Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions is gearing up for some possible big-time fights in 2021 with some of his top clients in action, and he’s got some other intriguing cases out there like Anthony Yarde and Daniel Dubois, too, both of whom have somewhat uncertain futures at the moment.
Warren spoke with iFL TV about Fury-Joshua, the idea of Usyk-Joyce, and much more.
On the WBO ordering Demetrius Andrade and Liam Williams
“I should think we’ve got maximum a week now to work out, to try and do a deal. And it doesn’t look like, to be quite honest, we’re going to do a deal. I think the purse bids will probably be within the next two weeks or so.”
On Anthony Yarde’s future
“We had a conversation last week and we’ll be resuming the game this week with another chat. There’s a few things to consider. Obviously Anthony wants to go out again and I want to get him out again, provided we agree on everything.”
“There was no mention of him leaving Tunde.”
“(A rematch with Lyndon Arthur is) a fight everybody would certainly like to see again. It was quite a close fight. I’d like to see it again, I think it’d be a great fight to see again. It’s up to the two guys. There is a rematch clause in the contract, so it’s there to be done and there to be delivered. It’s whether it’s the next fight or the fight after. Lyndon’s been put into an eliminator by the WBO for their title.”
On the Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua talks
“Talks are ongoing. Once it gets to a stage where we’ve got something we can all look at, a draft on a contract, then all the respective parties will look at it, make their comments on it, and hopefully we can get it over the line. It’s the fight everybody wants to see.”
“At the moment, there’s a will from everybody to make it happen, and between us all, we want to make it happen.”
“I don’t see us getting any live gates until they get this vaccine program sorted out. ... I can’t see, being quite honest, any bums on seats, us getting live audiences in until May, if we’re lucky.”
“It’s not an American fight, we’d love it to be in the UK, but there are a number of territories outside of the UK that are interested in staging it. Whoever comes up with the most money will get it.”
On Oleksandr Usyk vs Joe Joyce
“The WBO have said they’d like to do that fight as an eliminator. We have no objection to that and I don’t think Usyk has. There’s been some preliminary talks, and we’ll see where we go from there.”
“I hope (it happens), it’s a good fight. And whoever wins it, and I think Joe’s — based on his last performance, Joe’s looking good. It puts the winner, which will be Joe, in a tremendous position. The eventual winner of the two fights between Tyson and AJ would have to defend or vacate their belt against Joe Joyce, if he comes through, or Usyk, if Usyk were to win. But I fancy Joe.”
“I like Usyk, I think he was a tremendous cruiserweight. The two fights I’ve seen with Chazz Witherspoon and Derek (Chisora) — you know, I think a big guy like Joe, I mean, Joe is a naturally big man. And you’ve got Usyk who’s come up as a cruiserweight, what’s he, 33 or 34? It’s quite unusual for guys to do it that age. Normally, if he was a cruiserweight at 27 or 28, I think he could grow into being a heavyweight. But he’s not a natural heavyweight. Whatever he weighed for his last fight, you know he could probably still make cruiserweight if he needed to. To beat a big guy like Joe, he’s gonna have to really turn it on, in my opinion. You’ve got to fancy Joe as being the favorite in that fight.”
On Daniel Dubois’ future
“He’s got to see another specialist this week, and then we’ll know more. The objective is, provided he’s fit and able to box, we get him out and get him out regularly so he can get back in the swing of it.”
“I don’t know what date he’s going to be fighting. It’s not just when he fights, it’s when he can resume training. That’s in the hands of the specialist. Daniel will take his advice.”
“He’s down mentally. He was very — he felt if it hadn’t been for the injury, he only needed to win one of the last two rounds and he would have won the fight. But that didn’t happen. It is what it is. It’s in the past. You can’t change the past, the past is what it is. You’ve got to move forward and learn from it. What I want to happen for him is he comes back and the eye is 100 percent, he can get back in the groove again, and learn from that last fight. That’s great experience for him. He’s more than capable, I believe, of coming back and coming back strongly.”