Frank Warren is ready to cross the Atlantic on his tidal wave of thunderous world heavyweight title fights.
Having established Queensberry as the dominant boxing promoters in the UK, Warren is primed to pitch for big fights in the US. Not least in New York’s fabled Madison Square Garden.
This Saturday’s Slugfest II between Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley at the O2 and December’s Battle of the Aged between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in Cardiff – both for versions of the world championship – will be the prelude to a 2027 crammed with sell-out battles at sky-high prices.
They will involve the winners – and possibly the losers – of those fights, plus Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic, the Croatian iron man who beat him for one of the titles, and Agit Kabayel, who will shortly defend another of the belts in front of a 50,000 stadium crowd in Germany.
‘After 12 months putting on the big fights the fans love,’ says Warren, ‘we are looking at a year chock-full of multiple heavyweight events involving all these guys and more.’
If Wardley gets revenge over Dubois by regaining his WBO title one of those happenings could be a trilogy match. Fury v Dubois is on the hob. As is the conquering of America., To which end Queensberry have signed Jared Anderson, the only heavyweight over there who looks remotely capable of coping in this company. Says Warren: ‘Jared will be a key part of our US expansion.’
Frank Warren is plotting a huge 12 months of heavyweight mega-fights in the USA next year
The promoter has invited Oleksandr Usyk to return and ‘make even more boxing history’
That move will pitch Warren into a promotional rivalry with Dana White, the UFC boss whose new boxing company Zuffa has muscled into a share of the Fury-Joshua action – and a war of insults with AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
Warren has watched those bitter exchanges with amused interest as well as reflections on his own disputes with Hearn down the years and says: ‘Nobody pays good money to watch promoters squabbling. The fans only have eyes for the men in the ring. I get on fine with Dana. Like me, he relishes competition.
‘As far as Queensberry is concerned we are enjoying fabulous times the like of which has never been seen this side of the Atlantic.‘
Their heavyweight roster will be supplemented further by the return to action of popular Kiwi Joseph Parker from the positive drugs test which cost him a world title.
Most intriguingly of all, Warren is keeping tabs on Oleksandr Usyk. The Ukrainian genius who is the greatest boxer of two generations vacated all his undisputed heavyweight titles ‘to give the new generation their chance.’
But he has never triggered the retirement which would have had him join Rocky Marciano as the only heavyweights to hang up the gloves undefeated. Instead he has been keeping active in crossover combat while reviewing other options. Such as returning to the squared ring, in which he defeated Joshua, Fury and Dubois twice each.
‘If Oleksandr wants to make even more boxing history, ’ says Warren, ‘then Queensberry is the only place for him to come. The door to all our heavyweights is not just open. It’s off its hinges.’
The return of the Cat of Kyiv would be one of Uncle Frank’s greatest coups.
