Frank Warren: I Shielded Khan

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AMIR KHAN’S defection to Golden Boy Promotions earlier this month was a massive setback for promoter Frank Warren, who guided the Bolton man from the Breidis Prescott KO defeat all the way to the WBA light-welterweight title. The veteran promoter, who has been at the forefront of British boxing for decades and he has seen many boxers come and go, caught up with us to discuss Khan, amongst other things, which we covered extensively last week.

You recently stated that Joe Calzaghe’s decision to go it alone for the Roy Jones fight was the “biggest disappointment” of your career. Has Amir Khan’s decision to move to Golden Boy Promotions relegated Joe’s defection to the number two spot?

Amir said he wanted to move to take things to the next level and this is disappointing, especially as he hasn’t spoken directly to me about it. I think that remark was out of order.

You’ve lost the likes of Naseem Hamed, Ricky Hatton, Calzaghe and now Khan; do you feel confident in your ability to produce the next British boxing crossover star?

I’ve read about Naz “leaving me” but he never left me. I took Naz to the States and Atlantic City, then the contract ended and I walked away because I didn’t like what was happening with his family, their involvement, and the fact that he wasn’t training as hard as he could. I had great times with Naz and decided that was it.

Ricky Hatton didn’t get off to go to the States, he signed with another British promoter [Dennis Hobson] who took him to Boston and Vegas and then Hatton himself made a match and dumped him [Hobson] to fight a Golden Boy fighter, [Floyd] Mayweather [Writer’s note: Floyd has his own promotional company but his last three fights have been promoted by GBP], and got beat.

What was disappointing with Joe [Calzaghe] was all those years where Sky didn’t want him, ITV didn’t want him, and I’ve got letters from both companies to this effect, and people were showing no interest due to a couple of uninspired performances. With Ricky and Joe, I managed to get their fights broadcast on Showtime at least eight or 10 times, so it was sad and disappointing. It was his [Joe’s] choice to go it alone.

With Amir I am baffled. I did a deal with [Klaus] Peter Kohl, who is with Universum, who are the promoters for [Marcos] Maidana [Khan’s mandatory challenger], and agreed terms with them for [a fight against] Amir. I also spoke to HBO, who agreed to take the fight. I also agreed terms with Ken Hershman at Showtime for Amir to fight [WBO titlist Timothy] Bradley, which would have given Amir the biggest purse he had ever had, so Amir had a few choices and didn’t even come back to me on them.

Lou DiBella phoned about [Paulie] Malignaggi fighting Amir and they were interested, so all those things could have been done. So I don’t understand the rationale [behind Khan’s decision], though I know what it is deep down but don’t want to embarrass anybody. All those big fights were there for him so I find it quite strange. I’ve not spoken to him. The last conversation I had with Amir was after the Salita fight when he said, “Me and Frank are going to America”.

Is the defection made especially disappointing due to the fact that you shielded Khan to a degree after the Prescott defeat?

Of course I shielded him. I had to bring him through, he was only a kid, but when we made the deal for [Andreas] Kotelnik the terms were, and I sent a letter about this to his father and the WBA, that he fights Kotelnik and takes over his obligation to fight [then-WBA mandatory challenger Dmitriy] Salita, which was a nice fight for him but was hard to sell, and then fights the winner of Maidana and [Victor] Ortiz. A lot of people fancied Ortiz to beat Maidana, that is why Golden Boy made the fight, as Ortiz is their fighter, and the fight was shown on HBO, who know who Maidana is as Maidana has had more exposure in the States than Amir so they [Team Khan] knew what the obligations were: fight Maidana or drop the belt and go in another direction – I was giving him that opportunity.

Do you think that Amir is now the complete package in boxing terms?

I still think he needs a little more grounding. All Amir needs to do is keep doing what he was doing with Freddie Roach, keep working on his defence. We’ve seen what happens when he’s hit on the chin but that can happen to any fighter when hit on the chin. He needs to work on his defence and the fights I made to get him back were fights that I calculated he could win. These were fights I had to talk him into taking, there was resistance to him fighting Kotelnik and I talked them [Team Khan] into that.

Do you have any regrets over the Khan situation?

It has happened, sometimes you look around and wonder what you could have done. I did everything I could have done for him and to say that he had to go to America to see what another promoter could do for him is a joke. Look at Golden Boy, nine years they’ve been in business and name me one fighter they’ve brought through. Fighters come to them because they’ve got this blanket deal with HBO, which runs out next year, so it will be interesting to see if they [HBO] do another five-year one. I don’t think they will.

Will they look after him? Who were they, Golden Boy, plumping for when Ricky Hatton fought Floyd Mayweather? The American promoter wants an American or Hispanic fighter to win. David Haye is fighting John Ruiz so who do you think the American promoters want to win? David Haye has a three-fight deal with Sauerland and works with Golden Boy but they’ve [GBP] got no say in who he fights.

If you remember, Richard Schaefer at one stage said he was p****d off because he didn’t know they had made the fight with Valuev. They’ve [GBP] signed John Ruiz so who is better for them, a Hispanic heavyweight or a British one? It goes without saying.

Does it show that you are still learning yourself?

What I wouldn’t ever do again is work on a gentleman’s agreement. Even at my age you can learn and there’ll be no more of those. I’ve told that to a number of fighters over recent months.

There is something to be said about loyalty and sticking with the people who have got you somewhere, but I think Khan made the right move in leaving Warren. Regardless of what Frank says, we can see his track record, and see that he was probably not going to get Amir the big fights...he was probably going to keep playing it safe. And if we look at all of Frank's other fighters, they left him for the same reasons. The same can be said about leaving Oliver Harrison. Harrison was a good trainer to introduce Khan to the pros, but look at how much progress he's made since he switched to Roach. Harrison would never have been able to do what Freddie has been able to do. In the end, Khan won't be boxing forever, and when he retires, he's got to hope his legacy and his pockets are full and secure. It's a business and in business you have to make tough decisions.

That being said, Golden Boy has no idea how to move fighters. I would have signed with Top Rank. Amir could have fought on the undercards of Manny's fights and easily built a name for himself.

Amir Khan Boxing: Frank Warren: I Shielded Khan - Amir Khan Boxing