BOXING’S odd couple have been parted following the death of Frank Hopkins. The veteran cutman from Portsmouth was a few days away from his 79th birthday, but he lived to see the fighter he backed since he was a schoolboy become British, Commonwealth and European champion.
Hopkins died six days after Ryan Garner outpointed Reece Bellotti in Bournemouth to add the British and Commonwealth 130lbs belts to the European title. It was the first time Garner had boxed as a pro without Hopkins in his corner.
Wayne Batten, Garner’s coach and manager, said: “I’m pleased he got to see Ryan win all the belts.”
Frank had described Garner as “the best prospect I’ve worked with in 30 years”, since he turned over at 18 years old in 2016.
He would take Garner sparring with Josh Warrington and Carl Frampton and say: “How many teenagers can do that?”
Hopkins called himself and Garner the sport’s ‘odd couple’ – “One of us is good looking and charismatic and the other one’s got no looks or charisma at all” – and they had an up and down relationship.
Hopkins told me earlier this year: “I have had Ryan since he was 16.
“I took him to Frank Warren and told him: ‘This is the best 16-year-old amateur in the country.’
“We have had a lot of heartaches together. I have sacked him more than once. I remember grabbing him and throwing him out of the gym.
“He was a nuisance when he was a boy, but he’s a man now. I was a nuisance when I was a boy before I became a man.”
Hopkins was talking ahead of Garner’s points win over Salvador Jimenez for the vacant European championship in Bournemouth in March.
That would prove to be their last fight together. I rang Frank a week or so before he boxed Bellotti and he didn’t pick up.
That wasn’t unusual. He was often too busy with his horses or his children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren to talk. What was unusual was that he didn’t ring back.
Frank had been troubled by his heart for a while and doctors told him not to fly to Saudi Arabia for the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk rematch last December.
He had been with Fury for his previous four fights. Their first fight together was against Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in April 2022.
Hopkins told me how the link-up with Fury came about.
He said: “I’ve been in the same changing room as him – and we’ve had a few beers together, as well.
“I was working with Terry [Flanagan] at a fight in Manchester and when I went back to the hotel, Tyson was there with his dad, his wife and Billy Joe Saunders.
“I started chatting to them and we ended up taking a crate of beer up to my room.
“We stayed up all night drinking and talking about boxing and horses.”
Frank was good company. He made many friends in boxing after his nephew gave him a way into the business.
“I was always a big fan of boxing,” he said. “I’ve always made decent money as a car dealer and horse dealer and if there was a big fight in the States, I would go.
“That would be my holiday, going to watch Lennox Lewis or Prince Naseem [Hamed].
“I went to watch Lennox, and Frank Maloney was in the bar one night.
“I told him my nephew, Tony Oakey, had won the ABAs and he was going to win them again. He gave me his card and it went from there.
“Frank said: ‘Why don’t you do Tony’s cuts?’
“I asked Dennie Mancini to teach me and he said: ‘Why would I teach you my job?’
“I told him I was only going to work with Tony and he said: ‘Come and sit alongside me’, and that’s what I did.
“I did that for six months and then Dennie retired and gave me all his kit.”
Others Hopkins worked with include Carl Johanneson, Kevin Mitchell, Flanagan and the Everton Red Triangle stable in Liverpool, including current WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball.
Hopkins said once: “I’ve had fighters’ jaws fall in half, their eyes shut and even their back go – and I manage to calm them down.”
Hopkins said a couple of years ago that Jamie Moore-Matthew Macklin in September 2006 was the best fight he worked on.
“It was a humdinger,” said Hopkins of Moore’s 10-round win.
“And three years later I was in Atlantic City with Jamie Moore when he was training Macklin.
“What a turnaround – but that’s boxing.”
