I wrote a brief remembrance back in March of the boxing promoter Mickey Duff for the Guardian, where it ran two days ago. You can
link to it here, but here it is as written:
In the 1980s I dealt
with many European boxing promoters on behalf of America's ABC
Sports, and while Mickey Duff might not have been the easiest with
whom to deal, he was the most entertaining. Virtually every
negotiation went down to wire; I got Mickey to sign the contract for
the McGuigan-Pedroza fight at Loftus Road while we sat at ringside
during the preliminary bouts. Unlike many, once the deal was signed,
Mickey was good to his word. He was also the only person who has ever
accused me of telling the truth.
One summer I rang
Mickey to see if a certain fighter might be able to fill
an opening we had for a July programme. Mickey said his guy needed
more time to prepare, but could I do August? I told him we had a date in
August, but it was tentative and likely to be cancelled. When the
August show was definitely off I rang Mickey out to courtesy to tell
him. 'OK,' he told me. 'We'll take the July date'. 'We've already
booked another fight,' I told him, and he exploded, asking how I could do that
when I'd already offered it to him. 'Mickey,' I reminded him, 'you said your
guy couldn't be ready.' 'Yes,' he replied, 'but I didn't know you
were telling the truth'. I do miss the boxing world sometimes, and
the boxing world will miss Mickey.
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