Frank Warren Discusses Promotional Headaches, More

By Frank Warren

A QUESTION I am often asked - what's a promoter's biggest headache?

Simple, a boxer pulling out of a big fight at the last minute.

It happens from time to time, in the last year Darren Barker, Wladimir Klitschko, Ryan Rhodes and Juergen Braehmer have done it on shows I've been involved with.

None of them have been my fighters, but their withdrawals have left me with massive problems with fans and television.

With Braehmer's no show, I managed to find Tony Bellew, then when he couldn't make the weight, world ranked Aleksy Kuziemski. Prudently we had him on standby due to Braehmer's previous no shows.

So it was disappointing to recently read Sky Sports boss Barney Francis saying "Boxing needs to sort itself out" and punters and broadcasters wanted the "best fighters to fight the best fighters".

But most of the time the best are fighting the best - and broadcasters also have to take some responsibility for the quality of some cards.

I remember sitting down with Sky when we thrashed out the deal for Nathan Cleverly against Braehmer and warning them the German had a history of no shows.

I've never had a problem of putting on 50-50 fights - Joe Calzaghe v Mikkel Kessler, David Haye v Enzo Maccarinelli, Ricky Burns v Roman Martinez, Paul Smith v James DeGale and recently DeGale's showdown with George Groves.

It's not like cricket or football, where if a star player is injured, it doesn't matter so much because it's a team game.

And to continue comparisons with other sports, in the Premier League the best don't play the best every week.

Over the coming months, the public will see quality fights.

In July it's Klitschko v Haye, Kevin Mitchell and John Murray meet in London, Ricky Burns and Nicky Cook in Liverpool, while Dereck Chisora takes on Tyson Fury and Khan laces up against Zab Judah. Another one that's likely to happen in the future is Bellew against Nathan Cleverly.

Boxing's house is in order and the fans have a brilliant best v best month ahead.

RYAN RHODES could become Britain's latest world champion at the weekend - but he's got a tough assignment.

He travels to Mexico to take on WBC light-middleweight champion Saul Alvarez. He looked nailed on to win a world title at 21 some 14 years ago after ripping through a strong domestic division.

But he lost to Otis Grant in a WBO title challenge then had one more shot two years later.

He hasn't been at the highest level since and this one is at altitude.

LAST weekend a number of fight figures were inducted into boxing's Hall of Fame.

They included Mike Tyson - but the real story for me was Julio Cesar Chavez. He's one of the best boxers I've ever seen, and at one point in his career was virtually unbeatable.

A boxing legend!