Christmas cheer? Bah, humbug! Sharing a cup of wassail and crooning ?Auld Lang Syne?? Not hardly. The spirit of the season has not affected the continuing legal war between promoter Don King and Juan Diaz manager Willie Savannah.
The bad blood between the Diaz camp and King continues to worsen based on an interview I conducted Wednesday with the Houston-based Savannah.
?I am sitting here with a contract for Juan to defend the IBF title only in Cancun March 8 against Nate Campbell,? Savannah said. ?I got it last Friday and it is dated Dec. 18. King put a letter in there which told me we had to sign it immediately or that he would sue me and Juan in a New York court. He also said he would immediately cancel the Campbell defense.?
I don?t think Savannah was expecting a gift certificate for Macy?s from Uncle Don given their raging feud over when King?s promotional rights to the undefeated champion who also holds the WBO and WBA lightweight belts ends. King?s latest position is that Diaz owes him two more bouts and Savannah continues to insist that Campbell fight March 8 or not, the deal is dead as a doornail effective March 31.
?Our minimum is $1 million but I was tempted to accept the lesser amount. But that was only if it was made clear that we had no further obligations to Don after this bout, that the deal was over on March 31. But then Don started with the ghetto shit, putting sneaky things in there and that messed it up. I spoke to Juan and he said let?s not fight anyone and just let it run out on March 31. But we want to stay active.?
Asked for an example of ?sneaky, ghetto shit,? Savannah said the bout contract calls the fight an IBF mandatory title defense only and makes no mention of the WBO or the WBA. This made the manager suspect that King is looking to pry loose those two belts from Diaz?s waist so that ?the Baby Bull? does not move to greener promotional pastures with three world title belts.
?I have asked the IBF and the other two organizations to put something in writing,? Savannah said. ?We don?t want to ignore any of the groups and then find we got a title belt or more than one snatched away from us.?
As a second example of King trickeration, Savannah said a clause in the bout agreement kept the deal in effect for six months if either or both of the Cancun main eventers, heavyweights Oleg Maskaev or Sam Peter, are injured causing the March 8 date to be postponed.
?If Don had sent us a nice, clean contract, he?d have it on his desk signed already,? Savannah said. ?But he won?t do that. He?s always got to put some bullshit in there. He puts in a six-month clause and he puts in free negotiation periods, all bullshit.?
While many presume that, if free of King, Diaz will ink a long-term deal with Golden Boy, Savannah said he is considering another option which would keep he and his fighter much more independent. (GBP finished second to King the last time Diaz was looking for a promoter.) The obvious thought is, if they were broke clean from King, they would hold an auction with their free agent status and move on with the highest bidder.
?We don?t any more bullshit from anybody,? Savannah said. ?We are not beholden to anybody and what we might do is form our own promotional company. Then the only one I would have to take bs from is me! That could happen.?
On the King side of the ledger, agent Rick Glaser who brought Savannah and Diaz into the DKP fold said he thought a holiday break benefitted both sides.
?I was hoping for a real Silent Night,? Glaser said. ?You know what a Silent Night is, that is a rare night when Savannah is not crying about living up to a contract he and the fighter freely signed? I guess there is no Silent Night with Willie Savannah.?
And the bitter beat goes on. Deck the halls with?boughs of venom?fa, la, la, la, la.
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Savannah asked to correct a misimpression he believes possible opponent and “Galaxxy Warrior” Campbell has formed.
“Nate told someone I said said Juan was going to knock him out,” Savannah said. “I never said it and I wouldn’t say it. I don’t talk shit like that about guys Juan may fight. We know Nate is tough and we know that Nate would be coming to fight and give it his all. So I don’t know where he got that from.”
