Tim Bradley is obviously looking to spread his wings and fly away from Big Gary Shaw’s promotional nest.
But Shaw, who claims Bradley has been offered an 80/20 revenue split with the tracksuit-wearing promoter. has a legal chokehold–having first refusal, last refusal and matching rights–on the head-butting expert from Palm Springs.
If yo want to be a wiseguy you can ask, why would Big Gary want to give TB 20 percent of the Bradley promotional pie for a July 23 big bout against Golden Boys’ Amir Khan. But it’s not like that it’s Shaw taking the smaller percentage.
“Should I give Bradley 100 percent? Should I work for free?” Shaw asked Wednesday when I spoke with him.
“I found Bradley fighting in a lumberyard for Thompson Boxing, don’t forget that.”
Plainly, Shaw, the fighter and manager Cameron Dunkin are not working in harmony and the Khan bout won’t go down on the date HBO seemed to desire. Asked when his hold on Bradley expires, Shaw demurred. It has been reported consistenly to be June 30 when his pact terminates.
Shaw said the 80 percent for Bradley “could be in exess of $1.3 and I don’t think it would be any less. It’s a terrific deal, with Bradley taking 80 percent. I’m the same guy who got Tim $1.1 for Devon Alexander in January. It’s not easy these days to extract this kind of money.” Advertisement
As far as Top Rank’s Bob Arum telling Lem Satterfield he’s got a hands off Bradley approach, Shaw said the lip service is not surprising.
“I had (attorney) Leon Margules hit him with a tortious interference legal warning letter a day or so ago,” Shaw said. “I know Tim went to see Mosley against Pacquiao and I know they (Top Rank) were all over Bradley.”
In the meantime, Shaw is a bit euphoric over his new IBF middleweight champ from Australia, Daniel Geale.
Shaw indicated he’s speaking to Sergio Martinez promoter Lou DiBella about a late in the year Geale-Martinez matchup.
For his part, DiBella is looking to put the June 4 Sebastian Zbik-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. title bout winner in against the Wild Bull from the Pampas but is skeptical that Arum would ever let young Chavez fight the hard-hitting Argentinian.
And so it goes on the promotional not so merry go round.
