Frank Warren: 'Calzaghe split was the biggest disappointment. Total disloyalty..

The Calzaghe thing was the biggest disappointment I've ever had," he says, as softly spoken as ever but now leaning forward, eyes shining. "Total disloyalty."The words hang in the air, while I dare to suggest that the now retired champ seems like a bright and decent fellow. "In some ways he is, but he's also small-minded, with a little bit of that green eye. He used to moan years ago that he didn't get the same publicity as Ricky Hatton and Prince Naseem. Well, Ricky went out and promoted himself. He got off his arse, doing after-dinner speaking and all that, though the downside of that was that he became a boozer. And Naz captured a whole generation of young boxing fans. I did deals with TV for Joe on the back of him. I said, 'We've got Naz, we've got [Frank] Bruno, and we've got Calzaghe ... if you want them you've got to take him as well'. That's how we got him going."
As for Naseem and Hatton, they too eventually divorced themselves from Warren. If he'd bought loyalty every time he lost a fighter, his Hertfordshire mansion would look like Battersea Dogs' Home.
"Well," he says, "with Ricky I expected it deep down. There wasn't huge closeness there. But I did a good job with him. He'd banked seven million quid even before he beat Kosta Tszyu, so if Kosta had beaten him he'd have been set up. That's my philosophy. Get 'em to the stage where they're OK even if it goes tits up." A heavy sigh. "Calzaghe banked £18m with me, and sure, I made money too. That's the business I'm in. If I don't make money they're not going to make money. On his own he did some stupid deals. The 50-50 deal with [Bernard] Hopkins was ridiculous, and not learning from it, doing another 50-50 with [Roy] Jones..."
Warren shakes his head at what might have been. "It's like Arsenal signing Arshavin. It all went to the wire because everyone was playing their cards. Whatever sport you're in, you go in to negotiate with your best cards. But Roy Jones couldn't get arrested before the Calzaghe fight. Why give him half the promotion? Crazy."
I ask him whether he has seen Calzaghe since. "I've had one meeting with him, at a hotel in Paddington. It got very heated. His father never wanted it [the split], you know. He kept sending me texts saying I was the best fella in the world. Of course, I appreciated his position. Blood's thicker than water. But like I said to him, if my kids do something wrong, I'm there for them, I'll love and support them, but I will also tell them that they've done wrong."
Needless to add, Warren is well aware that one, two or all three of the young boxers he has fighting in Birmingham later this month might, somewhere down the line, do a Calzaghe. For boxing people, there are almost as many occupational hazards outside the ring as there are inside. But while they are with him, they will get the benefit of decades of astute matchmaking in a sport that Warren believes is healthier than ever. "People talk about the good old days but even Wembley back then only held 10,000. We do shows now where we get 20,000, in the O2 Arena or up at the MEN."
And what about the astute matchmaking? What does he consider to have been his greatest triumphs?
"Oh, sending Danny Williams over and seeing him knock out [Mike] Tyson, that was a good bit of matchmaking. Calzaghe beating [Jeff] Lacy, Hatton beating Tszyu. The knockout punch is about perfect timing, and so is matchmaking, picking the right guy at the right time. I think I've been good at it. I've managed more British, European and world champions than anyone. But you never know. At the moment I've got Amir Khan fighting [Marco Antonio] Barrera, and I'm hoping I've got it right but I might not have. It's a responsibility, looking after somebody's kid. That's why I like to meet the parents. The other week I met [Tony] Jeffries, the kid from Sunderland. I made him my offer and his dad wanted to take it, but the lad said he'd been offered huge money elsewhere. I said, 'Great, but it's undeliverable.' He said, 'Well, I'm going with it.' Sure enough, the guy couldn't deliver. So Jeffries came back to me and asked for the deal I'd offered. I said, 'I'm sorry, that bus has gone, I've spent the money elsewhere.' And that was that. A great shame, really."

 

Yes it does seem like a crazy deal when put like that :blood