Frank Warren

The news that Amir Khan has signed for Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions has dominated the boxing headlines this week.

It has brought to an end a 5 year 23-fight association with me, in which I steered him to a world title.

Amir won his WBA light-welterweight crown against Andreas Kotelnik in the summer, and part of the deal for that fight was an obligatory mandatory defence against Dmitriy Salita.

The WBA also ordered that whoever held the belt would also have to make a defence against the winner of Marcos Maidana’s fight with Victor Ortiz.

Ortiz was a hot young prospect promoted by GBP, but Maidana threw a spanner in the works when he unexpectedly beat their man.

Shah Khan, Amir’s dad, let me know that Khan camp weren’t happy and unaware with the Maidana fight, but I had informed Shah personally of the situation and back in September they were copied with correspondence my office had with the WBA confirming their ruling.

Khan’s trainer, Freddie Roach, made it known that he wasn’t happy with the Maidana match up either, describing him as a dangerous puncher and it wasn’t “good business” for Amir to face Maidana.

He’s not a bad puncher, but he was also on the floor against Ortiz and is pretty crude. He also lost to Kotelnik.

But this was the way it had to be and only last Thursday I agreed terms with Maidana’s promoter Peter Kohl, which was lucrative for Khan and guaranteed the fight in the UK.

Shah was also aware that I also contacted world No 1 Timothy Bradley’s camp and I offered Khan the biggest purse of his career to face him.  Previously I was approached by both HBO and Don King about Amir fighting WBC champion Devon Alexander. But it wasn’t for good money.

American network’s Showtime wanted and agreed the Bradley fight and HBO also want to screen Amir’s fight with Maidana.

To all concerned it made far more financial sense for Khan to fight Maidana or Bradley in the UK - with American TV - especially as Sky aren’t that keen in doing PPV shows from the States in the early hours of the morning.? ?That was the situation going into last week, and Shah – I’ve always dealt with when it comes to Amir alongside his lawyer Robert Davies – said he would call me on Friday.?I received a number of calls that day, but none from team Khan.

First Lou DiBella phoned me to say that Richard Schaefer, GBP chief executive, had been in touch to say that he had signed Khan, and would DiBella’s fighter Paulie Malignaggi be interested in facing him.

On that note, I think Malignaggi is an easy job but a terrible fight to sell for Khan as he looked dreadful over here against Lovemore N’Dou and fell apart against a sliding Ricky Hatton.

Ken Hershman of Showtime also called saying he spoke to DiBella and told him that GBP had signed Khan.

It was obvious what was going on, but it wasn’t until Sunday morning that Shah finally called me to say I would be reading in the press that morning Amir signed with GBP, he tried to explain that they’d tried to keep a lid on things but there were leaks.  He thanked me for the “Brilliant job I’d done for Amir but he wanted to go to the States and move his career on”.

I told him I’d known about the situation 48 hours earlier and was astonished they hadn’t called me at the decision and the way he’d gone about it.  I told him I was offended that he should say that GBP could do a better job than me.  Throughout all of this I’d not spoken once directly to Amir. Maybe I could have done, but didn’t want to go behind Shah’s back.

The last time we were together was in Newcastle, when after the fight he told Sky that “me and Frank” are going to America, repeating that statement in the press conference afterwards.

How do I feel about it all? Of course I’m unhappy, especially as I heard it tenth hand and they hadn’t had the courtesy to tell me what they were doing.

Under my promotional banner, he has banked millions of pounds, and become a world champion despite getting wiped out in less than 60 seconds just four fights ago.

That loss against Breidis Prescott came about after Khan’s trainer – who apparently was recommended by David Haye and Adam Booth, but no one had heard of – picked an obscure opponent who I wasn’t happy with.  But against my better judgement the Khan’s insisted on the fight.

I don’t think GBP would have been able to resurrect his career in the same way, they certainly haven’t done for Ortiz, and I’m annoyed that Amir thinks they can do more for him than I can.

In 1998 when Marco Antonio Barrera struggling and couldn’t get a US TV date,  he signed with me and I got him back on track, he won the World Title and set up the first Erik Morales fight.  

What GBP really have going for them is blanket dates with HBO, who do their best to push every fighter towards them.

But can they really build fighters? Ortiz didn’t last too long, while De La Hoya’s choice of opponents for himself have hardly been inspiring – he’s lost four of his last seven.?

Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach has obviously played a role in all this as well, and while he undoubtedly is a good trainer and knows what he’s doing, you are only as good as the fighters you work with.  Roach couldn’t help Bernard Hopkins beat Joe Calzaghe, Mike Tyson see off Danny Williams or De La Hoya himself defeat Floyd Mayweather.

And as for all this nonsense about Khan leaving because of racism – do me a favour.?A few left wing journalists, led by the Observer’s Kevin Mitchell, think that Khan defected to GBP because he’s fed up with being racially abused.

When he fought in Newcastle he was cheered to the rafters, while any boos he has received during the course of his career have been from fans of rival boxers.  I certainly haven’t heard him called a ‘Paki Bastard’ from the fans.

Naseem Hamed, Chris Eubank, Joe Bugner and Lennox Lewis, to name but a few, received criticism in the past - but just got on with it.
Some mindless morons have slagged off Khan on the internet, but if I left the country every time I got some stick on line I’d have more air-miles than Richard Branson.

Unfortunately in boxing, these days loyalty is a fickle thing.?

It will be interesting to see who Khan will face next.  Talk that he is on the undercard of Hopkins v Jones on 17th April is nonsense, Sky will not do a PPV show two week after David Haye.

His next fight is pencilled in for 1st May, but if it is on PPV then he’s going to be up against two other Brits –David Haye and Hatton – who have PPVs on 3rd April and late May.

Looking into the future, Khan could face Hatton, a fellow ‘GBP fighter’.  But who will GBP want to win? Having just signed Khan are they are more likely to be behind him than Ricky?  I’m not sure what Hatton will make of that.

I was never that keen on Khan facing Hatton because I think the Hitman should retire, but I always said that if Amir had to fight him, then so be it.  I have made it very clear in the past that I fancy him to win the fight.  Someone who seems to agree with me is WBC President Jose Sulaiman who also advised Hatton to retire.  Sulaiman said “The people close to Ricky should recommend him not to come back to boxing.  And if he has enough money I don’t understand what he’s trying to do.  If they really like, love and respect him they should try to convince him not to return to the ring”.

Will it happen later this year? I’m not so sure, but Hatton has to look good against a decent opponent when he returns in May.
Despite the way the Khan’s have handled this and I have not heard a word from Amir I think he is a really nice kid, very talented and he’s great for boxing and I genuinely hope he does well.