By Terence Dooley
Richie Woodhall left Mickey Duff in 1997 to join Duff’s promotional rival Frank Warren. By the time of Richie’s WBC super-middleweight title defence against Vincenzo Nardiello in February 1999 the cracks had started to show in the relationship, a contract quibble led to a layoff as Richie attempted to force a parting of the ways.
“Yeah, I had a contract dispute with Frank so I had some outside-the-ring problems. I beat Nardiello but after that I had a dispute, we both thought we were in the right and went our separate ways,” revealed Richie when asked about his eight month sabbatical following the win over Nardiello.
Woodhall cited ‘irreconcilable differences’ when announcing the split, claiming that, ‘Richie
Woodhall has today given notice to Mr Frank Warren of termination of two agreements, namely a promoter-boxer agreement and a manager-boxer agreement. Richie Woodhall will now be self-managed’. Warren countered by insisting that, ‘I have two existing contracts with Richie, one managerial and one promotional. I have not spoken to Richie about it’.
The crux of the matter revolved around Woodhall’s managerial contract, the fighter looked into his paperwork early in 1999; he was surprised to discover that both Naseem and Raith Hamed had been named in a managerial capacity and were taking a share of his ring earnings.
Warren, however, had assumed that Woodhall himself had brought the Hameds into his business dealings. Arbitration followed, both sides claimed that they had no knowledge of the Hameds managerial involvement and a compromise was reached in time for Woodhall to defend against Germany’s Markus ‘Boom Boom’ Beyer in October 1999.
Woodhall took up the story: “That kept me out the ring for eight-months. I couldn’t box because I was about to go to court. Anyone will tell you that I needed to fight on a regular basis to perform well. We eventually sorted our differences out by going to arbitration and I rejoined Frank. In the meantime eight-months had passed and you’ve got a young, sharp German kid [Markus Beyer] coming through, he was the next challenger lining up for my title. As a champion you have to take on these challengers.
“Sure, he was a southpaw but I thought, ‘I’ll sort him out’, and then had a torrid first round, I was put down, and was always fighting an uphill struggle after going down twice in round three. I wasn’t at the races. I was rusty and Beyer was a sharp kid. I came on late in the fight after getting a second wind, he was holding on towards the end, but he’d done his work early and I lost my title on points.”
Ironically, Woodhall and Warren were soon on the same wavelength again as they sought to force IBF title holder Sven Ottke to honour a March 11th 2000 title defence agreement. Terms for an Ottke-Woodhall fight, set to take place in Magdeburg, had been agreed only for the German camp to nix the fight due to Woodhall’s lack of an IBF top fifteen ranking. This prompted a furious response from Warren and Woodhall.
Ironically, fellow Brit Dean Francis was rated quite highly by the IBF despite an extended injury layoff. Woodhall, a former title holder, felt that he should have been deemed an eligible opponent for a voluntary defence, it wasn’t to be, Ottke took on the America-based, Jamaican-born Lloyd ‘Jabba’ Bryan instead.
It seemed that we had seen the end of Woodhall. However, the former WBC boss squeezed in a win over Errol McDonald the following year and was pitched in against new kid on the block, WBO boss Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe-Woodhall was a solid match: experience versus youth, mercurial talent against methodical craft. Woodhall accepted the fight and then focussed his grey matter on the task in hand.
He said: “That fight came up and I said yeah, I would have loved to box him at any point. I was confident and me and my old man (Len Woodhall) talked about it, as we always do before taking a fight. We said that I couldn’t go flying in against this guy; Joe was a strong kid and natural counter puncher so I tried to box that way myself to frustrate him and bring him out. I did that for a few rounds but if anything I just ran out of gas, I was known for being fit but couldn’t explain it.
“I was intense in the early rounds but came out for round ten and got hit with a low shot as well, which he apologised for, and that took the wind out off my sails a little bit,” explained Woodhall, who maintains that he was stopped too early in what turned out to be his fistic swansong.
“I got caught and went down in round nine but got up for more. I got caught and was stopped on the ropes in round ten. I think it was a little bit too soon – I could have seen the tenth round out. The ref was a bit premature but Paul Ingle had been stopped by Mbulelo Botile the fight before and had been rushed to hospital. Paul had been stretchered out the ring so I think that it contributed a little to the ref [Roy Francis] jumping in.
“It would have been nice to go the distance. Yeah, I was behind; Joe was turning the heat up and might have stopped me in the next round, who knows, but I had taken bigger shots than the ones that ended it. I was on my feet, still knew where I was and he jumped in. I don’t have any complaints, really, because what happened to Paul put it all in perspective [Writer’s note: Paul suffered head injuries and never boxed again]. I wasn’t winning and people know that I didn’t have that one shot to turn it all in my favour so I couldn’t have too many complaints.
“I wasn’t going to land a lucky knockout shot, I didn’t possess that type of power. I was beaten and although I have my own opinions on the stoppage the ref probably made the right decision when you look at it from the other perspective.”
Woodhall felt low when he got back to the dressing room, reports of Ingle’s situation were filtering through and Richie would later reveal that Paul’s plight had put the dangers of boxing into perspective. The people around Richie were of a mixed mindset. Some felt that he could come back from the defeat; others felt that it was time to call it a day.
“My old man said to me on the night, ‘You’re finished’, everyone else is telling me I could still go on, my brother [Steve], who had a lot to do with my negotiations in those days, told me not jump to hasty decision so we said we’d give it a bit of time,” reflected Richie.
“I knew my old-man was right deep down. I’d had my fair share of fights, a long amateur career and was probably at the end of the line. I was offered a WBU shot after that. Frank brought me in and told me he’d plotted a route back for me by getting me a crack at the vacant WBU title. I accepted it, thinking I had to rebuild. I had been struggling with back pains and knee niggles but would have worked through them. I was training for a fight and I felt a really bad pain in my back. I was on a nine mile run and it was the first time I ever stopped on a run.
“I thought, ‘Bloody hell, what’s this’, and had to walk back home, which pissed me off because I was miles from away. I got home, phoned my brother and he came over and took me to hospital. I saw a specialist, had an x-ray on my back and discovered I had two hairline fractures in my back. Turns out it was down to years of running on hard roads.
“So I’ve got two cracks in my back and the doc said it could go all up my back and advised that I take a long time off. He said not to run, to cycle instead, and if I did that I would be able to carry on. So you’ve got a doctor telling a boxer he can’t run anymore, which is the main part of the job. I thought that maybe it was time to go while I still had my health.
“I tried the cycling, it wasn’t the same. I was getting into my thirties and had to change my training pattern, with the main part of it being running. This wasn’t going to happen at that stage in my career so I called it a day. I knew that if I couldn’t get the fitness I needed then I’d never go for world titles, and that is the only level I wanted to fight at.”
Woodhall left boxing behind; his 26-3 (16) slate had brought some big achievements and exciting nights to his hometown of Telford. It was now time to ask Richie the perennial question, the one that all retired fighters must hear over and over again – any regrets?
“Not really, no,” was his reply when asked if he had considered sticking around, maybe trying for the one title that had eluded him, the Lonsdale belt. “I wasn’t one for half-measures so I’d have trained for a British title the same way I trained for world titles, all-out, and there was no way I could do that.
“If my body wouldn’t allow to train at that level then there is no point. There were temptations later, when the back was better, and there’d be times when you’d think, ‘I could beat him or him’, but those thoughts never led to a comeback.”
Woodhall found sanctuary within the TV industry, his cool dissection of fights earning him good reviews during his time behind the mike. Still, once a fighter always a fighter, Richie has found a way of replicating that old fistic thrill, he is now a coach, working alongside his father at their Birmingham-based gym.
“It is great being a coach”, he enthused, “I love it and have so much experience and knowledge bottled up in me. I had a high-class international career as an amateur so know that side of it. My success as a pro has seen me have my feet in both camps, as a trainer I can recognise the differences between the two sports.
“You have to be patient with your guys; I’ve learned that more than anything. The danger is that you expect too much from your lads. You tend to expect them to do the things you did and I had to be careful about that. As a coach, you have to take into account their ability levels when asking them to do things or accepting fights for them.”
Still, being a former fighter does have its advantages. “When lads know you’ve done it yourself you get that instant respect because of the level you boxed at as an amateur and a pro,” revealed Woodhall.
“Patience is the biggest thing to have as a pro trainer,” he advised. “That’s my philosophy, if you’ve got a guy who is 5’ 2’’ then there is no point putting him on the back-foot and asking him to get behind his jab. You have to take the physique into it, the ability and a few other things - it takes time.
“But no matter what size you are, you need a good leading hand. As a tall fighter it can help keep the distance. For shorter fighters, you can come forward using it and get inside to unload the heavier shots. It always has a role to play so I believe in developing that lead hand no matter what your style is. You can’t put all fighters in the same category and a good coach recognises that you have to work with what you’ve got and develop a fighter along those lines.”
Len Woodhall played a huge part in his son’s career; their relationship stayed on track in a sport that has seen its fair share of father-son partnerships fall apart. “Our relationship was fantastic because it worked, some father-son fighting relationships don’t work,” admitted Woodhall.
“I knew what I had to do and wasn’t a lazy fighter. My dad would be here at half-six in the morning and he wouldn’t even have to get out the car – I’d meet him at the door and we’d head to the fields and do the running.
“My dad never pushed me, he had the attitude that it was up to me to do it (the training) but he would always remind me that the opponent was doing it and that he was working with a view to beating me and winning the fight.
“My dad would say, ‘Listen, you don’t have to do it but just think of what your opponent is doing, and if he’s doing this and you’re not then he’s already one step ahead of us,’ and that would scare me and plant the seed in my mind that I wanted to work that bit harder.
“Len is a good boxing man, believe you me – he knows the sport inside out. We’ve got our own gym in Birmingham and my old man is a part of that, he’s a naturally funny man and puts a smile on everyone’s face, you can’t be too serious and you need to have the craic every now and again. My dad is a very important part of the gym, he’s the wise owl who watches over things and gives invaluable comments.”
Richie is now considered a wise, slightly older owl and he is especially interested in helping his old friend, and fellow Birmingham boy, Robert McCracken develop the next generation of British amateurs.
“I am still working with Robert, who is BABA [British Amateur Boxing Association] Performance Director. I go up to Sheffield between six and eight days a month to work with the amateur squad. I’m really happy to work alongside Robert and the other coaches,” revealed Woodhall when asked about the future of the British amateur game.
“I think the amateurs and pros need to mix more. We have the likes of Carl Froch up there doing sessions and that inspires the lads. I’m happy to be part of it and am happy to be involved. I’m happy that we are moving forward and can mix the pros and amateurs to a certain degree to produce great fighters. Pros and amateurs can help each other and having Carl and Robert around can only improve our chances at London 2012.”
Woodhall has strong views about the science of boxing, his final reflections centred on the importance of teaching youngsters the fundamentals of the “Sweet Science”. “People forget this, right, and lose track of what boxing is about – the first aim of boxing is to hit your opponent and not get hit yourself, that is what boxing is,” insisted Woodhall.
“It is not about standing there and slugging it out. Yeah, we’re in an industry and people expect excitement, and I respect that, the type of fighters that do take a shot to land a shot bring excitement. But I teach my kids that the art of the game lies in hitting and not getting hit.”
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