A profession that doesn’t lend itself to popularity and public acclaim is that of a professional boxing promoter. 

The stereotype handed down in boxing folklore is of a smooth-talking, garishly attired con man who straddles the line between legality and illegality. 

Someone who views fighters as pieces of meat to be exploited until they outlive their usefulness, whereupon they are discarded to make way for the next victim of poverty who arrives desperate for the escape route promised but rarely delivered by success in the squared circle.

Professional boxing is a business and promoters are first and foremost businessmen. At times the flack they receive is deserved, at other times it’s not. 

In Britain Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn are currently engaged in a fierce competition over fighters and successful shows. 

Over the past two weeks both have promoted sold-out shows compromising a feast of boxing talent. 

The platform both men provide for young up-and-coming talent, along with the opportunity for established champions and contenders to earn decent paydays, is impressive.

The most important achievement they have accomplished is keeping boxing alive in an age when it scarcely if ever appears on terrestrial television. 

This doesn’t mean they should be confused with social workers — they would not be in the business if it was not personally lucrative for them to be so — but without Warren and Hearn professional boxing in this country would be on its knees, denying the opportunity for those talented and determined enough in the ring to achieve for themselves and their families financial security.

Having said that, no discussion on the role of promoters would be complete with a word from the daddy of them all, Don King: “When we started, it was based on lies. It’s changing now. There are no secrets in the business. 

“You’ve got to come with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s becoming very confusing.”