By Rick Reeno

The old saying is that when it rains, it pours. Such is the case in the recent developments surrounding the proposed middleweight title bout between undisputed champion Jermain Taylor and top rated challenger Ronald "Winky" Wright.

In a story published by the St. Petersburg Times on Monday, it was first revealed that Wright fired promoter Gary Shaw. The sudden dispatch of Shaw came on the heels of finalizing contracts for a June showdown between Wright and Taylor, scheduled for the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Shaw was able to convince HBO to pay $6.5 million for the fight.

Reports quickly surfaced of a backdoor meeting between HBO's Ross Greenburg, Wright, Winky Promotions partner Chris Lighty and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. Neither Shaw, Taylor promoter Lou Dibella nor Jim Wilkes, Wright's advisor, knew anything about the meeting. Shortly afterwards, Wilkes resigned as Wright's advisor.

"That's where everything blew up," Shaw said. "Ross Greenburg told Winky that the money HBO put up was for a 50-50 split. That's an outright lie and that is part of the litigation that is going on right now. That was never the case. The split was 55-45, and Lou DiBella can tell you that."

DiBella feels the blame lies more with Wright, rather than HBO or Greenburg.

"I was shocked when Wilkes and Gary called me," DiBella said. "I don't believe he scheduled a meeting with Schaefer, Winky and all them. The most important thing was to make the fight. Why would Ross do anything to jeopardize the fight from happening? I think he (Greenburg) got sandbagged.

"Winky signed with me a little over a year ago and I got $100,000 settlement to release him. And then he went to Don King and he left King and then he went to Gary and he left Gary. He was screaming that he was worth $5 million dollars, then he wanted 50-50. I was concerned all along."

Greenburg was also contacted and stated the following: "I cannot comment on this matter at the present time. A statement will be going out with respect to the situation"

Rumors went rampant over the possibility of Wright going forward with the Taylor fight by teaming up with Golden Boy Promotions to co-promote the event, reports that Shaw says are not true.

"Yes, that has been reported, but I can tell you that's not true," Shaw said.

Why the meeting actually took place is still up in the air, depending on who you ask, and which side of the fence they stand. There have been allegations of Wright and Golden Boy coming together to make a deal to promote future fights.

"I think Ross Greenburg is star struck by Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya," Shaw said. "Why wouldn't Ross Greenburg state in the meeting, once Winky said, 'I'm represented by Jim Wilkes,' to get Wilkes on the phone? Why, when you know contracts are out in my name, would he not call me after the meeting and tell me what happened? You don't even have to tell me what happened, just tell me what was said.

"They are saying that I'm not the promoter. How about calling me Saturday, calling me Sunday, calling me Monday? I have an e-mail from Ross Greenburg that said, 'I would have called you, but I couldn't.' He is the president of HBO Sports. What do you mean you can't? Who told you can't?

"Everyone knew I was in Las Vegas with Jim Wilkes, the attorney, who also did not know this meeting happened and we negotiating with sites. How embarrassing is that? I have to call the president of Caesars, the president of the Mandalay Bay and say, "Look guys, I offered you this fight, but I just found out that I don't have this fight.'

"If Ross would have said, 'We have spent an enormous amount of time negotiating this fight. All the contracts are out, including Jermain Taylor and including Lou DiBella. Everything has been done with the WBC. I can't talk to you about this fight, but I can talk to you about another fight after this one,' why would he then go and say the money put up was 50-50, when everyone knows that is an absolute lie?"

Subsequent reports in the media quoted Wright, as stating that Shaw was never his promoter for the fight, but actually a co-promoter with his promotional company Winky Promotions.

"There are some semantics going on there," Shaw said. "I did not have a contract with Winky. Jim Wilkes, his attorney and adviser, and I went up, with Winky's knowledge, to HBO, to do this deal. There is no dispute about that. He knew everything that was going on every step of the way. It's not as if he didn't know I was there. Every letter I sent to the WBC were sent over to Wilkes, his adviser and his attorney, and sent over to Winky. My negotiations with DiBella, Winky knew everything. I have four executed copies from HBO and DiBella on this fight."

DiBella agreed with Shaw's recollection on the negotiations for the clash between Wright and Taylor.

"Gary is being completely honest, everything he says is true with respect to the negotiations of this fight," said DiBella

A lot has been said and disputed with respect to Wright and Shaw being co-promoters, rather than Shaw being the sole promoter for the Taylor meeting. Shaw shed some light on the promotional structure for the event.

"He can be the whole promoter, I don't care, as long as I get paid," Shaw said. "Everybody knows Gary Shaw. I don't need to hang a GSP banner for someone to know me. Legally his promotional company is not licensed. It doesn't have a license. In Nevada regulations, you need a license to do a fight there and that is where he wanted the fight to be. Unless you are licensed, you can't even have your name on a poster. That's fact."

DiBella also commented in similar fashion when asked about the promotional structure of the fight and who the rightful promoter is.

"I have no one to negotiate with. Winky Promotions is not licensed in any state in the country. He has no licensed promoter," DiBella said. "I'm not going to keep Jermain Taylor on ice or paralyze my fighter or my company because Winky is in turmoil. And I'm not renegotiating a deal I finished. Gary is not my best business friend. He made an excellent deal for Winky and that deal was better than what Winky would have received at purse bid, and I'm not going to do any better ever. We finalized the contracts on Monday.

"I would be a witness that Gary had authority to do this deal. I asked, and not just Gary. Winky Promotions doesn't exist. They have no license in any state. I checked on it because I can't do a contract with him as a co-promoter."

Wright was contacted by BoxingScene, but did not want to comment at the present time on the recent statements made in the press by Shaw or DiBella.

"I don't want to comment on what they are saying," Wright said. "I have a few other things going on. Right now I have no comment on anything with that situation."

With all of the turmoil and money involved with the situation, litigation is a strong possibility, which would further delay a bout between Wright and Taylor from happening. Shaw has already put HBO on notice. There is no official word as to other parties involved with the situation being put on notice.

"There are no lawsuits that I know of as of yet, but they (HBO) have been put on notice and talks are going back and forth between my attorney, Judd Burstein, and HBO," Shaw said. "HBO knew that I was the promoter of record for the fight. It was all my work product and they never said anything to Schaefer, Chris Lighty, but did say that the money put up was a 50-50 deal, which was an absolute lie. It caused Winky to bolt and there maybe a case against Golden Boy as well. As of now, only HBO has been put on notice and everything else in the hands of my attorney, Judd Burstein."

DiBella stated that he and Taylor would not wait around for Wright to make up his mind or settle his legal problems. They are moving forward and plan to find the best possible opponent if the situation with Wright does not straighten itself out.

"We are not going to wait very long at all," DiBella said. "I offered Felix Sturm a million dollars and German TV rights and he turned it down. If I didnt want the fight with Sturm, we wouldn't have offered him a million dollars and German TV rights. That's the deal he got for De La Hoya. He wants to fight for the WBA under-title. Jermain is the super champion. He probably wants to stay in Germany to beat some Europeans for another year, and then fight Jermain. Jermain beat him under amateur rules. Imagine what Jermain would do to him in the pros.

"I talked to HBO about Roman Karmazin. Don King wants a lot of money for Karmazin. The people don't know Karmazin and HBO is not going to put up additional money for Karmazin. If Winky calls back with Gary Shaw and says that he signed the contract, then we will fight Wright. I can't wait. I already lost sites. I already lost opportunities because other people have made other fights and other things have happened. I'm not going to paralyze Jermain Taylor. We have three dates with HBO for this year. Jermain is going to fight three times.

"You can ask everyone from Gary, to HBO, to Wilkes. We did everything in our power to make this fight on my side of the table."

Boxing history tends to repeat itself, which means this situation is likely to get worse in the coming weeks. The boxing public was robbed of a clash between two of the top fighters in the sport. Hopefully the fight will get made, but it does not appear be anything more than wishful thinking on the part of the boxing public at this point.