By Terence Dooley

Bristol’s Danny Butler’s unsuccessful British middleweight title challenge to Darren Barker has given rise to some interesting rumours about the relationship between Butler, who was stopped in seven by Barker, and Hatton Promotions, who promoted Danny’s English title fight with Darren McDermott, which took place just two weeks prior to Butler’s November 28th tussle with Barker. 

Gareth Williams, the CEO of Hatton Promotions, spoke exclusively with BoxingScene in a bid to dispel any notion that Butler was dropped as a direct result of the Barker contest.  “We’ve had a relationship with Jane Couch [who has promoted Danny in the past] as she promoted a few shows in Bristol under the Hatton banner,” explained Williams. 

“We thought that Danny was a great fighter with lots of potential so when Danny was put into the English title fight with Darren McDermott, which went to purse bids, we took Jane’s advice and successfully won that purse bid.  Danny fought Darren on Matthew’s [Hatton] undercard [on the 13th of November] and was beaten narrowly in a very tough fight.”

He continued: “I then heard rumours that Jane wasn’t happy with us so I contacted Danny’s manager Tex Woodward to ask if the rumours about the camp being unhappy with certain aspects were true, and I told them that if they wanted to walk away they could do.  One of the rumours floating about was that we would drop him [Butler] if he lost to McDermott, and we wanted to quell that. 

“Danny took a tough fight against a guy [McDermott] who looked much bigger on the night, and Danny is still a young fighter, so we wanted to make clear that we had shows coming up in January and February and we were more than happy for him to fight on one of them.

“They said they wanted to fight on both nights and if we wanted to give Danny fights they’d be more than happy to take them.  On the Thursday before the [Anthony Small-Thomas McDonagh] bill in Wigan I was out for dinner in Chester and got an email from Tex at about half nine basically saying that we had told them if they wanted to walk away they could do, and that they’d got Danny a title fight and had taken it.  There was no suggestion of anyone asking us we wanted Danny to take the fight with our blessing, so as far as we were concerned they had terminated Danny’s contract. 

“I spoke with Danny on the Friday morning and asked him what was going on.  He wasn’t aware that his contract had been terminated on his behalf.  I told him that we wouldn’t have taken the fight on a days notice.  He’d been in a very tough fight two weeks earlier and for someone with as limited boxing knowledge as myself it wasn’t the right move for him, irrespective of the twelve grand he could have earned – he could have earned that in two fights with ourselves. 

“If we wanted to we could have taken legal action to stop the fight but we want to work with people who want to work with us.  So we decided that if they didn’t want to work with us they could do what they like.  In no way whatsoever did we terminate Danny Butler’s contract, it was terminated by Tex Woodward who told me that we’d said if they wanted to walk away they could do, and they’d gone and got him a title fight,” concluded Williams.

He then confirmed the dates and content of the emails exchanged between himself and Woodward; these emails corroborated Williams’ version of events; Williams was adamant that people should know the truth surrounding the split with Butler.

“My email was quite clear - I wouldn’t hold Danny to the contract if he didn’t want to work with Hatton Promotions.  So I told them to do what they felt was best for Danny,” reiterated Williams. 

“When I found out what was going on there was no suggestion that we sacked Danny.  We weren’t consulted about the Barker fight, if they’d have asked for our advice, and Danny was hell-bent on taking the fight, we’d have negotiated more money.  They just went ahead and made the fight without any input from us whatsoever.  I am happy to put a story out saying that we didn’t sack him – we were told that they wanted his contract back.”

Tex Woodward, who manages Butler, answered our call and took up Gareth’s story.  “You got me on the hop there,” laughed Woodward when asked about the Butler situation. 

“Things weren’t going quite as they should have done”, he continued, “fights were promised that didn’t happen.  There was quite a lot of trouble with the Hatton camp apart from us and we had a good offer from Hennessey - it was an offer I couldn’t really reject.  I spoke to Gareth and he gave me the ‘Ok’ to take the fight, as the contract was now null and void.  Although Danny lost he did a very good job for a young chap, he didn’t get hurt, got a good payday and can come again.

“Gareth didn’t want Danny to go but he said ‘Ok’ and considered the contract null and void, not in those exact words but with that meaning.  It was a semi-amicable agreement.  A recent article in a local paper made it seem like there was a big barney but that was a load of old rubbish.”

So, where next for Butler?  “I’ve just emailed Hennessey sports, they did want to hold him for a year for three fights but now he’s lost I’m not sure if they’ll want to hold him, so I’ve asked them if I can take offers from other promoters,” revealed Woodward.

“I’m just waiting, everything is up in the air.  As a professional boxing manager for many years I believe that you should go for the first possible fights that are fifty-fifty, not just sit back and try to pick your shots.” 

“It was fantastic, nobody could turn the offer down”, he said when talking about the last-minute Barker assignment, “it was cleared with Gareth and I emailed him to thank him for releasing Danny from his contract.  There has been no row - that was not true at all.  We had an amicable disagreement, it was politely sorted out and I think we’ve got to agree to disagree.”

“It is good that Gareth has confirmed all this,” concluded Tex.  “There is a saying in reporting, ‘Never let the truth get in the way of a good story,’ and many people follow this.  If the Hattons want to work with me again then great – I’ll work with any promoter in the country for the good of the boxers.”

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