Geoff Thompson MBE, one of the brightest and best of British sports administrators, is the latest to join the ranks of lads' dads.

His boy Jordan is one of Frank Warren's talented newbies, a six foot, six inches 23-year-old, an unbeaten cruiserweight with dynamite in his fists. That is why they call him "troublesome". 

But troublesome is exactly what his old man promises not to be. Like Chris Eubank Sr he is a former world champion - though his fighting forte is karate, not boxing. But unlike Eubank Sr he vows not to meddle in his son's ring career.

Jordan has revealed how he converted to boxing from tennis - where as a teenager he was one of Britain's top ten - because he felt his face did not fit. He maintains it was the wrong colour as he is of mixed race. 

The putrid whiff of subtle racism eventually overcame him and forced the young hopeful to abandon his dream of fulfilling what was an undoubted potential.

Thompson does not apply any topspin when looking back on his experiences, ones that resulted in him kicking all sport into touch for 18 months at the age of 18 before his fighting instincts were rekindled and channeled towards a career in the ring.

"There was a big lack of opportunity and chances for someone like me," he said. "I didn’t come from a background without opportunity, but I wasn’t an upper class kid, even though I am well spoken and my mum and dad have brought me up with manners.

"I would say I wasn’t accepted in the British tennis scene.

"For sure my face didn't fit, no. As much as I would try and make it fit, that was a big struggle for me. Even in school, being mixed race with a black dad and white mum, that brings challenges in itself.

"Sometimes I would be not black enough to fit in with this group and then sometimes I would be too black to fit in with that group. I’m just in between aren’t I? The best of both kind of thing."

He certainly comes from a talented family. His mum Janice is also a former karate world champion, sister Francesca is a trained ballerina and brother Luke, also an accomplished youth tennis player, is about to start an internship in New York’s Wall Street.

Having given up on courting his tennis dream, Thompson himself admits he could have found himself teetering on the brink of wrongdoing were he not to have found an alternative outlet for his energies.

"I think combat kind of found me, that is how I would best describe it, I didn’t go looking for boxing," he said. "I was brought up in a combat family and my mum and dad always did a bit of pad work with me and taught me how to punch and defend myself.

"One thing I have learned from my dad is that you have got to play the game and play it smartly. Don’t let the game play you and I felt that was beginning to happen as I was giving up tennis and not doing anything. I felt I was becoming a product of the system.

"With my dad doing the line of work he does (he is the long-serving executive chair of the Manchester-based Youth Charter for Sport) I was like 'wait a minute, this is becoming a bit ironic'. I feel like boxing came and grabbed me and said I was not going down that path."

I have known Geoff and his lovely family for years. He is not only one of the best but most honest sports leaders I have ever encountered.

For over two decades now he has run the Youth Charter for Sport, a non-Government funded body which does admirable work in taking sport into communities which are often the exclusive domain of the underprivileged and unruly.

He has the ear of many prominent politicians - not least he Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow who is always keen to offer him Parliamentary hospitality for his Youth Charter projects. This includes March 23 when The Youth Charter celebrates its 24th anniversary by launching its 2016 Games Legacy Impact Report at the House.

This reflects a four-year look post 2012 at the issues in the health and physical activity lifestyle challenges of young people and communities from some of the most disaffected and disadvantaged inner city, subur­ban and rural areas of the UK.

In my view Thompson has done more than anyone in Britain to support an antidote to the culture of guns and gangs in troubled areas such as Moss Side and Liverpool's Toxteth.

Five times a world karate champion, there is no-one you'd feel safer with walking the meanest of streets.

I believe he should have been head of Sport England or UK Sport but, as with Jordan and the tennis clique, his face didn’t fit, either. Not because it is black, but because he speaks his mind and asks awkward questions. And that our sporting establishment do not like.

Thompson knows his son will not encounter prejudice of any kind in boxing, a sport which has pioneered multi-multiculturalism.

Nor has the 59-year-old original karate kid any need to get his kicks vicariously through his son.

Jordan has his first fight under Warren’s stewardship and new trainer Haroon Headley on the massive Manchester Arena card on April 8, which heralds the TV union between BoxNation and BT.

Father-son relationships in boxing are not always endearingly harmonious. Ex-British world champions Ricky Hatton and more recently Amir Khan have encountered fractious family feuding.

Thompson Sr vows this will not happen with Jordan. While he will be as visible at ringside as Eubank Sr always is - that is because at six foot, six inches himself he is as tall as his son - he certainly will not be in his corner. At least, not physically. Nor financially.

"Yes, I’ll be cheering him on but I will not be telling him what to do," he said. "That's not my job. It is not my style to interfere.

"He now has a great promoter in Frank and an excellent trainer in Haroon, who I first encountered through the Youth Charter.

"I'll leave the boxing matters to them.

"I know how fit and strong Jordan is because I’ve worked out with him in the gym - for my benefit, not his.

"Would I spar with him? You must be joking - there’s no way I’d risk taking a right hander from my son!"

Mum Janice will be at Manchester ringside as well as Big Daddy Geoff. The fact that both are former world karate champions surely accounts for Troublesome’s inbuilt fighting instinct.

Such is Jordan's punching power - since he turned pro last year four of his five opponents have lasted just five rounds between them - that you might say his boxing career is already shaping up to be what he had hoped to achieve in tennis: A Grand Slam.