Tweet
Gamechanger alert!
Today, you can label this a scorchingly hot boxing rumor.
In a short time, I believe it will become known as fact.
I'm hearing from a solid source close to Don King that the soon to be 79 year old promoter's Charm Offensive campaign as to undefeated superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. has paid off.
Word from St. Louis is that King, seeing a wedge and psychological alienation between the mercurial Mayweather on one side and his adviser Al Haymon and his loyal lieges at Golden Boy Promotions on the other, has gotten the fighter to ink a four fight deal.
Mayweather himself has been tossing around a “$100 million” figure as to his price tag to cut a deal on paper with King. Now it looks King's romancing of Mayweather, first in South Florida and this weekend in the Missouri city, has achieved the legendary King's objective.
Here's one round card lady who knows where to stand for valuble TV face time, right between Don King and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (DKP Photo, David Martin Warr)
No word on how the $100 million will be delivered to Mayweather but, based on the $22 million he earned for a May 1 victory over Sugar Shane Mosley, you can figure L'il Floyd gets a big first payment of about $25 million. I am also informed the $25 million per is a guaranteed figure with possible upside to be added for a blockbuster like Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao.
King has been quoted as saying Mayweather-Pacquiao could gross a record $200 million.
“This puts a magnificent cap on Don's career and now Floyd probably finishes his career with DK at his side. It also adds some needed lubrication with Bob Arum and makes the Mayweather-Pacquiao super bout much easier to drive to contract for next spring,” my source, who was inside King's hotel suite much of last week, said.
Those cheers you hear are coming from Arum and his Top Rank crew who truly believe making Manny-Floyd happen will be much simpler with King in the driver's seat for Mayweather.
Many a tear has to fall, it's all in the fight game, and the tears are flowing from the eyes of Oscar de la Hoya and Richard Schaefer at GBP which worked hard for Mayweather but never got the boxer to sign a promotional contract with them.
Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum look like third party beneficiaries if it's true that Floyd Mayweather has put his boxing career in the sagacious hands of veteran Don King
You can be sure that the powerful Haymon has “paper” on Mayweather but as an adivser, not as a promoter. It would seem that Haymon could not prevent or hamper King's deal from pushing forward.
Adding credence to the red hot rumor is the fact that Mayweather showed up to be King's ringside guest for the HBO “Boxing After Dark” card at the Scotttstrade Center and that he refused a request for a live interview from the prime cable network.
Looming large now is the question of what legal obligations Mayweather has to HBO.
When King and his then superstar Mike Tyson didn't like their treatment by HBO, King threatened to bolt and go across midtown Manhattan to rival Showtime.
King wasn't bluffing as he took Tyson and the rest of his boxers over to Showtime where there was a long and prosperous relationship twixt promoter and that cable network.
It's also possible that, if HBO does not have a longterm lock on Mayweather, that King could approach Comcast or other companies with Mayweather in mind.
If he does have Mayweather in tow, this move has to go on the lengthy list of King's major career master strokes.
Just by signing Mayweather, King has put himself back in the big leagues where he has historically been through four decades in business, most of those years butting heads with Arum.
King could not be reached by telephone Sunday night.
http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-Boxin...oyd-Mayweather
Today, you can label this a scorchingly hot boxing rumor.
In a short time, I believe it will become known as fact.
I'm hearing from a solid source close to Don King that the soon to be 79 year old promoter's Charm Offensive campaign as to undefeated superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. has paid off.
Word from St. Louis is that King, seeing a wedge and psychological alienation between the mercurial Mayweather on one side and his adviser Al Haymon and his loyal lieges at Golden Boy Promotions on the other, has gotten the fighter to ink a four fight deal.
Mayweather himself has been tossing around a “$100 million” figure as to his price tag to cut a deal on paper with King. Now it looks King's romancing of Mayweather, first in South Florida and this weekend in the Missouri city, has achieved the legendary King's objective.
Here's one round card lady who knows where to stand for valuble TV face time, right between Don King and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (DKP Photo, David Martin Warr)
No word on how the $100 million will be delivered to Mayweather but, based on the $22 million he earned for a May 1 victory over Sugar Shane Mosley, you can figure L'il Floyd gets a big first payment of about $25 million. I am also informed the $25 million per is a guaranteed figure with possible upside to be added for a blockbuster like Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao.
King has been quoted as saying Mayweather-Pacquiao could gross a record $200 million.
“This puts a magnificent cap on Don's career and now Floyd probably finishes his career with DK at his side. It also adds some needed lubrication with Bob Arum and makes the Mayweather-Pacquiao super bout much easier to drive to contract for next spring,” my source, who was inside King's hotel suite much of last week, said.
Those cheers you hear are coming from Arum and his Top Rank crew who truly believe making Manny-Floyd happen will be much simpler with King in the driver's seat for Mayweather.
Many a tear has to fall, it's all in the fight game, and the tears are flowing from the eyes of Oscar de la Hoya and Richard Schaefer at GBP which worked hard for Mayweather but never got the boxer to sign a promotional contract with them.
Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum look like third party beneficiaries if it's true that Floyd Mayweather has put his boxing career in the sagacious hands of veteran Don King
You can be sure that the powerful Haymon has “paper” on Mayweather but as an adivser, not as a promoter. It would seem that Haymon could not prevent or hamper King's deal from pushing forward.
Adding credence to the red hot rumor is the fact that Mayweather showed up to be King's ringside guest for the HBO “Boxing After Dark” card at the Scotttstrade Center and that he refused a request for a live interview from the prime cable network.
Looming large now is the question of what legal obligations Mayweather has to HBO.
When King and his then superstar Mike Tyson didn't like their treatment by HBO, King threatened to bolt and go across midtown Manhattan to rival Showtime.
King wasn't bluffing as he took Tyson and the rest of his boxers over to Showtime where there was a long and prosperous relationship twixt promoter and that cable network.
It's also possible that, if HBO does not have a longterm lock on Mayweather, that King could approach Comcast or other companies with Mayweather in mind.
If he does have Mayweather in tow, this move has to go on the lengthy list of King's major career master strokes.
Just by signing Mayweather, King has put himself back in the big leagues where he has historically been through four decades in business, most of those years butting heads with Arum.
King could not be reached by telephone Sunday night.
http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-Boxin...oyd-Mayweather
Comment