Frank Warren: There’s now competition for Sky

Frank Warren

PROMOTER Frank Warren expects to make a rematch between Liam Smith and Liam Williams after the controversial conclusion to their bout, an exciting fight, at the Manchester Arena on Saturday (April 8).

โ€œIโ€™m sure it will make a good rematch on the strength of that,โ€ Warren told Boxing News.

Overall he was delighted with his latest show, which opened the promoterโ€™s new deal with BT Sport. โ€œI think itโ€™s a significant night for boxing in as much that thereโ€™s now competition between the two big TV players. This show we did really well with tickets considering that it wasnโ€™t a date we really wanted to go on, the Grand Nationalโ€™s on, Augustaโ€™s on and because this was the date we could get to promote here we had to come in a couple of weeks after the [Anthony] Crolla fight which was announced a good six, seven weeks before ours so it took a lot of money out of the market. That being said, they were good fights and they fought well,โ€ Frank continued.

โ€œI know itโ€™s a clichรฉ about the new era but it is a new era. From my point of view, Iโ€™ve really got the bit between my teeth to go out now and make some bigger and better shows. Weโ€™re in a position to do that because weโ€™ve got a bigger audience, that means weโ€™ve got more cash to come in for us to invest in bigger fights. So weโ€™ll be doing that. Weโ€™ve got some good fights, some good shows coming up. Weโ€™ve got a couple of new guys that are going to sign with us that weโ€™ll hopefully announce in the next couple of weeksโ€ฆ Oneโ€™s quite established and hopefully we get that over the line. Weโ€™ve got some good things happening. Itโ€™s a bit like the old days. When Ricky Hatton started out with me, people think we sold out all the time and we didnโ€™t. It took a long time to sell out this [the Manchester Arena]. In fact we never sold out until we fought Kostya Tszyu. With Terry [Flanagan] weโ€™ve got a chance of doing the same thing. Heโ€™s got a couple of habits I donโ€™t like, looking down when he goes back to corner [looking frustrated] when itโ€™s not gone wrongโ€ฆ I think the crowd are really going to take to him. Heโ€™s a hard fighter and hopefully heโ€™s going to be part of the long term with BT.โ€

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