“This is where the magic happens,” reads a big neon sign scrawled across the entrance to the offices of arguably the most powerful man in British boxing today.
It’s a boast backed up by the walls lined with posters for some of the biggest fights of the past five decades and featuring the sport’s most famous names — Mike Tyson, Frank Bruno, Nigel Benn, “Prince” Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Hatton, Tyson Fury. Standing sentry by the doors to the inner sanctum is a statue of the “Prince”, celebrating arms aloft, and underneath is chiselled a note of thanks to Frank, the man at the heart of it all.
Inside, Frank Warren, the 72-year-old Islington-born impresario, is preparing for one of the biggest shows of the 44 years he has been promoting fights — Fury against Oleksandr Usyk on December 21 — when Warren’s “Gypsy King” bids to capture the world heavyweight belts the Ukrainian took from their first clash in May.
Fury made close to £100 million that night and will earn around the same again for the rematch in Riyadh, so, for now, Warren won’t put his feet up at his Hertfordshire mansion, surrounded by his 12 grandchildren; there is hay to be made. “Absolutely, and we are,” he confirms. “In boxing, you get ups and downs. We’re flying at the moment.”
It’s not just the longevity of Warren’s achievements that are remarkable, but that he is here at all, having being shot by a masked gunman at close range outside a boxing show at the Broadway Theatre in Barking in 1989, costing him half a lung and some of his ribs.
There was also “an altercation” with Mike Tyson in 2000 that left him with a red eye after a bust-up in a Park Lane hotel (”suddenly it was bosh, and that was it”), not to mention “a couple of fights” with “bully” second cousin and renowned London hard man Lenny “the Guv’nor” McLean when the pair were growing up.
Warren’s life has been anything but dull, but rarely has he had it as good as now, with three of the world’s most exciting heavyweights on his books and money flooding into the sport.
New frontiers
The interview takes place in Warren’s office a couple of weeks after he appeared on the Standard’s list of 100 people shaping London, placing him alongside the likes of Sadiq Khan, Stormzy and Elon Musk.
But it’s the inclusion of Sir Leonard Blavatnik that has caught Warren’s eye, a week after he signed a multi-year deal with the tycoon’s DAZN sports network that will take his Queensberry Promotions to a global audience. “It was a no-brainer for us,” Warren explains. “Financially it’s a better deal, we’re getting more dates and we’ve now got a global market.”
Every rematch Tyson has had, he’s stopped his opponent because he’s figured them out
The deal will bring Queensberry, run on a day-to-day basis by Warren’s son, George, under the same broadcast banner as Matchroom, the promotion company founded by Barry Hearn and run by his son Eddie. Peace has broken out between the long-time arch-rivals, brought about by the Saudi riches that are being invested in the sport.
It’s the Warrens who have the upper hand for now, with Daniel Dubois having handed Anthony Joshua — Matchroom’s crown jewel — a heavy defeat at Wembley in September, following a whitewash in a 5 v 5 team event in June. Warren explains the thawing of relations, admiring Eddie’s work ethic and admits “he’s not bad company either”.
Mention of a younger promoter, Ben Shalom, brings about Warren’s ire, however, labelling the founder of the Boxxer network of fighters an “idiot” and a “cry baby” for questioning the gloves of Fabio Wardley — the third top heavyweight in Warren’s ranks — after his brutal one-round stoppage of Frazer Clarke last month. “I haven’t got time for that s***,” Warren says.
Something else Warren has little time for is the backlash against Saudi influence on boxing, the kingdom having invested huge sums over the past few years.
“Given the amount of business they do with the UK in different industries, we are, for what they spend on boxing, a pimple on a rhino’s arse,” he says.
“But everybody looks at boxing… we are the bastard sport. You name it, it’s playing there. Tennis, athletics, football. Most of the big music acts play there. Why’s everyone having a pop at us? Things evolve, things change. Are you going to be secular and say we are not going to go to that part of the world? They’re opening up their country. Every store that is in the West End of London is in Riyadh, the restaurants are there, the hotels are there.
“They’re taking western culture, so what is our problem? If my government is doing business with Saudi Arabia, why shouldn’t I do business with them?”
The three heavyweights
Warren is most animated discussing his three top heavyweights, with Fury, Dubois and Wardley all eyeing global domination.
Fury is in Malta preparing for the rematch against Usyk, having lost a split decision to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. “I think he’ll win this time,” Warren says. “Every rematch Tyson has had, he’s stopped his opponent because he’s figured them out.”
Warren suggests a trilogy fight will follow, should his prediction come true.
The options are no less enticing for Dubois after his destruction of Joshua and with a score to settle with Usyk himself after a defeat last year, when Dubois knocked him to the canvas but the referee called for a debatable low blow and gave him four minutes to recover.
If Daniel fought Joshua again, I think it would be the same result. His first meaningful jab nearly took Joshua’s head off
“He wants the unification,” Warren explains. “If Usyk were to win and I don’t think he will, then the rematch with Daniel is a no-brainer after the controversy of the last fight. If Usyk loses, it’s still a great rematch. I would feel a bit uncomfortable with Tyson and Daniel fighting for obvious reasons but it’s a business and it’s up to both of them.”
Before any of that can happen, Dubois will be next in the ring in February, with Joseph Parker a possible opponent after injury ruled Joshua out of a rematch.
Warren is sceptical of Joshua’s ability to avenge the loss, should he want a rematch later. “I think it would be the same result,” he says. “I felt whoever established their jab in the first round would determine the fight and that’s what Daniel did. That first meaningful jab nearly took Joshua’s head off and that was that.”
While Warren confirms that Wardley would want to face Joshua, one fight we can all write off for now is the prospect of the Ipswich man taking on Dubois. “We can build that into something special. They’re two massive punchers — how wonderful would that be. That’s a stadium-filler.”
Good times, bad times
These days are all a far cry from Warren growing up in a council flat on the Priory Green Estate just off the Pentonville Road, the son of a racecourse bookmaker.
One of Warren’s biggest influences was his uncle Bob Warren, who served seven years for an attack on the gangster Jack ‘Spot’ Comer. It was Bob who helped get Warren his break in boxing promoting a show for the unlicensed McLean, before his first formal boxing promotion in 1980.
“Bob was an unbelievable bloke,” Warren says. “Always very correct in everything he did, he had a strong set of principles. He was not a bully — far from it. I don’t think anyone apart from maybe Jack Spot had a bad word for him.”
After getting his promoter’s licence, Warren broke up the “cartel” of established promoters who had forced him to stage shows in hotels and circus tents, and later swept into the big time with Benn, Bruno, Hamed, Hatton and Calzaghe.
The shooting in 1989 didn’t just nearly cost him his life — “a lot of people thought I was going to croak it … probably hoping I was going to, anyway,” he quips — but it also cost him an awful lot of money, as banks providing the funding for his London Arena “all walked away”.
Terry Marsh, the former world light welterweight champion, was cleared of the shooting of his former manager at trial and Warren says he doesn’t allow himself to think too much about the fact that no one has been brought to account.
“If I sit here and really think about it then I could easily get very wound up about it, but I don’t,” Warren says. “Because it’s an idiot. Can you imagine, you’re just not near enough for me to get hold of you and you f*** it up. That’s what you’re dealing with. But it’s 35 years ago, so I’ve had half a lifetime since and I know what I’m doing and I know what [the shooter’s] doing.”
When Warren’s route to the top has been so hard fought, it’s little wonder that he’s got no interest in bowing out when times are so good.
“I’m enjoying that it’s all youngsters working here and I’m the old geezer who they wheel out every now and then”
The final chapter?
Although Warren didn’t want any of his six children to work in boxing, two of his sons have followed in his footsteps.
Francis manages Moses Itauma, a leading heavyweight prospect, and the promising lightweight Sam Noakes, while George, as CEO of Queensberry, is driving the company’s global future, having played a key role in the DAZN deal.
So, does knowing that Queensberry is in trusted hands mean that Frank can contemplate retirement and is it a case of like father, like son?
“He’s more laidback. I do a lot of it from emotion. George is very calm and considered. He’s done a brilliant job as CEO,” Warren says.
“I won’t do this when I don’t want to, and at the moment I enjoy it. I’m enjoying the fruits of our labours with our investments in these fighters and the direction we’ve taken with the TV companies. I’m also enjoying that it’s all youngsters working here and I’m the old geezer who they wheel out every now and then. We’ve never had a better team.”
Warren, clearly as sharp, motivated and competitive as ever — and relishing his time on top — celebrated 25 years in boxing in 2005 with a big celebration at the Dorchester, where childhood friends and his uncle Bob rubbed shoulders with the great and the good of the fight game.
Don’t bet against him staging another swanky party, six years down the line, to celebrate the big 50.
