AS he prepares to leave Frank Warren after 17 years of service as his Head of PR, Richard Maynard grants Boxing News an exclusive interview about his career-to-date. Behind the scenes of boxing is where some of the most interesting stories occur, as this fascinating chat reveals.
We’ve seen you running around at fights, occasionally looking stressed at press conferences. What is the most difficult event you’ve been involved in?
Frank takes most of the stress by organising the fight in the first place. But for me, without a doubt, it’s got to be Billy Joe Saunders-Chris Eubank Jnr. Oh jeeze. Absolute nightmare. Trying to get Eubank Jnr to turn up to press conferences and fulfil media commitments. In all the 17 years, that was the most difficult! It was the complete lack of co-operation. Let me make it clear that Eubank Jnr was a delight to work with – once he turned up – but his father was an absolute control freak. It made it difficult to put the press conferences together. They would want silly and petty things like Billy Joe must be seated before they’d agree to walk in.
It’s deflating and heart-breaking sometimes because it’s a fantastic fight that you want to get out there. You want the head-to-head pictures, the banter between the two fighters. And then you’ve got Billy Joe, the consummate professional, always there on time, and then you’ve got Chris Eubank who, five minutes before, says, ‘We’re not coming’. All you want is to get the fight promoted.
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