By Mitch Abramson

With around 20 seconds left in the first round, Tyrone Brunson, an undefeated fighter with 17 fights, 17 first-round knockouts, and a world-record on the horizon, unfurled a series of punches that backed up his opponent, Jamie Waru, causing the referee to intervene.

The fight, on June 8 was stopped with four seconds left in the first round, allowing Brunson to tie Edwin Valero for the most first-round knockouts (18) in boxing history.

With each knockout, the legend and curiosity of Brunson seems to intensify.  

"The best way I could describe Brunson is that he’s a little Mike Tyson, back when Tyson was invincible and nobody thought they could beat him," said Al Low, chairman of the boxing commission in Michigan, where Brunson has fought 12 times. "I saw him knock some guy out in 17 seconds, and that includes the count. I'm hoping this kid doesn't fall by the wayside and that boxing doesn't eat this kid up. I've been in boxing 25 years, and this kid will be a future champion."

Philadelphia’s Brunson (18-0, 18 knockouts) is scheduled to fight an opponent to be named on Saturday at the Iowa Chez Paree music hall in Carter Lake, Iowa. But Bobby Goodman of Don King promotions, which recently signed Brunson, shot down the notion that he will be appearing in the Hawkeye state.

“Don King isn’t promoting any shows in Iowa,” Goodman said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “The show we have on October 13 is the Diaz vs. Diaz show in Chicago. I’m not sure what the other show is about.”

If the fight falls through, it will be another in a string of fights involving Brunson that have been cancelled.

The wonder kid with the flashy record and the power in both hands is stuck in a promotional rut, stalling his assault on the record books.

"He’s not going to be fighting anytime soon," Ron Remus, his co-manager said in late September. "It’s an unfortunate situation, but we can’t do anything until it works itself out."

Brunson, 22, is certainly not the first fighter to sign with two different promoters at the same time, but he may be the only present fighter to sign with two promoters and two separate managers simultaneously.

On June 29, Brunson penned a contract with Don King, even though he was already signed with another promoter, Edward Mendy, an attorney and the chief financial officer of Lion Heart Boxing Productions, which was formed in 2001 and claims to have paper on Brunson for the next three and a half years. Mendy said he has promoted Brunson’s last nine fights.

Minutes before Brunson and his manager, Dave Bowers, a booking agent for King, signed with King in July, Brunson informed Bowers he was already signed with another manager from Detroit- Ron Remus, Remus and Bowers said in a joint-phone interview.

Then, ten minutes after he signed with King, Brunson informed Bowers that he was already signed with Mendy, Bowers said.

So, Brunson is currently signed with two promoters and two managers.

"I’m done handing out funds to him," Remus said in late September. "When he gets his act together, and this thing gets resolved, then we’ll pick things up."

The managers have worked out an amicable arrangement with each other, but Brunson’s promotional agreement remains a topic of concern.

Brunson was scheduled to fight on July 7 in Mississippi, on July 19 in Newark, New Jersey, and on August 4 in Tulsa, Oklahoma for Lion Heart Productions, but all three fights were lost due to contractual issues.

“The business of boxing is tough,” Brunson said. “I really don’t want to talk about it, but I’m still dealing with people I don’t want to deal with. I just have to focus on my boxing and not worry about the other stuff. It will feel good to finally get in the ring again on Saturday.”

Coming from the world of tax law, in which everything is fairly humdrum, Mendy has found boxing to be a parallel universe.

“[In boxing] nothing is written in stone,” he said on Tuesday. “I try not to get too excited about fighters because the sport is so unpredictable. Nothing is guaranteed to you in boxing. Tyrone’s an impressionable kid. Today I might have Tyrone, and tomorrow he might be fighting for King.”

Nonetheless, Mendy is pushing ahead with the fight on Saturday, even if it might attract legal action from King.

“We tried to work things out, but we couldn’t,” Mendy said. “They wanted to me to sign over Tyrone. That’s insulting to me, and we decided to go ahead with the fight.”

In an earlier interview with Mendy, he said: "We’d co-promote him if that’s possible. We’ve had conversations with King and there’s a sense we could work out an amicable solution. If not, we’ll defend our right in court. As an attorney, I like the cards I’ve been dealt. Just because Don is in the picture, and he’s a big fish, doesn’t mean that we’re going away."

Brunson’s opposition has been startlingly weak and unusual. He knocked out debuting Lee Hunter on June 14 in New Zealand, flooring him three times. Brunson knocked out Tony Watson, who weighed 209 ½ pounds, according to Boxrec.com on May 5 when Brunson weighed 165 ½ pounds for the bout.

He also beat Guy Parker who was 1-11-1 at the time. Parker had been knocked out at one point five times in his career and started his career ignominiously, getting knocked out four straight times. He stopped David Johnson, who had been knocked out in six of his last seven fights.

“I know I have to start fighting better opponents,” Brunson said. “After this fight, I’m going to start calling out some names. It will be time to step up and start fighting on ESPN and Showtime. I can take criticism, and I know what kind of fighter I am. I’ve been in the gym and I feel ready. People think that all I do is bang, but I can box too. Fans are going to be surprised when they see me.”

"He definitely has power," said the promoter Lou DiBella, who has seen him fight. "But that’s not the way I would develop a fighter. Have you seen some of the schnooks he’s beaten? We don’t even know if he can go four or eight or ten rounds yet. The jury is still out on him. He’s a good kid, but it’s still too soon to tell what kind of a fighter he’ll become."

Goodman added: "His list of opponents is pretty underwhelming. I don’t like labeling fighters a stiff or a tomato can because anyone who travels up those four steps has courage, but he’s fought against guys who have done what they were supposed to do. After saying that, having 18 first-round knockouts is saying something. Almost any fighter looking to survive can if he wants to. He can move around and do a lot of things, so it’s still quite a feat what he’s done."

According to Mendy, Brunson is still an unpolished product in need of grooming.

"He’s still young and a bit immature," Mendy said. "He has a couple of flaws that we’re working to correct. He’s been down a couple of times in his career [in sparring], and one of the concerns is the possibility that he may have a weak chin. But we’re patient. We want to see him develop. We’re not in this to make a quick buck."

He added: "His opponents have been carefully picked. If King puts him with the wrong fighter, there goes all the time and money we invested in him. It’s important to get the record and the 19th win and then to put that behind us and move on. But, if he’s not guided right, he could be the second-coming of Mike Tyson, where he’s all talent but he doesn’t realize his potential. Tyrone’s the real deal. If he’s in shape, nobody will beat him. He has natural speed and good boxing skill, but if he’s not in shape, all the other stuff won’t matter."

In the end, if the match on Saturday doesn’t take place, the fans will be deprived of seeing an intriguing, young fighter, and Brunson will suffer for making some rash promotional decisions.

"Well, I think Tyrone needed the money, he smelled the money," Remus said. "He figured he could get away with signing more than one contract, but you can’t. But I don’t hold any grudges. This is not the first time this has happened in this sport. The only person it really hurts is the fighter himself. I think the next time he knocks someone out, this will all blow over and it won’t matter that he went through all this. That’s the nature of sports. I still want to take Tyrone to a world championship. He just has to choose a corner, and not sign 2-3 contracts."

Mitch Abramson has covered boxing for The New York Times and the Village Voice and is currently a staff writer at Newsday.