Boxing: Frank talk and no punches pulled

Lennox Lewis' former manager is tub-thumping on the campaign trail. Alan Hubbard listens in

Anyone who thinks sport and politics do not belong in the same arena should spend a couple of hours being ear-bashed by Frank Maloney.

London's black-cab drivers, who tend to employ their rear-view mirrors as megaphones, are not in the same league as the little man from Del Boy territory when he elects to opine on matters which may range from the psyche of Lennox Lewis to the foibles of Ken Livingstone.

Currently the volume is turned up because Maloney, the ex-manager of Lewis and putative mayor of London, has a book to sell, and it's not a bad one, either. No Baloney, it declares on the dust jacket of the biography (Mainstream, £15.99), and while this may smack a little of the essential hype of his profession, it is a revealing, well-chronicled read about the life and frequently troubled times of Maloney himself and the wheelings and dealings of big-time boxing. It turns over a few stones and fascinatingly opens up some of the ledgers.

For some time before its publication there had been gymnasium rumours about sensational revelations from the court of King Lennox, in which Maloney garnered as much nose-tapping inside gen as Paul Burrell did from Diana. Lewis's learned friends insisted on scrutinising the proofs, but Maloney claims there were no enforced cuts. "I didn't set out to badmouth anybody, I just wanted to tell the truth about my 12 years in the Lennox Lewis team. I wasn't going to say bad things about him because I have no reason to. There may have been a few contractual things that they didn't want made public, and stuff that went on behind the scenes, but I just wanted to be open about it."

Theirs was a Little and Large act which ended on an unfunny punchline, but Maloney's counterattack is aimed not so much at the man he nursed to become Britain's first world heavyweight champion of the 20th century but those camp followers he believes turned Lewis against him.

"I was amazed at some of the things I've seen in boxing and those who get involved in it. How egos become such a big thing and people start believing their own hype. I tried to get it spot-on."

However, one chapter of the biography's serialisation in The Sun was pulled - because it contained comments about Frank Bruno's ex-wife, who spat in Maloney's face following the fight with Lewis, and was due to be published on the day the newspaper had signed the woman they billed as "Loyal Laura" to give an insight into her husband's mental anguish. Maloney says: "I found her very unladylike, unpleasant and abusive."

The Peckham-born Maloney, 50, has moved on to become a partner with Frank Warren in their ever-expanding Sports Network empire, managing and promoting some of Britain's best young fighters. He is also embarking on a couple of political campaigns, one in boxing and the other which he hopes will result in an opponent in the red corner getting a bloody nose.

His boxing battle is aimed at eliminating the titular confusion that has bedevilled the sport. "When it comes to world titles, boxing is in a mess. It needs to be sorted. Ideally, there should be only one governing body, like Fifa in football. They say it would be impossible to bring this about, but I don't see why not. All it takes is for the world's top promoters and TV networks to get together and say, 'This is what we want, and to hell with the alphabet boys'. Who needs these sanctioning bodies anyway? All they do is take money from the sport. Their sanction fees are just unbelievable. The money Lennox spent on them probably could solve the famine problems of a Third World nation. People are getting fed up.

"I noticed that Sky now don't even bother to announce some of these lesser labels as world championship fights. If I had a fighter again at that level, I would say to them: 'Stick your title. We're just going to fight the best out there and call them world championship fights'."

Some may say that he has less chance of winning that one than becoming mayor of London. But Maloney is nothing if not sanguine, which is why that dreadful Union Jack suit has been sponged and pressed ready for the hustings. He is standing for the United Kingdom Independent Party (Ukip), which sounds rather like one of those boxing prefixes he derides. It also sounds suspiciously BNP-ish, so is he, er, of the far- right tendency? (After all, he does support Millwall.) "Nah, no chance. Anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't have anything to do with that lot. Sure, I'm a patriot and I'm not particularly pro-Europe but that's as far as it goes. We have many ethnic minorities in the party and, anyway, how could I be confused with the BNP when I have three black guys on my campaign team?

"Listen, I really think I can win it, and I have to believe that. Self-belief has always been one of my great strengths. London is in such chaos at the moment. It needs sorting. Look at some of the things Livingstone does and gets away with. I haven't got a lot of time for politicians. People talk about boxing, but what about politics? That's a really dirty business. There's so much corruption there. I've always found that when you talk to politicians they won't look you straight in the eye. You can't believe what they are telling you. I've already started making a few speeches. You are judged on what you say, and I'll be promising to deliver on my policies."

These, he says, include law and order, improved transportation, scrapping the congestion charge, stopping the sale of playing fields and full support for London's Olympic bid. "But I don't believe Londoners should have to pay for the Games through their taxes, because it is Britain that will benefit from them, not just London."

Maloney threatened to stand as an independent last time, but did not go through with it because he was told he would have no chance when Livingstone quit Labour. Now, he says, it is different, because the mayor is ready for taking, reeling on the ropes like a battered fighter. "And that's not baloney." 'Course not, Frank.