In response to the article by Shaun Brown on Boxingscene.com, Frank Warren wishes to place on record the facts surrounding the four offers that were made to Hopkins, Beiut Shumenov, Carl Froch and Tony Bellew.

By Frank Warren

First of all the offers to Hopkins and Shumenov are without question, as both they and their promoters have publicly confirmed and the reasons why those fights could not be made at this time.

On 4th June 2012 an email was sent to Matchroom Boxing offering Carl Froch £1 million to fight Nathan Cleverly in September 2012 for the WBO Light Heavyweight Championship.

Eddie Hearn states that Carl was IBF Super-Middleweight Champion at the time this offer was made, this is correct, otherwise why would I be offering £1 million for a fighter coming off such a comprehensive loss to Andre Ward.  So how Eddie can state that we knew he wouldn’t accept it is baffling as I’m sure Carl has never earned a  purse despite his high profile fights.  It was a serious offer, otherwise I would not have made it.

As for Tony Bellew, I made the offer personally to him at the British Boxing Board of Control in front of a solicitor, so again this offer is without question.

Bellew’s tweeted comments state that no such offer was made, which is complete lie, as he states if it was made he would have taken it and would not be fighting Miranda this weekend.

The offer is still open, but for him to say it wasn’t made is a lie.

Eddie states that time and time again they have said they are not interested in a fight with Nathan.  I stand corrected by the only time such a fight has been declined by them is in response to my offer of 4th June 2012, when I received an email reply from Eddie 30 minutes later which stated “Thanks for the email.  We will be defending our IBF Super-Middleweight title in September and have no plans to move up to LH”  True to their word they are defending their IBF Super-Middleweight title in October at the Nottingham Arena, rather than in front of 40,000 plus at the Millennium Stadium against Nathan Cleverly.

I question whether Carl was ever passed the offer.

Eddie states that Nathan’s fight has no relevance to anyone – does Froch v Yusaf Mack mean anything?  Mack hasn’t fought at Super-Middleweight for over FIVE years and has lost to Glen Johnson whom Froch has beaten and I’m sure Froch, a true warrior, would prefer to have big fights and big paydays.

So actually I feel sorry for Carl Froch who, despite his achievements has not made the millions that his Super-Middleweight predecessors did.

Both Nathan and I would love to make this fight and if Eddie is serious about paying Froch £2 million to fight Nathan and providing Nathan gets what he is worth, then there is no reason this fight cannot happen anytime soon.  It would be a blockbuster night and certainly more interesting than Carl going to Canada and handing out another one sided beating to Lucian Bute.