My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s peek behind the curtains on what drives sports stars to greatness. This week we speak to Hall of Fame boxing promoter Frank Warren, who has spent over 40 years guiding some of the biggest names in the sport including Frank Bruno, Joe Calzaghe, Tyson Fury and Prince Naseem Hamed.
Everything I do seems to be an accident
I’d always done fairly well when I was young. I had pubs and clubs. Lenny McLean, who was a second cousin of mine, he had a few of these unlicensed fights. I didn’t particularly like Lenny, even though he was a relation. He was a big lump, but he was a bully.
He fought a guy called Roy Shaw, and he hit Roy and wobbled him. But he never threw another punch. He then went to the corner, put his arms up on the rope and went, “go on, hit me on the chin,” and Roy hit him about 20 times, and then he fell to the floor. We went back to his dressing room afterwards, my uncle was there, and he gave him such a bollocking.
About six months later, they had a rematch. Lenny won the fight, so they wanted to make a trilogy. We met the people who were promoting it, and they were offering him crap money. I said, “oh, screw you, we’ll make another fight for Lenny,” and we walked out. And my uncle said, “what the effing hell did you say that for?” And that’s how I got into boxing promotion.
All of my family are Arsenal fans
Except for my brother, Robert, he’s a Spurs supporter, but he did get dropped on his head when he was a baby. I’m from Islington, so like most people there, that’s my local club. I’ve had a box at the Emirates longer than anybody.
Joe Baker was my favourite player when I was a kid, who they bought from Torino for a record £70,000 at the time. He was a Scotsman, but he played for England and was a tough old sod. I remember Arsenal played Liverpool in the FA Cup. Ron Yates, who was a defender for Liverpool, he was a big lump, Joe knocked him out and got sent off. That’s probably what got me into boxing.
Frank McLintock and I, we were business partners. We had nightclubs together. He was a big hero of mine as a footballer. Obviously Wrighty, Ian Wright. I loved Liam Brady. There’s a long list of them. I’m a total nerd when it comes to Arsenal.
My favourite boxer I’ve ever seen live was Sugar Ray Leonard
I thought he was an amazing fighter. I went to see Tommy Hearns versus Marvin Hagler. They just stood there and knocked lumps out of each other. That was an exciting fight. It was just pure macho desire.
And on film footage that I’ve watched over the years, the best I’ve seen was Sugar Ray Robinson. When they had no junior divisions, he went from welterweight to middleweight, from middleweight to light-heavyweight. He was just incredible.
That’s why they brought junior weight classes in, like super-middleweight, so it’s not a stone or 14-pound difference. Some guys might be struggling to make middleweight but be too small for light-heavyweight. So I’m a big believer in all of that.
I’ve changed a lot of things in boxing
I remember when the British Boxing Board of Control changed from doing CT scans to MRI scans to determine if boxers had suffered brain injuries, and I funded that. Only one other person put money in, a trainer who put a thousand pounds in, but so much for all of these other promoters, all of their rabbiting and bunnying, none of them put any money in. So I was proud of that.
We work closely with some of the neurologists who support boxing and still do in trying to make it safer. It’s a dangerous sport, but everybody knows what the dangers are. Nigel Benn-Gerald McClellan, I was sitting ringside. That was my show. That was a terrible, terrible time.
I’ve seen an interview, by the way, from Gerald McClellan’s sister, which is totally wrong, saying that people were sitting in the hospital drinking champagne. What bullshit nonsense. Who is telling her rubbish like that?
I discharged myself from hospital after being shot
The bullet went through my lung. I had three ribs done and everything. I lost nearly four stone in weight, thanks to the old lead diet. It knocked me out. But I knew I had to get back in the saddle.
It was tough on my wife, more tough on her than it was on me, because I didn’t know what was going on. When I was in hospital, the police came to my house and they told her it was 50-50 whether I was going to get through the night. She was pregnant, we already had three kids, so it was really tough.
I don’t even think about it. I didn’t know at the time, but I now know who did it, and, like I say, I’m a big believer in karma. He ain’t done so well, and he knows that, and he knows that I know that.
The strangest celebrity encounter I ever experienced was in my office
Nigel Benn fought Thulani Malinga from South Africa, and Malinga beat him in Manchester. And in the office on Monday, we got a call saying Nelson Mandela’s office is on the line, he’d like you to fly over to see him. I thought it was someone taking the piss, to be honest.
Twenty-four hours later, I’m flying out to Johannesburg, and the next morning, I’m sitting down with Nelson Mandela in his house, talking about boxing. He was a total boxing nut. And he was the most impressive person I’ve met my whole life. He just had this aura about him. I’ve been fortunate to meet lots of people, but he’s the most impressive person I’ve ever met.
We were talking about the fight and he said, “I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for South African boxing.” I said, “I can’t sit here and tell you I didn’t want Nigel Benn to win,” and he pissed himself laughing. But he was such a lovely bloke.
