THE FIRST CENTURY
Matt Bozeat catches up with Mickey Helliet as he celebrates his 100th promotion
MICKEY HELLIET reckons he’s British boxing’s equivalent of Rockefeller! “When I was a kid, my dad used to explain business by quoting (American business magnate John D) Rockefeller,” said the 44 year-old manabout-boxing from East London.
“He used to say: ‘I buy an apple for a dollar, polish it and then sell it on for two dollars.’
“I didn’t know what my dad meant – until I became a boxing promoter!
“I take fighters who are classed as having five out of 10 ability and work with their trainers to help ‘polish’ them so that they can be presented as, and earn like, nine out of 10 ability-level fighters.
“But I wouldn’t put a fighter in a title fight if I thought he was out of his depth. I like to think most of my guys have given a good account of themselves.”
Over the last decade and more, Helliet has taken rough diamonds and polished them into contenders and champions. Take Darryll Williams… “Nobody was interested in Darryll when I took him on,” said Helliet, whose 100th promotion came on January 24 (see previous page).
“I paid over the odds to get him a shot at the Southern Area title against Richard Horton (in October, 2015) and after Darryll won inside a round, every promoter was ringing me wanting to work with him…”
Williams went on to win and defend the English super-middleweight title on Frank Warren shows and in Helliet’s opinion, he should be British champion.
The South Londoner was outpointed by Zach Parker for the vacant belt on a controversial split decision in November.
Helliet has also had Reading box-of-tricks Asinia Byfield and Essex cruiserweight Dupre in major title fights on television over the last year or so and, on Saturday, Philip Bowes meets Tanzania’s Benson Nyilawila for the vacant Commonwealth superlightweight championship on Helliet’s show at the York Hall.
“I used to be the man to go to if you needed a journeyman,” he said, “but I’ve got more contenders now. I like the journeymen, though. They tend to keep their feet on the ground more.”
Helliet has learned the boxing business from the bottom up, starting out as a teenage amateur. “Remember when Mark Breland came over to fight Lloyd Honeyghan [in 1990] and everyone was saying, look at this six-foot welterweight?”
“My amateur coach [Paul Rees] said: ‘That’s nothing. I’ve got a 60kgs fighter who’s six-foot-two’.” Helliet was pencil thin – but he could punch. On You Tube, there’s footage of him ironing out an opponent in only eight seconds and he said: “I had a quicker win than that. I ran out from the corner, let the right hand go and that was it.
“I stopped nine of my first 11 amateur opponents, but I broke both my hands and they still give me trouble to this day.”
After 19 wins in 23 amateur fights, Helliet intended
I LIKE THE JOURNEYMEN. THEY TEND TO KEEP THEIR FEET ON THE GROUND”
to turn professional, but a scan showed he suffered from hydrocephalus, or water on the brain.
“I hated boxing for a while after that,” he said. “If I walked into a pub and there was boxing on TV, I would turn around and walk out.
“I started making good money out of property, but I ended up being the most depressed I had ever been.
“There was a lot of stress and I didn’t trust anyone. I had to do everything myself and it messed my head up. I started counselling and they told me: ‘You are depressed, but every time you mention boxing, your eyes light up.’”
Helliet started coaching juniors at St Albans ABC. “You see these young lads getting bloody noses in sparring and you tell them: ‘Try this instead,’” he said. “When it works, it gives you motivation to keep going.”
Helliet made the switch to the pros and his first promotion was a dinner show at the Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square in 2005. Things haven’t always gone according to plan. Helliet once matched a pair of his journeymen against each other. Shaunn Watt and the late Bheki Moyo were without a win in 39 fights between them when they fought in December, 2011.
“I sat back thinking: ‘This was a good idea, after almost 40 fights without a single win between them at last one of them will get a win’,” he remembered. “It ended up being a draw.” Asked to name the best fight he’s promoted, Helliet is quick to find an answer.
It is Gavin Tait’s points win over Chas Symonds for the vacant Southern Area welterweight title at the Coronet Theatre in Elephant and Castle in September, 2011.
“I’ve had worse fighters than Gavin challenge for the British title,” said Helliet of the Sheerness scrapper. “But he was happy enough fighting on the road. He would fight whoever they put in front of him.”
Tait was full of fight and could sell bundles of tickets, a rarity says Helliet.
“Most good fighters can’t sell tickets,” he said, “and those who can sell tickets can’t fight. That’s one of the biggest problems in British boxing today and it’s about time the Board did something about it!”
Helliet is proud of his over achievers, fighters like Williams and Byfield.
“Asinia didn’t even win the Home Counties in the amateurs,” said Helliet, “and I helped him to a Britishtitle fight [against Ted Cheeseman] for good money that, going into the fight, a lot of people thought he had a good chance of winning.”
Byfield was beaten on points, but there was a happier ending for South Coast ticket-seller Floyd Moore, who gave Helliet one of his most satisfying nights.
“Floyd had lost to Johnny Greaves on his debut,” said Helliet, “and while we all know Johnny could fight, he only had two wins from 56 fights at the time.
“Floyd ended up getting a shot at the (vacant) Southern Area (lightweight) title on a Sky show – and beating a Matchroom fighter.”
It was some fight too, Moore outslugging Ryan “Crash Bang” Taylor in four rounds in December, 2013. More than that, Floyd was also well paid. “I want to walk away from this one day knowing nobody got hurt and they made the best money they could,” said Helliet.