Boxing Life Stories - I'm calling it now

[brilo33]

Great episode. Poor frank got passively aggressively taken down “he’s a good promoter but he could have done so much more if he was clever”.

I think Frank has had a half decent career. Barry invented the leisure centre fight nights. If it wasn’t for Eddie, Matchroom wouldn’t even be in boxing.

he has done more than alright, i always see frank as the working mans promoter

[maverick23]

Great episode. Poor frank got passively aggressively taken down “he’s a good promoter but he could have done so much more if he was clever”.

I think Frank has had a half decent career. Barry invented the leisure centre fight nights. If it wasn’t for Eddie, Matchroom wouldn’t even be in boxing.

Frank’s had a really good career. He was as the U.K. number one for around 20 years but his success was limited to boxing. He’s tried other sports (he tried snooker with different rules as one of them) but wasn’t able to replicate the success.

Barry’s an awesome promoter. The way he’s taken Darts and Snooker (twice) to the next level is incredible really but it seemed after he lost his big names in boxing he lost interest.

Some of Matchroom’s shows in the early 2000s were awful (Ajose Olusegun vs Nigel Wright headlining a couple of them with really poor undercards). Pretty much everyone at that time, outside of Frank, we’re doing leisure centre shows. Frank was even doing a few as well.

Eddie then came along and took U.K. boxing up a notch in terms of promotion and Matchroom is a beast now. £200m turnover and over £20m profit last year. Not bad for a family business!

[Coco]

Great episode. Poor frank got passively aggressively taken down “he’s a good promoter but he could have done so much more if he was clever”.

I think Frank has had a half decent career. Barry invented the leisure centre fight nights. If it wasn’t for Eddie, Matchroom wouldn’t even be in boxing.

Frank’s had a really good career. He was as the U.K. number one for around 20 years but his success was limited to boxing. He’s tried other sports (he tried snooker with different rules as one of them) but wasn’t able to replicate the success.

Barry’s an awesome promoter. The way he’s taken Darts and Snooker (twice) to the next level is incredible really but it seemed after he lost his big names in boxing he lost interest.

Some of Matchroom’s shows in the early 2000s were awful (Ajose Olusegun vs Nigel Wright headlining a couple of them with really poor undercards). Pretty much everyone at that time, outside of Frank, we’re doing leisure centre shows. Frank was even doing a few as well.

Eddie then came along and took U.K. boxing up a notch in terms of promotion and Matchroom is a beast now. £200m turnover and over £20m profit last year. Not bad for a family business!

The big difference was that in the end Barry lost tv, when Eddie was handed the reigns it he had the sky deal.

FW on the other hand fared much better without to setting up his own station before doing a deal with BT.

[maverick23]

I think Frank has had a half decent career. Barry invented the leisure centre fight nights. If it wasn’t for Eddie, Matchroom wouldn’t even be in boxing.

Frank’s had a really good career. He was as the U.K. number one for around 20 years but his success was limited to boxing. He’s tried other sports (he tried snooker with different rules as one of them) but wasn’t able to replicate the success.

Barry’s an awesome promoter. The way he’s taken Darts and Snooker (twice) to the next level is incredible really but it seemed after he lost his big names in boxing he lost interest.

Some of Matchroom’s shows in the early 2000s were awful (Ajose Olusegun vs Nigel Wright headlining a couple of them with really poor undercards). Pretty much everyone at that time, outside of Frank, we’re doing leisure centre shows. Frank was even doing a few as well.

Eddie then came along and took U.K. boxing up a notch in terms of promotion and Matchroom is a beast now. £200m turnover and over £20m profit last year. Not bad for a family business!

The big difference was that in the end Barry lost tv, when Eddie was handed the reigns it he had the sky deal.

FW on the other hand fared much better without to setting up his own station before doing a deal with BT.

I don’t think Barry did lose TV. Pretty sure he was doing a show every couple of months (Paul McCluskey I think was one of his headliners) just before Sky decided to go all in with Matchroom and Eddie.

FW did great to keep going whilst he was on allegedly. He was heavily helped by Bill Ives and not everyone got paid on time but considering the cash flow impact that would have had in him it’s surprising he kept going (although his company did fold once I think during that time with the Ricky Burns stuff). I would argue though that he didn’t create any stars during the time he was on allegedly. Lots of good boxers but none of them went mainstream which is something I think Eddie’s managed to do (even Tony Bellew who wanted to keep his head down) and that FW did well with Naz and Ricky when he was at the top of his game.

[Counter-puncher]

Lots of good boxers but none of them went mainstream which is something I think Eddie’s managed to do (even Tony Bellew who wanted to keep his head down)

the ever-shy-and-retiring Boomer

[mickey1975]

The same Boomer Frank brought through.

[maverick23]

The same Boomer Frank brought through.

And Frank was doing fine with him but he didn’t make him a crossover star. Ignoring the Cleverly rematch (which shouldn’t have been PPV), he ended his career with 3 big PPVs, winning the world title in front of 20,000 at his home football club, set for life, his kids being set for life and a big name in sport. I don’t know the detail as to why but he’s also someone that hates FW!

[mickey1975]

The same Boomer Frank brought through.

And Frank was doing fine with him but he didn’t make him a crossover star. Ignoring the Cleverly rematch (which shouldn’t have been PPV), he ended his career with 3 big PPVs, winning the world title in front of 20,000 at his home football club, set for life, his kids being set for life and a big name in sport. I don’t know the detail as to why but he’s also someone that hates FW!

There was nowhere near 20,000 there. He struggled badly at the Echo as well except against Clev.
Boomer wouldn’t have a bad word said against Frank on here for years. Haye made Boomer crossover.

[Jimmy2020]

What makes a crossover a crossover? If you showed a photo of Bellew to 1000 people walking out of a supermarket in Cambridge, how many would name him? 50 maybe?

[Bleak]

The same Boomer Frank brought through.

And Frank was doing fine with him but he didn’t make him a crossover star. Ignoring the Cleverly rematch (which shouldn’t have been PPV), he ended his career with 3 big PPVs, winning the world title in front of 20,000 at his home football club, set for life, his kids being set for life and a big name in sport. I don’t know the detail as to why but he’s also someone that hates FW!

There was nowhere near 20,000 there. He struggled badly at the Echo as well except against Clev.
Boomer wouldn’t have a bad word said against Frank on here for years. Haye made Boomer crossover.

Which fights done well at the Echo was Matthews v Crolla 2 a sell out?

[coghaugen11]

In March ‘95, Barry had Eubank and Hide lose big fights and lost Collins, while Frank was beginning to negotiate with Sky.

It was over. Until Edward

[Jimmy2020]

In March ‘95, Barry had Eubank and Hide lose big fights and lost Collins, while Frank was beginning to negotiate with Sky.

It was over. Until Edward

True. Nobody in boxing mentioned Hearn/Matchroom for the better part of 15 years or more.

[maverick23]

The same Boomer Frank brought through.

And Frank was doing fine with him but he didn’t make him a crossover star. Ignoring the Cleverly rematch (which shouldn’t have been PPV), he ended his career with 3 big PPVs, winning the world title in front of 20,000 at his home football club, set for life, his kids being set for life and a big name in sport. I don’t know the detail as to why but he’s also someone that hates FW!

There was nowhere near 20,000 there. He struggled badly at the Echo as well except against Clev.
Boomer wouldn’t have a bad word said against Frank on here for years. Haye made Boomer crossover.

I was there! At least 17-18k. Not bad given it was only sale for 3 weeks. I was also at the Clev rematch and it wasn’t close to being a sellout - maybe 70% full.

Haye was the perfect opponent for him at that time but it was well promoted by all involved (Sky, Haye and Matchroom).

[maverick23]

What makes a crossover a crossover? If you showed a photo of Bellew to 1000 people walking out of a supermarket in Cambridge, how many would name him? 50 maybe?

I take it as someone who’s big enough to be the various celeb shows - I’m a Celeb, Jonathan Ross etc. etc.

With your example I’d say maybe 100-150 but who knows.

[THEBUTCH]

There's not many folk in boxing who've managed to get one over Bob Arum and Don King, but both those stories made me chuckle.

With Arum it was when Eubank beat Benn and Arum had put too much faith in Ambrose Mendy's business acumen & with Don King it was in the rematch where the fight ended up a draw, which King had inexplicably not covered in his contract with Hearn

[CaptainSpacerod]

Very few modern uk boxers have truly crossed over. AJ definitely, Fury almost certainly , Haye definitely, Khan probably. Hatton probably. Bellew no way. Even someone like Froch with his megafights and standing in the game I don’t think has truly crossed over.

[Deserter]

Very few modern uk boxers have truly crossed over. AJ definitely, Fury almost certainly , Haye definitely, Khan probably. Hatton probably. Bellew no way. Even someone like Froch with his megafights and standing in the game I don’t think has truly crossed over.

Hatton indisputably crossed over.

[Deserter]

Just finished the Hearn one - would put that up there in my top 5 to date. Perfect example of why the series is so strong, as have always known about Hearn, but learnt more about him in that 90 mins+ than I had in the previous 20+ years.
Got to say he comes across as an impressive figure - clearly incredibly driven and focused, but also brutally honest. The FW references were the icing on the cake - if he's the corner shop, we're Tesco had me chuckling

[Controversial]

Just finished the Hearn one - would put that up there in my top 5 to date. Perfect example of why the series is so strong, as have always known about Hearn, but learnt more about him in that 90 mins+ than I had in the previous 20+ years.
Got to say he comes across as an impressive figure - clearly incredibly driven and focused, but also brutally honest. The FW references were the icing on the cake - if he's the corner shop, we're Tesco had me chuckling

I liked this one too. The story about Hide taking liberties with Loughran was interesting as was hearing that Berbick had no intention of fighting Bruno and just used it as a ploy to bring his family over shopping. Interesting hearing about the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

[Jimmy2020]

Very few modern uk boxers have truly crossed over. AJ definitely, Fury almost certainly , Haye definitely, Khan probably. Hatton probably. Bellew no way. Even someone like Froch with his megafights and standing in the game I don’t think has truly crossed over.

Hatton indisputably crossed over.

Briefly. As boxing people we tend to over-value boxers, I think.

If there was a round on Pointless where 100 people had 100 seconds to name as many boxers as possible out of a line up of 15 I wonder how the GBP would get on?

My estimates x/100

Eubank Sr 50
Lennox 40
Amir 30
Joshua 20
Fury 30
Whyte 0
Chisora 0
Frampton 3
Froch 5
Bruno 45
Okolie 0
Hatton 10
Taylor 0
Warrington 0
Nic Adams 15


Btw David Baddiel mistook Amir Khan for Naseem Hamed on a TV show the other day.

[THEBUTCH]

Yeah, definitely one of the best interviews.

I think it was Eamonn Loughlan that Hide took the piss with, who was a Welterweight, so shows what a c*nt Herbie was.

Hide is one of the most consistently overrated boxers IMO. In reality he stepped up to the premier league twice and got totally splattered both times and ended up bawling his eyes out (literally).

[Jimmy2020]

Hide was so powerful for his size. He could have easily done the 13 stone 8lbs cruiserweight limit. If he'd been about in the 14 stone 4lbs days he'd not have been one of the naturally biggest men in the division. I understand why they campaigned at heavyweight and he did well but he was always going to get rag dolled by the real heavyweights.

[Deserter]

Just finished the Hearn one - would put that up there in my top 5 to date. Perfect example of why the series is so strong, as have always known about Hearn, but learnt more about him in that 90 mins+ than I had in the previous 20+ years.
Got to say he comes across as an impressive figure - clearly incredibly driven and focused, but also brutally honest. The FW references were the icing on the cake - if he's the corner shop, we're Tesco had me chuckling

I liked this one too. The story about Hide taking liberties with Magee was interesting as was hearing that Berbick had no intention of fighting Bruno and just used it as a ploy to bring his family over shopping. Interesting hearing about the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

Agreed mate, though I think it was Eamon Loughran rather than Magee

[Controversial]

Just finished the Hearn one - would put that up there in my top 5 to date. Perfect example of why the series is so strong, as have always known about Hearn, but learnt more about him in that 90 mins+ than I had in the previous 20+ years.
Got to say he comes across as an impressive figure - clearly incredibly driven and focused, but also brutally honest. The FW references were the icing on the cake - if he's the corner shop, we're Tesco had me chuckling

I liked this one too. The story about Hide taking liberties with Magee was interesting as was hearing that Berbick had no intention of fighting Bruno and just used it as a ploy to bring his family over shopping. Interesting hearing about the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

Agreed mate, though I think it was Eamon Loughran rather than Magee

Ah yes apologies Loughran, I’ve never heard anyone say anything nice about Hide, Hearn liked him and still used words like bully and nasty describing him

[maverick23]

Just finished the Barry Hearn interview. Some good stories. Only Chris Eubank could have a weekend in Paris with hotels and flights paid for still splurge £20k.