FRANK’S HEAVYWEIGHT HIGHWAY

IT HAS BEEN a long and winding road for Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren when it comes to his relationship with the heavyweight division.

The veteran fight maker has a storied history with boxing’s marquee weight category, one which turned into the currency of world title belts at the National Stadium, Wembley in September 1995.

Frank Bruno became WBC world champion at the fourth time of asking, having previously come up short against Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. His promoter knew he was onto something right from the off, persuading Don King to make the fight and then recruiting the likes of Nigel Benn and Prince Naseem Hamed to cause a stir at ringside because he doubted the mental fortitude of McCall under pressure.

He was proved right and Britain had a new world champion under the lights at Wembley, with Bruno winning on points on all three cards.

The next heavyweight triumph orchestrated by Frank came in 1997 at the Norwich Sports Village, where the Dancing Destroyer Herbie Hide became WBO world champion for the second time with a second round stoppage of Tony Tucker

Hide would successfully defend twice before coming up against Vitali Klitschko at the old London Arena in June 1999, falling to a second round KO.

The Queensberry founder remained at the sharp end of the heavyweight division in the following years, guiding several of his promotional charges to world title shots.

Also in 1997, Scott Welch qualified for a WBO world title tilt against the Brit Henry Akinwande in Tennessee, where the Brighton Rock lost on the scorecards.

Following the distinction of inflicting defeat on Mike Tyson in July 2004, the Brixton Bomber Danny Williams went on to challenge Vitali Klitschko five months later in Las Vegas, where an eighth round stoppage put paid to what would have been a colossal double.

In 2008 it was Matt Skelton going for WBA gold when he went up against Ruslan Chagaev over in Germany, where he was outpointed over 12 rounds.

On Frank’s watch, Derek Chisora challenged Vitali Klitschko for the WBC title in 2012, with Del Boy giving the great Ukrainian a gruelling night at the office. Chisora would later fight for the WBC title again at the end of 2022 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against the champion Tyson Fury and lasting 10 rounds against the Gypsy King.

Frank’s association with Tyson Fury came about in 2014 when he fought Chisora for the second time and it was the Big GK he moved forward with and positioned into mandatory position for his shot at Wladimir Klitschko with a defeat of Christian Hammer here at The o2 in early 2015.

He reconnected with Tyson for his big comeback in 2018 and, at the end of the year, he nearly pulled off a shock defeat of long-standing WBC champion Deontay Wilder in California after just two warm-up fights.

In 2020, Tyson did become WBC champion by stopping Wilder in Las Vegas and completed a trilogy triumph in 2021. He made four defences, including a memorable St George’s Day occasion at Wembley Stadium against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte.

Daniel Dubois became the next heavyweight champion off the Queensberry block in mid-2024 when, after defeating Filip Hrgovic, he was upgraded to be the full IBF champion before making a stunning first defence by knocking out Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in the September.

After losing out to Oleksandr Uysk, Dubois became world champion again when he overcame the WBO world champion Fabio Wardley in Manchester in May of last year.

Wardley is another who qualified for the Warren Roll of Honour after becoming world champion following his stopping of Joseph Parker last October. The Ipswich man saw his Interim status upgraded to full champion.

Queensberry fighter Agit Kabayel is now holder of the WBC world title, having previously held the Interim belt, and was elevated following Usyk giving up his unified title status.

This means, after tonight, Frank will be calling the shots for three out of the four world heavyweight champions in Dubois and Kabayel, plus the winner out of Itauma v Hrgovic, who are both Queensberry fighters.