mickey duff has died

No way!?

The legend of British boxing in many ways. He brought everyone through to British, Commonwealth, European and World titles from Howard Winstone and Terry Downes to the legends of the 70s (Conteh, Stracey, Watt, Magri, Hope et al) to Alan Minter, Lloyd Honeygnan and Frank Bruno (and Duke McKenzie and Jim McDonnell, and Henry Wharton) and even had Michael Watson, Naseem Hamed and Joe Calzaghe.

 

A presence in the UK sport for decades; some of it good, but a lot bad.

 

Yes some good and bad.There is a decent article on him BBC website worth a look.They quoted his saying 'if you want loyalty,buy a dog.'

 

rip

 

RIP
Interesting character. I remember when he ruled British boxing.
Respected him because he did it all - boxer, manager, trainer, cornerman, matchmaker, and promoter.
And he came over to England as a immigrant kid with no English during the 1930s when Hitler gearing up on the rampage in Europe, and it was the Great Depression. Polish Jewish I think.

Worked with hundreds of top British fighters, and others too, like those two exciting Ugandan fighters John Mugabi and Cornelius Boza-Edwards. I think he handled Trevor Berbick for a spell too.

 

But also part of the grotesque cartel that almost destroyed the sport in this Country. The irony being he who cannot be named actually played the leading part in bringing down that cartel and saving the sport.

 

A fact that many of the anti *****/Hearn bum boys either ignore or aren't aware of - rip Duff though an interesting character.

 

when I was a kid, Mickeys name was synonymous with British boxing. He handled, managed, guided and helped a hell of a lot of great British fighters who owed more than just their titles to him. Sad loss

 

What exactly was the difference between 'the cartel' of Duff et al. and FW's almost complete monopoly and domination in the '90s and '00s through ITV and then SKY ?

 

Nonsense. The sport was thriving in the 1980s.

 

Also, as I remember it, all the fuss about the 'cartel' arose from the sensationalist British press, was investigated by the BBBC, the four men were cleared of any wrongdoing, and their arrangement was entirely legal under UK laws.
Of course I might have missed a lot of the story.

 

Yeah when the Cartel was being broken up! It sucked in the 60s and 70s, when the likes of Buchanan were struggling so much they were thinking of calling it quits.

 

Promoters were not barred from certain venues. They were allowed to negotiate with the media. Their products may not of been up to scratch, or other promoters (and it was not just FW), may of struck better deals. The difference was Capitalism is strong in boxing, FW et al used legal rules (that may need changing), not an illegal cartel.

 

My old fella made his debut with Mickey fighting at the Liverpool stadium in 62. I believe it was he highest purse ever paid to a prelim fighter there at the time, it was 100 pound. He boxed on Mickey's shows throughout his career (up to 72) but he also boxed for Jack Solomons, Harry Levene and others with no comebacks from the "Cartel". They also worked together when me dad was managing and were on friendly terms through the rest of their lives.