IN the first part of my exclusive interview with Frank Warren, we discuss this week’s big Wembley show, Audley Harrison and more. Next week – Amir Khan!

How far can Derek Chisora go?

He’s had 11 fights and was out for a while because of his suspension. I think he is very capable and a very good fighter.

Derek was suspended for biting Paul Butlin, were you surprised to see him do this?

I couldn’t believe it, he was cruising the fight and it was a crazy, out-of-character thing for him, I can’t even explain it and I’m sure he can’t. I am sure he won’t do it again, he knows the consequences, and he now has a big opportunity to prove himself and show the fans that he is for real.

Why bring over Ignacio Mendoza for Kevin Mitchell?

Kevin won the opportunity [in his last fight] to fight [Michael] Katsidis and I think that will probably go out to purse bids. In the meantime, I want him to be busy and think this fight will keep him busy.

Kevin showed me a different side [against Breidis Prescott]. I’ve always worried that his heart might rule his head but in that fight he controlled his aggression and boxed against someone who we all knew was a dangerous puncher. Kevin didn’t lose a round and towards the end of the fight, if he had come on, I think he could have stopped Prescott. Kevin showed a lot of maturity and [trainer] Jimmy Tibbs has to take a lot of praise for that. Hopefully, if he comes through on the 13th, he can move on and I think he can beat Katsidis.

How do things stand on the Katsidis fight?

I think that one will go to purse bids. We’ve made Golden Boy an offer and they came back and asked for more [money], they haven’t made us any offers, but we hope to make it unless Katsidis moves off in another direction. We’ve had Michael over here before, when he fought Graham Earl. In that one, Graham was really in trouble and suddenly he threw a bomb and showed Katsidis’s vulnerability. Kevin has a boxing brain and that is the thinking behind wanting this fight.

You are putting Frankie Gavin in with the experienced Peter McDonagh; clearly you have a lot of faith in “Funtime”.

I’ve got a lot of faith in Frankie and James DeGale, in all of them [my fighters]. We’ve not gone down the road of bringing in any Latvians and whatever, the foreign opponents we’ve brought in for them have tried to make them fight and this is certainly the case as far as Frankie is concerned. This is a good fight for him as he’s one of those guys who will rise to the challenge.

He’s changed his style since turning from amateur, where he was more of a counter-puncher, he’s showing aggression, coming forward with body shots and is still showing a great boxing brain.

Has the TV situation gone beyond crisis point in recent times?

Sky are committed to boxing, ESPN may come into boxing but what we should focus on as an industry is putting pressure on the BBC, whether it is my shows or another promoter’s shows that get the coverage.

The BBC came up with the old chestnut that no-one wants to watch big fights in the early hours of the morning but you’ve got Formula One coming in at different times from across the world, and that costs millions, so they can’t say boxing is too expensive or not popular enough. I did big figures for my ITV shows a few years back, out-doing Match of the Day audiences, when we put Khan on at 11.30pm at night and averaged six-and-a-half million viewers for that time at night when you were lucky to get to a million normally. We need to kick the BBC’s a**e and get them onboard on this and get other broadcasters onboard as well.

Audley Harrison started his career with a vision of autonomy, a BBC contract and a cool million in his pocket, a few years later Audley was sent packing and the BBC pretty much turned its back on boxing. Do A-Force Promotions have to shoulder some of the blame?

When you sign a fighter, a guy who has just won an Olympic medal, and put him into four-rounders and make him the main event, it means there is no back up, no title fights. You’ll get away with it for the debut but after that you’ve just got a guy having four and eight round fights. There was no quality control over the opponents – it was a disaster.

The public stopped going to the fights, the venues were almost empty by the end, and it was a disaster for boxing. I could see it happening and the saddest thing is that it knocked the BBC out off boxing.

Audley needed someone to put some challenges in front of him rather than him picking and choosing who he fights, he needed someone in front of him who could bring on his career and put him into a position where he fights for the titles; in the end he didn’t even fight for the British title. So it became a farce and the people upstairs at the BBC, who were on his bandwagon to start with, put a line through it and blamed boxing when it wasn’t boxing’s fault to start with – there was no quality control.

You gave Audley a number of chances; why the change of heart?

He came to me and we talked, to be honest I did have some sympathy for him so I thought, “Let’s give him a go”. We put him in meaningful fights and it didn’t work out for him. I was sad and felt a bit sorry for him but all of a sudden he wins Prizefighter, which isn’t the British, Commonwealth or European title, and then suddenly starts slagging everyone off again. It is crazy, I don’t understand the man, and he now fights [Albert Sosnowski] for a European title, he may win that, but who knows where he’ll go then. For me, he is a guy who doesn’t show 100 per cent commitment in the ring, there is a story for every loss.

If you look at Audley you see this big guy who looked in great condition in some recent fights and you are saying to yourself, “For f***’s sake, throw that jab and move forward”. He has all the advantages but just can’t do it.