WHEN ENEMIES MEET

@BigDaddyBunce

Voice of boxing

ONCE upon a time in a Greek restaurant called the Phoenix Apollo, a place lost in an old east end, Mickey Duff would not look at, talk to or share calamari with Ambrose Mendy. He would, however, do a deal with him.

Duff was doing business with a man he hated, to finally agree a fight that nobody believed would happen. It was a rare meeting of opposites, but in their silence and absurdity they got the job done and Nigel Benn and Michael Watson had a fight.

There was a similar feeling of distrust and comedy a few years earlier in Charlie Magri’s sports