Matchroom’s head of boxing, a key figure in organising Anthony Joshua v Oleksandr Usyk, began as the office tea-boy 13 years ago
On Saturday night, amid the bedlam of a sold-out crowd of 60,000 as Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua make their extravagant ring walks at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Frank Smith will keep scanning the arena in his quietly relentless way. Four months of grinding work will not be done as Joshua and Usyk prepare to trade blows in an intriguing and lucrative world heavyweight title fight which Smith has been negotiating, planning and organising in his role as the head of boxing at Matchroom Sport.
“I tend not to watch the fight much,” Smith says. “I’m never really happy. I walk around the venue saying: ‘Don’t like that, change it, move this …’ At the end I say: ‘That another one done. We learnt a little more and move on to the next one.’ Saturday is huge but next week it’s Milan, followed by Liverpool, America, Mexico, London. We’ve got a show every weekend until 18 December.”