Frank Maloney knew from a fairly early age that he was never going to be the heavyweight champion of the world, but by the time he was 40-years-old he had done the next best thing as he guided Britain’s Lennox Lewis to the WBC title.

It was a triumph for both men just four years after their improbable partnership began in the spring of 1989, and it rightly earned them a place in boxing history.

For Maloney it was also a further step up the world boxing ladder and he is now an established big name player in the sport on both sides of the Atlantic. But away from sport and the world of boxing Frank has become a popular and well liked personality with the British public.

His interest in politics began at an early age and although boxing has always played a significant part in his life, Frank’s ambitions are not limited to achievements within the sport.

‘ Politics has always fascinated me,’ says Maloney. ‘I like the idea of being able to do something that will make a difference and help people. But I would never get involved unless I believed in what I was doing.’

Frank dabbled with the idea of standing as an independent in the first ever elections for the Mayor of London because he felt so passionately about what has happened to the City he grew up in. The chance to try and make a difference has now come along again and he intends to make the most of it, in his own inimitable fashion.

It is all a far cry from his days as a boy in Peckham, South London, when for a while it looked as though he might have ended up looking after a church instead of managing world champions and promoting boxing shows.

Frank is the English born son of Irish parents, and has two younger brothers, Eugene and Vince. He grew up in South London and as a youngster flirted with the possibility of becoming a Catholic priest, after being impressed by tales from visiting missionaries to his school.

But a short stay in a seminary soon changed the young Maloney’s mind, and after sampling life as an apprentice jockey, Frank finally settled on a career in catering.

By that time the 5ft 3ins Maloney had already resigned himself to the fact that he was not going to become a professional footballer after being turned down by Wimbledon following a trial with the club. An avid Millwall supporter since the age of three, Frank loved playing football when he was a youngster, but his other great sporting passion as a kid was boxing.

He began to fight as an amateur when he was still at school and continued his career in the unpaid ranks when he started earning his living as a chef.

In all he had 67 contests as a flyweight, but by his late teens he had already started to train other fighters and became involved in organising amateur tournaments, including a contest for the young Frank Bruno.

Maloney’s talent for training and promoting eventually led to him forming a partnership with Frank Warren in the late 1970’s as the two new boys moved into the professional side of the sport to take on the established fight figures of the day.

After splitting from Warren in the early 1980’s Frank Maloney drifted away from the sport, but was then persuaded to return as a manager and was soon promoting his own shows from the mid-1980’s.

Frank worked hard and learned his trade on the small hall circuit and also became a matchmaker, but it was in the late 1980’s that things began to change for Frank. It was a trans-Atlantic telephone call early one morning in February 1989 which really changed Frank’s life. The caller told him about a British-born boxer who had won the super-heavyweight gold medal for Canada at the previous year’s Olympics, his name was Lennox Lewis and he was looking for a manager.

Lewis had been in Las Vegas talking to all the big name managers and promoters in the fight game, and there could have been few people who would have given Maloney any chance at all of eventually signing the sought-after heavyweight.

But after getting financial backing from Roger Levitt and his company, Maloney shocked the boxing world by persuading Lewis to sign with him and return to England to begin his professional career.

The little and large of the boxing game began their improbable partnership in June 1989, with the 6ft 5ins Lewis stopping Al Malcolm at the Royal Albert Hall. Frank’s careful guidance of Lewis eventually led to a showdown with the dangerous Donovan Razor Ruddock in October 1992 as part of an elimination series for the heavyweight title.

By this time Maloney had found a new financial backer for Lewis, called Panos Eliades, after Levitt’s organisation collapsed.

Lewis demolished Ruddock in two rounds and when Riddick Bowe refused to fight the Briton, Lennox was awarded the WBC belt. His first defence was against Tony Tucker in Las Vegas seven months later in a fight promoted by Don King.

It was the first time Frank had really been in direct opposition to King, who launched a verbal and written tirade against Lewis’s manager. But despite famously being called a ‘mental midget’ and ‘pugilistic pygmy’ by King, it was Frank who won the hearts of the public and media as he smiled his way through the whole experience, staying focused on the job in hand as Lewis recorded a points win.

Maloney’s name and fame grew within the boxing business, but his forthright and lively personality also ensured Frank became a well known character outside of the sport.

Apart from his association with Lewis, he also built up a large stable of successful fighters, and divided his time between the hectic life of being the heavyweight champion of the world’s manager and also looking after and promoting fighters on a domestic level in the UK, producing several world champions.

When Lewis lost his world title to Oliver McCall in 1994, Maloney was part of the team who fought long and hard to earn a re-match and a crack at the title for the vacant WBC crown in February 1997, but it was Lewis’s triumph against Evander Holyfield in November 1999 that was so special to both the fighter and his manager, as Lennox became undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, a little more than 10 years after his first professional fight.

Maloney continued to manage Lewis until their famous and fruitful partnership came to an end in November 2001 after 12 years together.

Although the management of Lewis was a big part of his professional life, it was by no means the only part of it and Maloney finds himself just as busy and involved in boxing as he has ever been. He is once again working alongside Frank Warren, and continues to manage some of Britain’s most promising boxing talent.

Because he has never been afraid to voice his often outspoken opinions, Maloney is a sought-after guest on TV and radio shows. He writes a weekly newspaper column and is a popular after-dinner speaker. The possibility of becoming London’s next Mayor is something he takes very seriously, and his ability to make a difference to the City he loves is his biggest motivating factor.
Frank lives in Chislehurst with second wife Tracey and their two daughters Sophie and Libby. He also has another daughter, Emma, from a previous marriage.