Does Frank Warren ever give it a rest one bitter man!!

[skel1983]

You can't mug me, Ricky | The Sun |Sport|SunSport Columnists

WRITING a sports column is about giving your opinion — and I’m paid to give my honestly held views.


When I write about Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe or other boxers, it’s because they are in the news — or I’m answering criticisms.

It’s not about sour grapes, I’m just telling it how I see it — and I’ve never been sued.

This week, the news was Ricky Hatton’s fight. And he looked good in Las Vegas — where he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jnr — when he stopped Paulie Malignaggi.

Hatton said: “I feel like I’ve come back to the scene of the crime and destroyed the evidence.”

Problem was he wasn’t confronting the same mugger. Malignaggi wasn’t in the same class as Mayweather — and, to be kind to him, he was very, very ordinary.

I’m not sure if against quality opposition Hatton is a 12-round fighter any more. We didn’t find out if he is against Malignaggi.

If Hatton had been facing someone firing back and more of a test, we would have discovered if his lifestyle has caught up with him and if his powers are waning.

The light-welter division was strong but these days it’s very average. Even his new trainer, Floyd Mayweather Snr, tells Hatton he is boozing too much and his lifestyle is going to catch up with him.

It’s been a problem for years. I met Ricky with ITV commentator John Rawling and told him he had to stop the bingeing but our words of advice fell on deaf ears.

Saying he should quit the drink is not me criticising Hatton unfairly — everyone in boxing believes he should give it up.

Drinking heavily between fights is not the message to send out to young fighters.

In football, can you imagine Alex Ferguson allowing Wayne Rooney to go on the lash for weeks on end? This week, Hatton, who is now effectively promoting himself, said of his future: “We’re working with Golden Boy in America and we may do some shows with Frank Maloney, who is pal of mine.

“In the past I feel promoters have not done the right thing by me so we felt the need to go out on a limb ourselves and it is one of the best things I have done.”

Yet the trouble he got from me was banking £7.5million.

My philosophy is to make fighters as much money as possible while nurturing them and picking the right moments and opponents for them to fight for titles.

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That’s what I did with Hatton, making him a multi-millionaire. If his career had ended after he beat Kostya Tszyu — his final outing under my promotional banner — he couldn’t have complained.

Millions in the bank, a world title and the scalp of one of the modern greats on his record — to me that reads like a job well done by both me and Ricky.

What’s his next move? He’ll probably meet the winner of Oscar De La Hoya or Manny Pacquiao. And it should be Oscar as a good big ‘un beats a good little ‘un.

De La Hoya will be keen. Now Mayweather is out of the picture, he hasn’t got many other options.

Taking the fight will be tough for Ricky — he says himself that he is not a natural welterweight, while De La Hoya has fought as high as middleweight and is a natural light-middleweight.

But it will still be huge and British fans will turn out for it.

• Joe Calzaghe banked £17m from me but insisted that he could make more by fighting Roy Jones Jr as a free agent.

But HBO haven’t released the PPV figures as they were so low and 3,000 tickets were given away to bolster the crowd.

Calzaghe’s purse will fall short of what he wanted. But that’s promoting, it’s not all upside...


EVERY FUCKING WEEK HE GOES ON ABOUT HOW MUCH HATTON HAS MADE FROM HIM GET OVER IT FRANK HES GONE!!! AND NOW JOE HAS FOLLWED HIM!!!

Also £17 million fr Joe i find that hard to believe. Considering he only made over £1 million in two fights for Franky in the Kessler and Hopkins fights?

[Gandalf]

Frank Warren writes for The Sun. Enough said.

He's always been a bit of a dick. Unlikely to change anytime soon.

[Trainer Monkey]

If Frank was doing so well for his fighters,he'd still have them

[Dark Lord Al]

Its funny how Warren call Paulie an ordinary fighter lol , before Kostya , Ricky was fighting total shit under Warren .

If Warren was still Hattons promoter , last weekend he would have be fighting Paulies little sister not Paulie himself.

[Greig]

It's funny - but I agree with almost everything he says.

We really don't know how good Hatton is at the moment - because Paulie is SHITHOUSE. He had absolutely nothing in his arsenal to phase Ricky, except for his exceptional clinching, at which he is a pound for pound great.

His next fight will probably be against the winner of DLH-Pac and he'd be a heavy underdog against Oscar and a slight favourite against Pac IMO.

[Master]

Warren does not mention how much money he made from them does he.

Also he is bitter because of the money he is loosing out if they were still with him.