By Frank Warren

WHEN relationships break down in sport, especially boxing, there are always two sides to the story.

So a recent interview with Nigel Benn in Boxing News made me think about my dealings with boxers' representatives.

And it got me wondering if my side of the negotiations were communicated to the boxer correctly.

The Dark Destroyer has been in the news a lot of late, what with the TV documentary around the tragic Benn v Gerald McClellan fight on February 25, 1995.

Benn said in the Boxing News piece: "I was meant to fight Michael Nunn and Don King wanted to knock £100,000 off my purse because Nunn wasn't a puncher.

"But Nunn, I knew, was real slippery. I said I'm not fighting him for less money. They didn't like that so they said 'If you don't sign for Nunn, we're bringing in the mini-Mike Tyson'.

"Telling me that Gerald was a mini-Mike Tyson was only going to do one thing to me. It got my goat up, I was mad.

"I'm not one of those guys who's scared of facing someone violent so that's how it all started."

The only discussions regarding Nunn facing Benn concerned the second Benn v Chris Eubank fight.

My involvement in that match-up was to negotiate the British TV rights with ITV. The clash involved three promoters — King, Barry Hearn and myself.

King's involvement was that he would deliver American TV based on Hearn stating he had contracted with the winner of Benn v Eubank to meet his boxer Nunn in a unification match.

Showtime agreed to this and the rematch took place at Old Trafford on October 9, 1993.

Before the fight, I told the Press that the winner was to fight Nunn. I then received an irate call from Benn's manager Peter DeFreitas, who said he knew nothing about the Nunn match-up.

King and I challenged Hearn, who said it was nonsense, but DeFreitas was adamant and asked Hearn to produce the contract to fight Nunn. He never did.

The fight was a draw so Hearn said Eubank had no obligation to fight Nunn. Benn then signed with me.

As for Benn's statement 'If you don't sign for Nunn, we are bringing in the mini-Mike Tyson', I never said that to him and neither did King.

In fact I was the only one who dealt with Benn, through DeFreitas.

After Eubank, Benn beat Henry Wharton and defended his title against Juan Carlos Gimenez.

Meanwhile, McClellan had moved up from middleweight to become Benn's No 1 mandatory challenger.

King promoted McClellan and I promoted Benn, so we did a deal — and I got the fight to London after a lot of hard work.

This was certainly not what Benn was being told by DeFreitas. Benn then vowed to deal with me personally in future, which he did.

The article also made me reflect on my dealings with representatives of Naseem Hamed, Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan.

After my dealings with Khan's management, I vowed to make sure my views were given directly to fighters and not misinterpreted by intermediaries — rightly or wrongly.

Benn started and ended his pro career with me and I don't believe he made up the Boxing News story — but who told him this story?

He’s a New Man

HIS fight record may be exemplary but the same cannot be said for Manny Pacquiao's congressional attendance record in his native Philippines.

Figures reveal that in 2011 he turned up for only 27 of 59 session days.

Wife Jinkee has now given him a kick up the backside to improve his public image and Manny has dropped late nights and gambling so he can get up early to throw himself into more political, social and religious projects.

I WAS delighted to win purse bids for the rematch between George Groves and Kenny Anderson for the British super-middleweight title.

It looks set to be a real grudge fight with Anderson looking to avenge his only loss.

I GOT a buzz being in Cardiff to promote Nathan Cleverly's homecoming defence at the Motorpoint Arena on February 25.

If he beats Tommy Karpency, the Cardiff City Stadium would be a great venue for a summer unification bout.