By Terence Dooley
Lennox Lewis’ second ascent to the heavyweight undisputed world championship began with an arid beat down of the erratic, hard-hitting Lionel Butler in May of 1995. Don King, who was licking his lips in anticipation of Mike Tyson’s second coming, dismissed Lewis as a safety-first fighter, a man too concerned with the sweet science of the sport to engage the boxing public.
This theme was taken up in the BBC’s post-fight analysis, with Henry Cooper echoing King in questioning Lewis’ devilment. The camera panned to Frank Maloney, who was Lewis’ manager between 1989 and 2001, the diminutive cockney shrugged off the claims and stated that, “I wouldn’t like to be hit by him!” It was a pithy, pragmatic comment from a no-nonsense figure.
This blunt approach has served Maloney well since the glory days with Lewis; the promoter’s ability to develop fighters to world title level resulting in a near twenty-year working relationship with Sky TV, who awarded Maloney a two-year contract earlier this week. Maloney, the EBU’s 2009 ‘European Promoter of the Year’, is eagerly looking forward to the next two years; he believes that he has a few potential world champions in his current stable.
“I’m looking forward to getting a few world champions this year,” mused Maloney when asked about Rendall Munroe and Jason Booth, who are set to fight WBC super-bantamweight title holder Toshiaki Nishioka and the IBF’s titleist Steve Molitor respectively. “They are good fighters, they are competitive fighters and both have a good chance.”
He added: “Jason has a very chance, he has everything going for him: home advantage, the desire to avenge his brother’s [Nicky’s] Commonwealth title loss to Molitor (in 2002), his passion for the fight and what it can do for his life – it is a great story [Writer’s note: Booth has battled through alcoholism to get to this world title shot].
“I think Jason is going to win the fight. We don’t make fights just to have world title fights, we do it with the intention of winning and I’m banking on both of them winning. Who knows, down the road the two could throw their friendship out and do a unification fight. It is a great year for British boxing in general, there are some great fights and some great shows coming up, Frank [Warren’s] got that massive show on September 18th and we’re on the week before with Jason.
“It is an exciting time and the future is bright. I’m a good survivor and I like what I do. I want a couple of more world champions and am hoping to achieve that. My last world champ was Scott Harrison and I want to improve on that so am working on it. I hope Jason and Rendall deliver, I’ve delivered for them what they want so now they just have to deliver to me what I want.”
Molitor, however, is 3-0 in UK appearances, despite a recent dip in form the Canadian represents a massive challenge for Booth, although Maloney believes that there are few easy fights at world title level.
“When a fighter fights for a world title it is always dangerous”, he stressed, “every fight is dangerous, even four rounders, but a world title fight against someone like Molitor is harder. If you want to be a world champion you have to take the title off the champion.
“Rendall also has his world title fight, it is just a matter of where and when. Rendall is a great story; I took him as a six-round fighter making his way back on dinner shows after he’d lost a [British] title fight at featherweight to Andy Morris. He is one of those stories you dream about and one that people like – I’m very confident that Rendall will cause an upset in Japan. The champion has the upper hand but we are still trying to get the fight over here.”
So, will we get that all-British unification should both men come through victorious?
“Not straight away, no”, answered Maloney, “because they are great friends. On paper it is a great fight but they know each other so well it might not turn out to be a great fight, they know each other inside out. It will just be great to have a WBC and IBF champion and we’ll go from there.”
Rendall’s ‘boxing bin man’ tag has made him a celebrity in Leicester, where his EBU win was greeted with euphoria, a world title win, coupled with a few Saturday night showcases, could see Munroe become a crossover name.
“I think so, he is a very amenable person, friendly and approachable and doesn’t say ‘No’ to anything, he’s a great fighter to work with,” declared Maloney, who also has big plans for Doncaster’s Jamie McDonnell, a third-round winner in his maiden European 118lb title defence against Rodrigo Bracco at the Doncaster Dome last Friday night.
“Jamie has got to stay busy, he’s only young and we have to develop him. It is great to have fresh blood like Jamie and [British super-featherweight champion] Gary Sykes moving into championship belts, next year will see a big push for both those. Saturday night boxing will be very good for the profile of the sport, and the boxers – I think they’ll become household names,” he predicted.
Saturday night shows tend to generate a great atmosphere, see Kevin Mitchell’s recent loss to Michael Katsidis for evidence of this. Maloney’s long-term deal gives him plenty of scope to build solid shows and develop the stars of tomorrow.
“We’ve got a two-year deal, over twenty fights. Sky’s done a great job on Friday night boxing but now they’ve decided that they might do better on a Saturday night and it may help the profile of the sport,” reiterated Maloney.
The 5’ 4’’ promoter has gone five years without a world champion, Scott Harrison’s implosion in 2006 left Frank looking to the next generation of fighters, men like Munroe, Booth and Tony ‘Jaffa’ Jeffries, yet there was a hint of regret in Maloney’s voice when discussing the errant Scotsman.
“All fighters are different, that makes them unique, and they all have to be that little bit crazy to get into the ring. Listen, Scott Harrison and Paul Ingle were great moments for me and I’m disappointed with how both their careers ended [Writer’s note: Harrison’s in infamy when imprisoned for assault in Spain and Ingle’s in tragedy after he suffered a blood clot to the brain after losing in the final round against Mbulelo Botile]. But there is nothing you can do about it, you have to move forward,” he insisted.
Indeed, Lewis, Harrison and Ingle all featured on the same Madison Square Garden bill in 2000 – wins over Michael Grant, Tracey Harrison Patterson and Junior Jones. It was a high water moment for Maloney, who hopes for more of the same in coming years.
“I’ve got a new stable of good young fighters. That night at Madison Square Garden didn’t happen overnight, it was in April of 2000 and I’d worked for over eleven years for that, it took its time. People who think boxing is developed overnight are wrong, it is a patience sport and also a sport of risk,” asserted Maloney.
WBO featherweight boss Harrison and IBF title holder Ingle both ascended to world titles despite losing earlier in their careers, Harrison lost in only his fourth pro fight to Miguel Matthews and Ingle failed his first world title tilt when challenging then-WBO kingpin Naseem Hamed in 1999. Maloney also witnessed firsthand the pain of defeat and joy of rebirth when working with Lewis in the aftermath of the Oliver McCall setback. The mighty ‘0’ has dominated British, and world, boxing for too long, with Maloney quick to point out that defeat can make a fighter better.
He said: “It all depends on your promoter or manager – I don’t believe that defeat is the downfall of a career. You’ve only got to look at Scott Harrison, he lost his title to Manuel Medina and came back to win a world title; Ingle came back after losing Naseem Hamed; Lennox Lewis lost a couple and look at what he did, a loss is not total defeat, losses are just setbacks for you to get over.
“A fighter needs his manager and promoter in times like this (defeat), look what Frank Warren did for Amir Khan after he lost to [Breidis] Prescott, that is one of the great examples of bringing someone back. Boxing is unique, it is about how you handle things – football managers could learn from boxing managers and how we use man management skills to bring people back.”
Part two deals with Maloney’s Latvian low, the heavyweights and his involvement with religion and politics.
