Here's a rundown of events that have taken place over the past few months:
Taylor signs up for the Super Six. He gets knocked out in brutal fashion. A lot of fans question whether or not he should stay in the competition, considering that he has lost 4 of his last 5 fights.
DiBella then states that he will no longer promote Taylor because he doesn't think he should participate in the rest of the tournament, and Taylor refuses to follow his advice on the issue. This signals to Showtime that Taylor wants to continue badly enough to break his relationship with someone who has always been close to him.
DiBella's decision (which he made sure to release in as public a way as possible) puts pressure on Showtime, because it means that people say "even the guy's promoter is refusing to have him continue any further, despite the money he'd receive, surely this proves that the TV company are immoral?" It also makes DiBella look like a real nice guy.
Faced with a boxer who claims that he wants to continue, and a set of fans who question whether or not he should be able to, Showtime, eager to protect the image of the tournament that they've worked so hard on, alledgedly offer him a pay-off to withdraw, which he accepts.
In order to sort out a replacement, Showtime have DiBella fighter Allen Green face Haymon fight Sakio Bika.
DiBella can now say that, due to Taylor following his advice and withdrawing from the Super Six, he will become his promoter again. So DiBella gets to look like a good guy. He also gets to salvage Taylor's career, because he can give him some easier fights and maybe bring him back to world level against a lesser fighter than Andre Ward (Steiglitz? Sartisson?). Of course, Taylor would've made DiBella a lot of money by continuing in the tournament, but this isn't really an issue because Taylor's likely to replacement is Allen Green, who is promoted by...Lou DiBella!
What do you think? I'm not saying that this is neccessarily what happened/will happen, but the way things unfolded does make me wonder.
Taylor signs up for the Super Six. He gets knocked out in brutal fashion. A lot of fans question whether or not he should stay in the competition, considering that he has lost 4 of his last 5 fights.
DiBella then states that he will no longer promote Taylor because he doesn't think he should participate in the rest of the tournament, and Taylor refuses to follow his advice on the issue. This signals to Showtime that Taylor wants to continue badly enough to break his relationship with someone who has always been close to him.
DiBella's decision (which he made sure to release in as public a way as possible) puts pressure on Showtime, because it means that people say "even the guy's promoter is refusing to have him continue any further, despite the money he'd receive, surely this proves that the TV company are immoral?" It also makes DiBella look like a real nice guy.
Faced with a boxer who claims that he wants to continue, and a set of fans who question whether or not he should be able to, Showtime, eager to protect the image of the tournament that they've worked so hard on, alledgedly offer him a pay-off to withdraw, which he accepts.
In order to sort out a replacement, Showtime have DiBella fighter Allen Green face Haymon fight Sakio Bika.
DiBella can now say that, due to Taylor following his advice and withdrawing from the Super Six, he will become his promoter again. So DiBella gets to look like a good guy. He also gets to salvage Taylor's career, because he can give him some easier fights and maybe bring him back to world level against a lesser fighter than Andre Ward (Steiglitz? Sartisson?). Of course, Taylor would've made DiBella a lot of money by continuing in the tournament, but this isn't really an issue because Taylor's likely to replacement is Allen Green, who is promoted by...Lou DiBella!
What do you think? I'm not saying that this is neccessarily what happened/will happen, but the way things unfolded does make me wonder.
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