Don King Accuses the WBA of Foul Play
On March 21, boxing promoter and infamous living legend Don King, of Don King Productions, won the purse bid for Bryan versus Dubois. Normally, King would have then arranged a date for his fighter, Regular WBA heavyweight champion Trevor “The Dream” Bryan (22-0, 15 KO’s), to face UK import Daniel “Dynamite” Dubois (17-1, 16 KO’s). Sadly, one month of time has melted into oblivion and no fight date has materialized. This has left many in the boxing world scratching their heads.
Well, it turns out that Don King took issue with how the WBA meant to split the purse. In fact, he was so put-off by the proposed percentages that King opted to instigate the current protest which has led to delays. The Cleveland native explained that the would-be 55/45 split in Bryans favor would not be acceptable. In its place, King was only willing to move forward with a 75/25 split for the Dream and is willing to head to court over the matter as he explained to Fight Hype.
“We’ve got a fight, but they have to come up with that [75/25 split]. I can’t be no 45/55 because we’ve got the champion.”
THE OLE SWITCH-EROO (SLEIGHT OF HAND)
Let King tell it, the numbers that he is throwing around were not simply plucked from thin air. He explained that when Bryan was the interim champion, he was relegated to the Smurf short-end of a 75/25 split versus Emmanuel Char. Now, King is accusing the WBA of arbitrarily changing their own rules half-way through a negotiation.
“We don’t have a date because we protested the fight from the very beginning. Something is going on that doesn’t quite meet the eye. When I had the interim champion, which was Trevor Bryan, we were going to fight Manuel Charr. We had the interim champion because we had beaten BJ Flores, and we appealed to the WBA for a 55/45 purse split. They categorically said we got to go by the rules.
They gave me the ruling of 72/25. But what they did to me [with Bryan versus Dubois] is give me a 55/45 [cut] because somebody asked for it. Then one day, they sent me a letter that says, ‘March 3rd, you got 180 days to do the fight, and you got sixty days for the negotiations’. The next day, I get another saying the purse bid March 14. I was like, ‘which one is it going to be?’
We protested that because something in the rules changed overnight when nobody really had the opportunity to negotiate…When we had the interim champion, the rules said the champion gets 75, and the challenger gets 25. All of a sudden, the champion gets 55, and the challenger gets 45, so we’re going to court on that.”
PHOTO FINISH PLEASE!
Ideally, this matter will be wrapped up in short order as it only stagnates the careers of the two fighters involved. It is certainly an interesting fight for Bryan and Dubois with huge implications for their immediate as well as long term futures. So, let’s stay tuned to see what’s next to come in this ever-complicating negotiation process.
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By: Bakari Simpson
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