Frank ******

[TheUzi]

I think he gets far too hard a time on these boards and i'll go as far to say I think he's an extremely good promoter.

Secures the big fights and looks after his fighters financially.

Some people may say he takes too long to get the big fights made but is that all his fault or should his boxers also share the blame.

[Evil Dead]

hes a great promoter for his fighters and for himself and will earn him and his fighters a lot of money, for true boxing fans tho big world class fights where it is a 50/50 are few and far between. hes all about the money which is why i dont like him ( but in his shoes i may be doing the same)

[Evil Dead]

i kinda wanna click all 3 of them options:D

[GazOC]

There should be "If it wasn't him, it'd just be someone else" option.....

[brown bomber]

Brilliant at what he does. Seems a decent guy. Great at making maximum reward from his fighters, not so great at securing legacies.

[Farmboxer]

I don't like him.

[mrbassie]

If there was a choice something between the first two then I'd vote for that. He does make good money for fighters who realistically wouldn't make much if it weren't for the wbu circuit and what have you. On the other hand he always looks for weak opposition which doesn't make for a great scene or for great records for those of his fighters who have the talent to go somewhere.

[Gaz S]

He's a great promoter and marketing man to the casual general public, but not so much the real boxing fans. He's a genius at building up certain fighters and getting them over with the public, and as a result can sell them any old tat featuring the said boxer and the public come out in their droves for it.

For example, you can't tell me that all the crowds at Hatton/Calzaghe/Khan fights are/were all die-hard boxing fans? I dare say around 70%, if not more, of those people at those shows are just the casual sports fans, the football crowd, etc who other than their man's fights (insert name of boxer), had never been to another boxing show in their life, have no interest in the undercard and only come to watch the main event, and wouldn't know the difference between Sugar Ray Robinson and Heath Robinson.

What Frank does is latch onto a fighter and markets him primarily with their local fans to build up a following, and it just expands from there. In fact, the more casual the fan and the less knowledgeable they are the better, that's when his little tricks and hype jobs to draw them in work better -

e.g Boxer x is undefeated (translation: never fought anyone of quality, or in their prime at least).

The opponent's never been stopped (translation: though he is naturally two divisions smaller and lost about 6 times against nobody of note).

This fight is for the World Championship (translation: WBU or an interim WBO title which nobody else in the sport knows or cares about).

My examples are extreme and harsh I know, but it's just to emphasize the point. These little marketing ploys bring them in their thousands as when Sports Network put the spin on it, it makes it all sound really special to those who don't know anything about the sport.

People go to ******'s shows simply because they are events. For example, Calzaghe-Manfredo was the first home Calzaghe fight I never went to, simply because I knew the card was shit and the main event was atrocious and the ticket prices for such tripe were extortionate. However, I knew loads of people who had never been to a boxing show before who went to that simply because it was the "legendary", great undefeated Joe Calzaghe fighting some guy off the telly. Must be a great fight!


Frank sells to the public, not the boxing fans. ****** understandably makes bigger money selling to the masses rather than the niche market that true boxing fans are becoming. I guess that's fair enough, but it's a great shame really. It's a shame because I do think he's a very good promoter, just applies his skills and savvy more so to making the most possible money rather than caring about the state of the sport in this country and our boxers legacies.
I think his shows are generally pretty poor. Even if there's a decent main event, the rest of the undercard is filled with blow outs and showcases of "house" fighters plowing through some over matched, unknown foreign imports in uncompetitive fights.

However, that's the negatives out of the way - but here's the reason I didn't vote. I didn't vote because although I hate the way he goes about things and doesn't seem to care a toss for the true fans, he does get his boxers good pay days and earns them good money. I'm all for that where fighters are concerned - they deserve every penny they can get.
Also, he has done very commendable charity work, and he also gave very significant and generous help towards Michael Watson during Michael's darkest times.

So, there was no happy medium in the voting options that I felt appropriate to my feelings regarding Frank ******. He's a great promoter - just not for us boxing fans, which I understand though despise - and although he can be a petty twat at times, there is a very decent side to him as well.
I just wish he would devote more of his talent and ability into boxing and it's health, rather than just the almighty dollar. To me he's kind of like British boxing's evil genius.

[robpalmer135]

name a big fight ****** has made in the last 5 years and I will tell you how he was forced to make the fight not go out of his way to make it.

[kosaros]

name a big fight ****** has made in the last 5 years and I will tell you how he was forced to make the fight not go out of his way to make it.

Khan vs Barrera?

[D-MAC]

He's a cock.

[kosaros]

He is the best promoter in Britain without a doubt.

One hell of a twat though.

[alba]

name a big fight ****** has made in the last 5 years and I will tell you how he was forced to make the fight not go out of his way to make it.

Arthur v Gomez,bearing in mind it was gomez who pulled out

also Clinton woods v Glen Johnson ,

and lastly Enzo Macranellie v David haye,

[ishy]

Arthur v Gomez,bearing in mind it was gomez who pulled out

also Clinton woods v Glen Johnson ,

and lastly Enzo Macranellie v David haye,


He staged Woods-Johnson as he expected Johnson to win and he wanted to match him with Calzaghe. Woods wasn't with ****** but ****** won the purse bid for that fight I think. He put it on ITV to make a future Calzaghe-Johnson fight bigger.


Haye-Macca was made because ****** (and a lot of other people) though Haye was struggling with the weight. Straight after the Mormeck fight Haye said he was moving up to HW as he couldn't make CW any more so ****** made him a big offer thinking Enzo would easily pick up the belts. We all know what happened then....

[BUGS]

fw is the best promoter in europe ....any young pro starting out should try and sign for fw .

[robpalmer135]

Khan vs Barrera?

The numbers of the last two Khan fights on PPV were dismall. Sky can say yes or no to Khans opponents. ****** made this fight becasue Sky forced him to put Khan in there with someone that had a shot agaisnt him.

[GazOC]

MAB was there because he had a name, not because he had a shot to win.

[robpalmer135]

Arthur v Gomez,bearing in mind it was gomez who pulled out

also Clinton woods v Glen Johnson ,

and lastly Enzo Macranellie v David haye,

Arthur vs Gomez - Not a big fight

Woods vs Johnson - He didnt make the fight, he simply won the purse bids that were orderd by the IBF. ****** needed big names to go with Khan on his ITV cards so he started going for purse bids for Woods and Froch fights. He also wanted Johnson to win, he said after the fight he throught Johnson won.

Enzo vs Haye - ****** had a big money deal with the 02 to host Calzaghe vs Woods, when that feel through (because of Calzaghe wanting Hopkins in Vegas) he made the Enzo fight with Haye, at that time he only he 3 fiighters capable of selling the 02, Khan, Calzaghe and Enzo. Khan was nto ready to step up, Calzaghe wanted Hopkins, and Enzo would only sell in a unification fight agaisnt Haye. He even pushed for setanta to buy the rights to Haye vs Mormeck so that there would be more interest in the fight.

[Lemmiwinks]

I'm torn. On the one hand, he's built the career of nearly every major fighter to come from these shores, but on the other, he's quite obviously an enormous dickhead who starts blathering about 'verbal contracts' whenever one of his fighters wants to go abroad and make a name for themselves or get paid fairly. Shame that doesn't stand up in court Frank, lol.

[ishy]

With ****** it depends on how good the fighter is. If you're a Calzaghe or Hatton then ******'s cautious matchmaking will hold you back.

If you're a Gary Locket, Michael Jennings type i.e British/Euro level then ******'s perfect. He gets you fights, good money and eventually a WBO title shot for a career high payday.

[Grievesy]

Despite the fact that he has helped British boxing enormously over the years, the man is still a cunt.

[jc333]

Didn't he publicly say that if Haye beat Enzo he would retire?

Obviously a man of great integrity. :roll:

[punchdrunkgench]

reading thes quotes one thing is for certain he provokes alot of emotion however i feel that grievesys comment is well ott, ****** makes his fighters good money unfortantly sometimes with bad fights that are no to low risk then i would say thats his job if i was a fighter a could earn 50k for fighting a pushover or 50k to have a hard night against a tough oppenent what would you do?

[Sprint]

The numbers of the last two Khan fights on PPV were dismall. Sky can say yes or no to Khans opponents. ****** made this fight becasue Sky forced him to put Khan in there with someone that had a shot agaisnt him.

Could you share the actual PPV numbers for the MAB fight please Rob?

[toffeejack]

Brilliant at what he does. Seems a decent guy. Great at making maximum reward from his fighters, not so great at securing legacies.

You honestly believe that?

I don't believe that anybody gets to where he is at without being a complete cunt which I am sure he is.