve got to grab what you can but that slot, most newspaper sports editors don’t send people along to fights on Friday night so you don’t get a good preview and in most cases you don’t even get the result in the next day. It’s difficult for fans to travel to the event if they are finishing work at 5pm on a Friday and you need to get to Birmingham or Manchester or Coventry if you’re living in London, it’s a pain in the backside and vice versa.
As a promoter, how do you get the newspapers to cover fighters who were not amateur stars or don’t have Olympic backgrounds?They’ve got to do it through their talent and exposure and the way you get the exposure is through the TV so you need some Saturday night shows. Boxing on a Saturday night so we can put them on in big venues and get the public along to those type of fights rather than doing a small show at York Hall or somewhere that holds 1,500. You need to get into your 10,000 and 20,000 seat venues. You’re not going to be able to do that on a Friday night. It cannot happen. You need that exposure on a Saturday. You don’t need it to be on a pay-per-view basis you need it be on a subscriber basis or free-to-air. ITV are out of the game as we know, all they are doing is cutting money and basically what’s happening to boxing is happening to a lot of sports. Everything is driven by soccer, football whatever you want to call, it and that’s all the sport budgets are pushed into that.
The BBC are a disgrace. For a public channel not be showing any professional boxing and I understand they are pulling out of amateur boxing they are a disgrace and the people who are pissed off about not seeing boxing should write to the BBC and tell them.
Have you been in negotiations with them recently?They don’t want to know. ITV have got no money so they are out of it.
What do you think of the ITV scenario because Mick Hennessy was getting good ratings?It’s bad. He was doing some good numbers on ITV 4 but it’s all over so it’s bad and it’s not good for the game. The sport needs exposure. It needs its niche market. When I started in the game most fights took place on a Tuesday night and were shown on Sportsnight the next day. I started the Saturdays. The Saturdays are what we need because that’s the day when most people aren’t working and they can take the time out to get to shows.
So we are in a transition period with Joe retiring and Ricky losing, we’ve got Froch and Haye…But that’s always happened. That’s nothing unusual. When there Maurice Hope and all those guys went by the wayside I remember reading reports that boxing’s all over. It’s not all over. The fighters will come through. It’s just another cycle. What we, the promoters, have to do is be innovative and come up with ways to get fighters onto TV or other broadcasting areas in other forms.
What was your take on Froch not getting live TV?I thought it was terrible. But, you know, he went to the States, what was if 4-5 o’clock in the morning when the fight took place and that was his call. It obviously affected what he was going to get paid.
What did you think of his gamble to defend in the US?Listen, he had a real result, didn’t he? Because he was 14 seconds from becoming a fighter who had been beaten nearly every round. If he hadn’t snatched victory he would have been well beaten.
What’s your take on the David Haye situation?I don’t think he had a back problem with the alleged back injury I think he had a Setanta problem. He asked for the money up front and they wouldn’t pay him. I know that for a fact.
NB David Haye and Adam Booth deny this is the case and he is due back in England next week for physiotherapy on the back injury that they claim forced his withdrawal.What’s the latest with the Joe Calzaghe situation?The administrators went for appeal and the appeal was given refusal and leave to appeal. It’s out of my hands.
How much of it is personal and how much of this case is professional?With me it’s very personal. I’m very pissed off. He was found to be lying in court, he had to apologise to the court. Gareth Williams was found to be lying and had to apologise to the court but having said all of that it went the other way, they found it against Sports Network Ltd and the facts are he and his father shook hands with me in a room and I swear on my children’s lives that’s what happened. They denied it but that’s what happened. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth but that’s Joe.
How old is Frank ****** Promotions the company?A few months.
Because it was Frank ******.tv…That’s not a promotional company, it’s an internet site. I don’t know why we get all of this. I’ve had that from a few people but it’s an internet site.
With regards to the Sky shows, some have complained about there being just prospects against journeymen of 80-20 or 90-10 fights…
You’re going to get prospects against journeymen to start with because they’ve got learn their trade. What are you going to do, throw them in the deep end and let them get the s*** kicked out of them so they don’t learn their trade? That’s what the business is. It’s not the main event, you don’t put it on as a main event but you step them up each time they fight. They’ve got to learn their trade and if anyone doesn’t think they should learn their trade they don’t know what they’re talking about.
There has been some flak about Broadhurst and Cleverly against the African opponents as top of the bill fights?Then someone should take it up with the Commonwealth because they come up with their list of contenders. We don’t put the guys on their list. It’s their list. Some of these guys, we can’t check them out because sometimes we can’t even get any video out of them. But let’s have it right, Don Broadhurst and Cleverly when they fought for them fought 12-round fights in something like their 10th or 11th fights. So you can’t have it both ways.
Who else would you like to promote?The guys I’m promoting. I’ve signed [ABA light-welter champion] Ronnie Heffron, and I’m really looking forward t seeing him, he’s going to be good. I’ve got enough on my books to be looking after at the moment. Out there who would I look at? There’s a couple of kids, but nothing that really grabs me that much.
Will Barker-Macklin happen?That’s up to Macklin. If he wants it he can have it.
Now, you mentioned in a recent column about being a vegetarian….I eat fish.
Has that been a long term thing?Yeah, I haven’t eaten meat for about 25 years.
What inspired the change?As far as meat was concerned I didn’t like what they were pumping into the animals and I used to work at Smithfields meat market when I was a kid and I don’t like the antibiotics and the stuff they beef them up with and now I don’t like the intense farming conditions.
Tell me something no one knows about youWhat a nice bloke I am.
Breidis Prescott caused you some trouble last year and now it’s a legal thing [Prescott boxed in America on another promotion while allegedly under contract to ******]It is a legal thing because of Luis DeCubas and the nutter [Ahmet Ohner].
Would you like to use him again?Yes. We’ll see where we are on it. It’s not the end of the world but he was stupid. Imagine if he had been here, I would have probably give him three fights by now and he’d be flying. Now he’s gone of the radar.
Some people think Prescott and Choi beat your prospects and you’ve canned them?No one has canned Breidis Prescott, you know what's happened there, and Choi you just couldn’t get a fight for him. TV and no one was interested in him and that’s what happened. He did a job that night didn’t he? I quite like him and I think Jack [Doughty]’s done a good job but that’s two of God knows how many fighters.
Kotelnik’s one the guys that has beaten one of your fighters and you’ve managed to find him more work with Amir Khan on July 18.Yeah. I have had him back three times because I had also put him in with MBaye.
