allegedly interview....
Posted: 05 Dec 2005, 06:07
allegedly EXCLUSIVE 25 YEARS IN THE HARDEST GAME OF THEM ALL
Oliver Holt, mirror.co.uk
allegedly has sat ringside at hundreds of fights in almost 25 years as a boxing promoter.
But last night he spoke for the first time about the moment when he stood in one corner and Mike Tyson stood in the other.
Warren celebrates a quarter of a century in the business next week with a glittering gala dinner at the Dorchester Hotel.
And next Saturday, 25 years after he staged his first fights at venues like the Finsbury Park Astoria, he will promote the eagerly-awaited clash between Danny Williams and Audley Harrison.
But five years ago, a room in another London hotel threatened to double up as a ring for Britain's top promoter and the boxer who was once The Baddest Man on the Planet.
Tyson claimed Warren had promised to pay a hefty jewellery bill for him when he blew hundreds of thousands of pounds at the shop six months earlier. Warren disagreed.
"I'd call it a difference of opinion," Warren said with a wry smile. "There was a rumour that I had a broken jaw and broken ribs but it was rubbish.
Would it be fair to say there were threats exchanged during that conversation. Well, yeah, it got heated.
He didn't scare me. I don't get scared by people like him. I'm not suggesting for one minute that I could have gone toe to toe with a guy who was the world heavyweight champion.
"But a few years earlier I might have got hold of a lump of wood and whacked him on the back of the head with it.
I used to love watching him when he was younger. It was just sad that he abused what he had, like George Best did. He's very clever, Tyson. He can draw you in. He drew me in a bit. All this stuff about him being misunderstood.
All this stuff about he's not really a bad guy, if you give him a chance and that kind of thing.
Actually, he's a cunning bastard. He tells people what they want to hear. He's very manipulative.
"He's very good at getting his own way and he's had a lifetime of being able to do it. But he's totally out of touch with reality.
He talks about being a street person but he couldn't live in the street. He might have done it when he was 13 or 14. But he couldn't do it today."
Warren has led such an extraordinary existence since he busted open the cartel operated by Micky Duff, Mike Barrett, Jarvis Astaire and Terry Lawless in the early Eighties that his altercation with Tyson hardly seems out of the ordinary.
Not when you compare it to being shot outside the Broadway Theatre in Barking in November 1989 by an assailant who has never been brought to justice.
A .22 bullet from a Luger pistol missed his heart by an inch. The former boxer, Terry Marsh, was accused of the shooting but acquitted by a jury.
"The low point of my career wouldn't actually be being shot," Warren said, "although obviously I wasn't very happy about it. I got on with it. I discharged myself from the hospital within a week. The shooting was bad enough physically but it was the problems it caused me business-wise that really hurt.
"What was worse than the shooting was the court case for my attempted murder. I was called by the police as a witness. I couldn't identify who it was.
Then a lot of shit started to get thrown about in court and I began to think 'hang on a minute, I'm not the one on trial here'."
Warren, though, has been a tenacious and formidable businessman since the time he ran a vending machine operation out of north London in the late Seventies.
He has been knocked down. And he has got up again. Time and time and time again.
He has been through the pain of seeing fighters on his bills slip into comas or, in the case of Gerald McClellan, maimed after a brutal fight with Nigel Benn.
He promoted Frank Bruno when he finally won the world title against Oliver McCall in 1995 and then watched him slip into decline.
He oversaw the rise of Naseem Hamed. When Hamed left him, he uncovered Ricky Hatton.
He promoted Hatton's career brilliantly and timed his shot at Kostya Tszyu to perfection.
Then Hatton left him a few months ago and now Warren is busy overseeing the meteoric rise of Amir Khan and preparing for Joe Calzaghe's showdown with Jeff Lacy next March.
He is still Britain's undisputed No.1. Nor has he lost his edge. There is precious little love lost, for example, between him and his rivals, Mick Hennessey and Dennis Hobson. "I've only ever had one conversation with Hennessey," Warren said. "He rang me up once. I think he was pi**ed. He seemed a bit of a prick.
"I met Hobson once and shook his hand and he kind of tickled my palm. I pulled my hand back. I didn't know what he was up to.
So is there any camaraderie? I'd like to say look at Ferguson, Mourinho and Wenger and is there any camaraderie? But I couldn't put them in that class.
"They all got a chance at TV shows and between them they made a right, regal f*** up of it.
"So I do look at them with contempt because they blew a great opportunity."
Twenty five years on, Warren's still coming out swinging.
Oliver Holt, mirror.co.uk
allegedly has sat ringside at hundreds of fights in almost 25 years as a boxing promoter.
But last night he spoke for the first time about the moment when he stood in one corner and Mike Tyson stood in the other.
Warren celebrates a quarter of a century in the business next week with a glittering gala dinner at the Dorchester Hotel.
And next Saturday, 25 years after he staged his first fights at venues like the Finsbury Park Astoria, he will promote the eagerly-awaited clash between Danny Williams and Audley Harrison.
But five years ago, a room in another London hotel threatened to double up as a ring for Britain's top promoter and the boxer who was once The Baddest Man on the Planet.
Tyson claimed Warren had promised to pay a hefty jewellery bill for him when he blew hundreds of thousands of pounds at the shop six months earlier. Warren disagreed.
"I'd call it a difference of opinion," Warren said with a wry smile. "There was a rumour that I had a broken jaw and broken ribs but it was rubbish.
Would it be fair to say there were threats exchanged during that conversation. Well, yeah, it got heated.
He didn't scare me. I don't get scared by people like him. I'm not suggesting for one minute that I could have gone toe to toe with a guy who was the world heavyweight champion.
"But a few years earlier I might have got hold of a lump of wood and whacked him on the back of the head with it.
I used to love watching him when he was younger. It was just sad that he abused what he had, like George Best did. He's very clever, Tyson. He can draw you in. He drew me in a bit. All this stuff about him being misunderstood.
All this stuff about he's not really a bad guy, if you give him a chance and that kind of thing.
Actually, he's a cunning bastard. He tells people what they want to hear. He's very manipulative.
"He's very good at getting his own way and he's had a lifetime of being able to do it. But he's totally out of touch with reality.
He talks about being a street person but he couldn't live in the street. He might have done it when he was 13 or 14. But he couldn't do it today."
Warren has led such an extraordinary existence since he busted open the cartel operated by Micky Duff, Mike Barrett, Jarvis Astaire and Terry Lawless in the early Eighties that his altercation with Tyson hardly seems out of the ordinary.
Not when you compare it to being shot outside the Broadway Theatre in Barking in November 1989 by an assailant who has never been brought to justice.
A .22 bullet from a Luger pistol missed his heart by an inch. The former boxer, Terry Marsh, was accused of the shooting but acquitted by a jury.
"The low point of my career wouldn't actually be being shot," Warren said, "although obviously I wasn't very happy about it. I got on with it. I discharged myself from the hospital within a week. The shooting was bad enough physically but it was the problems it caused me business-wise that really hurt.
"What was worse than the shooting was the court case for my attempted murder. I was called by the police as a witness. I couldn't identify who it was.
Then a lot of shit started to get thrown about in court and I began to think 'hang on a minute, I'm not the one on trial here'."
Warren, though, has been a tenacious and formidable businessman since the time he ran a vending machine operation out of north London in the late Seventies.
He has been knocked down. And he has got up again. Time and time and time again.
He has been through the pain of seeing fighters on his bills slip into comas or, in the case of Gerald McClellan, maimed after a brutal fight with Nigel Benn.
He promoted Frank Bruno when he finally won the world title against Oliver McCall in 1995 and then watched him slip into decline.
He oversaw the rise of Naseem Hamed. When Hamed left him, he uncovered Ricky Hatton.
He promoted Hatton's career brilliantly and timed his shot at Kostya Tszyu to perfection.
Then Hatton left him a few months ago and now Warren is busy overseeing the meteoric rise of Amir Khan and preparing for Joe Calzaghe's showdown with Jeff Lacy next March.
He is still Britain's undisputed No.1. Nor has he lost his edge. There is precious little love lost, for example, between him and his rivals, Mick Hennessey and Dennis Hobson. "I've only ever had one conversation with Hennessey," Warren said. "He rang me up once. I think he was pi**ed. He seemed a bit of a prick.
"I met Hobson once and shook his hand and he kind of tickled my palm. I pulled my hand back. I didn't know what he was up to.
So is there any camaraderie? I'd like to say look at Ferguson, Mourinho and Wenger and is there any camaraderie? But I couldn't put them in that class.
"They all got a chance at TV shows and between them they made a right, regal f*** up of it.
"So I do look at them with contempt because they blew a great opportunity."
Twenty five years on, Warren's still coming out swinging.
Although my best score is a poor 4.072 seconds 
You must have a really quick super-duper PC, it's actually easier playing with a crappy old PC!
