‘Britain’s hardest man was my cousin – it is due to him I’m a boxing legend’

A legendary boxing promoter has revealed HOW notorious bareknuckle brawler Lenny McLean kickstarted his career.

Frank Warren, who counts Tyson Fury and Chris Eubank Jr among his stable, appeared on Peter Crouch’s podcast where he made the revelation.

Frank explains that the nightclub bouncer and bar-knuckle fighter known as “Britain’s Hardest Man” was his cousin. He had gone along with another relative to watch him fight another famed scrapper, Roy “Pretty Boy” Shaw in 1978.

But it was clear almost from the outset that Lenny “didn’t train an inch for the fight”. The burly bouncer only managed to throw one punch before “his legs went”.

After that he just laced his arms though the ropes and challenged the fearsome East Ender to do his worst. Shaw duly obliged. Frank recalled: “Shaw must have hit him about 50 times, and he just slid down the ropes at the end and that was it.”

READ MORE: Wild life of ‘Britain’s hardest man’ who battered 18 men alone and was pals with Krays

Frank and his uncle Bob went into Lenny’s dressing-room afterwards, and Bob wasted no time in giving Frank’s cousin a stern talking-to. “My uncle gave me real b*llocking,” he explained. “He said ‘What is the matter with you? why would you let someone do that to you?’”

After learning that Lenny and Roy were set for a re-match, Bob was determined to organise some proper training.

Frank continued: “My uncle then said ‘If you’re you’re going to fight someone, you’re going to with a trainer,’ so he got Freddie Hill who used to look after the Finnegan brothers – really good, quality fighters, Chris and Kevin Finnegan – and Freddie trained him.

But when it came to the fight itself, Freddie wasn’t able to stand in Lenny’s corner, because it was an unlicensed fight and Freddie was signed up to the British Boxing Board of Control.

“So come the week of the fight he’s got no cornerman. On the night of the fight my Uncle Bob and me were his cornermen.” Frank admitted that he had no idea what he was doing at the time, but that fight – which Lenny managed to win – proved to be a turning-point in his career.

“It just progressed from there,” he says, “and the next minute I’m promoting all these fights.”

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