By Frank Warren
For years, London’s Royal Albert Hall was synonymous with boxing.
Years ago, I staged some big shows there, and until a few years ago almost every big name in Britain – and more than a few from overseas – had fought there.
I took the likes of Nigel Benn and Naseem Hamed to Kensington, and the public loved it.
In the new Millennium, the Royal Albert Hall has dropped off the radar, with the east end and Wembley the capital’s top destinations for the sport.
Yet like the prodigal son, boxing folk have always dreamed of returning to the RAH.
Those hopes are no nearer fulfilment after local residents successfully blocked a bid for the resumption of boxing.
They say that unruly fight fans will cause a public nuisance. That’s an insult that should be overturned.
At shows I promote up and down the country, fans are better behaved than their counterparts at football, cricket and even rugby and some concerts.
Over the years the Royal Albert Hall has hardly been a bastion of middle England – many years ago, fascist Oswald Mosely had a rally and his black shirt orchestra played there, and all hell broke loose.
More recently, there were violent protests when controversial American politician Henry Kissinger spoke there and Peter Tatchell tried to get him arrested for war crimes.
And when Pete Doherty’s band Babyshambles played a gig, the police had to be called late at night to restore order.
The Royal Albert Hall’s most famous event, the Last Night of the Proms, is a great fun evening, but some people leave worse for wear.
The residents say boxing has an ‘unsavoury audience’. These ignorant snobs should know better. A boxing audience wouldn’t be any more trouble, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was much better behaved.
The boxing audience is made up of a cross section of the population for the hard working class to the great and good.
I’m sure some of the high rollers who spend big money to be ringside would be interested to know they are effectively being branded as thugs.
If you live near a venue – whether it for sport, music or both – you’ve got to expect some disruption every now and again. The Kensington residents must have been aware of that when they bought their properties.
Some of these NIMBYs, of which there seems to be a few too many in west London, need to live in the real world – what planet are they living on?
I wonder how they cope when the big rock concerts 100 yards away in Hyde Park in the summer take place with ten of thousands of fans show up for all day to late night extravaganzas.
Hopefully this ridiculous ban will get overturned when the matter goes to appeal.
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Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but it’s worth pointing out once again that boxing is booming.
There are only 8,000 tickets left for Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Joshua Clottey, which is heading for a 45,000 sell out in the States, while Golden Boy’s Chief Executive, Richard Schaefer says he has only 2,000 tickets left for Floyd Mayweather’s fight against Shane Mosley.
Meanwhile over here, this week I won purse bids for Kevin Mitchell’s interim WBO lightweight title fight against Michael Katsidis.
It’s going to be a huge fight – the venue will be announced next week.
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A big night for Paul Smith when he defends his British Super-Middleweight Title against Tony Dodson in Liverpool on Friday. Paul is steadily making his way towards a World Title shot this year. He needs to do the business in style against local rival Dodson.
Meanwhile Kell Brook says he’s going to be the best British welterweight since Lloyd Honeyghan and John H Stracey.
They are big shoes to fill, but he’ll move a step closer to a world title fight if he wins his eliminator.
Obviously Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are out on there own at 147 pounds, but I’d back Kell against anyone else at world level.
A cracking fight for the future would be Kell against Amir Khan, if Khan chose to come up from light-welterweight. I think Kell could give him real problems
Up in Liverpool some of the country’s young talent will be in action, including Tony Bellew, who will be walked to the ring by Liverpool legend John Conteh.
I’m really excited by the talent in Liverpool, its rivalling Manchester as far as boxing’s concerned.
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Nutter! Floyd Mayweather senior claims that Manny Pacquiao couldn’t have beaten Miguel Cotto without drugs, and insists he’s on something from the Philippines.
Mayweather says: “That mother***** is on the A-side meth, he on that or something else, that’s what the **** he’s on,” “It’s called the A-side meth. He on that or he on something else. The A-side meth is what they used to have years ago, like 500 years ago. That ***t makes you three times stronger than you naturally is. Remember when the Philippines were fighting the US soldiers? They were shooting them mother****** with 45’s. And them 45’s were bouncing off their mother******g ***. They weren’t even dying!”
I say bring our boys home and send the Filipino troops to Afghanistan. They’ll sort it out for us.
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