By Stephen Davis: It is with sadness that I have to report the sad death of British boxing promoter Mickey Duff. He died in his sleep, early Saturday morning.
Duff worked with many of the British Boxing greats over the years including Frank Bruno, John Conteh, Joe Calzaghe and Alan Minter, to name a few.
Promoter Barry Hearn lead the tributes, when he tweeted “Sorry to hear that Mickey Duff has died, RIP legendary promoter.”
Duff was born in Krakow Poland on 7 June 1929, his family emigrated to England in the late 1930’s in order to escape the Nazis. Duff turned professional, boxing from aged 15, retiring aged 19. After doing several jobs including being a salesman. He teamed up with Jarvis Astaire and Harry Levine to work in boxing. Duff was the matchmaker. He was inducted to the international hall of fame in 1999.
There two things that I remember about Duff, in the 80’s when I first fell in love with the sport. Firstly his involvement in the ragamuffin man Lloyd Honeyghan’s huge upset win over Don Curry in Atlantic city in 1986, in capturing the undisputed welterweight championship of the world. At the time Curry was considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world and nobody gave Honeyghan a chance, but in that fight, Honeyghan gave Curry a beating, nearly knocking him down in the 2nd round, later a battered and bleeding Curry would quit on his stool at the end of the sixth round. For me Curry was never the same fighter after that defeat. The celebration of Honeyghan and Duff long live in the memory.
The second thing I remember was again in 1986 when John Mugabi unsuccessfully challenged Marvellous Marvin Hagler for the undisputed Middleweight championship in Las Vegas. Mugabi had Mickey Duff in his corner. Mugabi would be counted out in the 11th round, after giving Hagler all he could handle, the thing I remember was inbetween rounds, when Duff would plead with Mugabi to keep going and believe in himself that he could beat Hagler, at one point Duff could be heard saying “John, John – if you don’t listen to me, listen to the father”. Magubi had a member of the church in his corner. Duff was using every angle to pull off the upset, even Devine intervention. It was a great fight during a golden age and Mickey Duff was part of that. He and others helped me fall in love with the greatest sport on earth and he will be sadly missed. Rest in peace Mickey Duff.
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