Deon Potgieter boxing
Day two of the New York trial that will shed light on the heavyweight division was completed on Tuesday, with the court scheduled to sit again on Monday. Promoter Cedric Kushner and former heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis are suing Don King, Hassim Rahman and Rahman’s managers, alleging interference and breach of contract.
Although Rahman’s credibility has been damaged by ditching Kushner his promoter for the past five years and signing with King, the judge has said she will rule according to what is said in the contracts and not what was uttered verbally.
This was in response to Rahman’s claim that he could not recall saying he was aware of a rematch clause with Lewis. A video of Rahman at a press conference in South Africa soon reminded the current universal heavyweight world champion that he did in fact acknowledge such a clause.
Rahman admitted that he had allowed Kushner to negotiate lucrative fights on his behalf with HBO and ShowTime television networks after his upset victory over Lewis at Carnival City in April, even though he felt his contract with Kushner had expired in October of last year.
Kushner argues that the contract was automatically extended due to Rahman being inactive for a large period of time because of injury.
A key element in whether Rahman was a free agent or contracted to Kushner at the time of the Lewis fight, rests on the payment of $75 000 that was due to Rahman prior to the bout, but was handed over to Rahman’s manager Stan Hoffman only after the bout.
Kushner claims this was agreed as Rahman and Hoffman were in South Africa when the payment was due and both parties decided to wait until their return to the United States to conclude payment. Although Hoffman signed for the cheque and thereby acknowledged the continuation of the arrangement with Kushner, Rahman refused to accept the cheque. Until then Kushner had almost exclusively been dealing with Hoffman as opposed to directly with Rahman.
Bolstering the confidence of the Kushner camp is the fact that on Monday he received a favourable decision in a previously existing lawsuit against King concerning the latter’s interference with the bout between Rahman and David Tua.
Although the bout did eventually take place, it was postponed for two months after Rahman claimed he had injured his hand something it is believed King asked him to do.
The case was originally dismissed, but following an appeal by Kushner it was unanimously decided by the US Supreme Court that the case was valid and would be tried at a later date.
Rahman admitted that King had been wooing him since 1998, giving him cheques totalling close to $200 000. A victory for Kushner in this case would not result in the champion returning to the Kushner fold and therefore again becoming a South African-controlled interest.
“I don’t see us representing Rahman again after all the water that’s flowed under the bridge,” says Kushner’s local partner Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves. “At this stage if we win the case a financial settlement looks far more appealing.”
This week Lewis made an appeal to the judge for an immediate rematch with Rahman, because at 36 his talents were deteriorating. He said he would be happy to fight Rahman in August or September. Asked whether he would be willing to replace David Izon as Rahman’s challenger on the Beijing bill set for August, Lewis said: “No, I don’t fight on undercards, especially not on the undercard of an old man [Evander Holyfield] and a guy nobody’s heard of [John Ruiz].”
Lewis’s promoters have themselves now filed a suit trying to prevent King from luring Lewis to his fold. “It is a real possibility that King will sign Lewis,” says Berman. “They’ve been seen chatting and laughing together in the cafeteria during the trial.”
Although Lewis has said he would never fight under King, the fact is he wants to regain his former glory and if signing with King looks the way to get the opportunity, he may well do it.
Mike Tyson’s attorneys were also present to ensure their fighter’s position as World Boxing Council number one contender is not jeopardised. They agreed, however, that if a Lewis-Rahman rematch were to take place in August, then Tyson would still be able to get his mandatory title fight early next year.
David Tua also withdrew his case against the International Boxing Federation after securing a guarantee that he would get his opportunity to challenge for the world title by no later than April next year. That is providing Tua wins his elimination bout against former World Boxing Organisation champion Chris Byrd later this year.
Kushner needs to win this case in order to maintain credibility as a big-league promoter. To lose control of the most prized sports title in the world, without repercussion or reward, would indeed weigh heavily against him in future dealings.
A victory for King would establish that the man has no peers when it comes to closing the deal and send out a message that what the Don wants, he gets. A loss for King would need to be accompanied by a huge financial forfeit on his part to send out any message of substance.
Although he may have to fork out a few million dollars more in compensation and the like, at this stage it looks like the heavyweight crown will be resting on one man’s head and that is Don King’s.