Boxing Notebook; Chavez Has Plans To Spar With King
Don King has problems with Julio Cesar Chavez, the World Boxing Association-World Boxing Council lightweight champion.
Chavez’s attorney, Paco Bazan, of Tijuana, Mexico, said earlier this week that Chavez was unhappy with King’s treatment of him and that Chavez’s managers, Javier and Angel Gutierrez, have retained Leon Pizante, a Beverly Hills, Calif., attorney, to bring action against King.
Bazan said King had signed Chavez to agreements without the consent of his manager – precisely the root of King’s problems with Bill Cayton, the manager of Mike Tyson.
Bazan also said that King still owed Chavez a $110,000 purse from Chavez’s April 1987 W.B.C. super- featherweight title defense against Francisco Tomas da Cruz in Nimes, France.
According to Bazan, King has also refused to send copies of the agreements he had Chavez sign without the consent of the Gutierrez brothers.
Bazan and Michael Bass, a new Chavez adviser who previously owned a Los Angeles talent agency, charged that King had also done some creative bookkeeping in reducing Chavez’s purses.
”King threw Julio a party in Julio’s suite after the Jose Luis Ramirez fight last month, and then charged him $3,000 from Julio’s purse,” said Bass. ”He also bought Julio a $1,700 suit, as a gift, and ended up deducting it from his purse. Julio said he’d never pay that much for a suit.”
Bazan said that the tickets and hotel rooms that King once provided the Gutierrez brothers and Bazan were not available for the Ramirez fight, apparently in retaliation for their challenging him.
”We purchased our own tickets for the Ramirez bout,” said Bazan.
King was unavailable for comment. But his director of boxing, Al Braverman, said: ”Don hasn’t gone around anybody. The manager gets his cut.”
Braverman said that the Gutierrez brothers had made their deal for the da Cruz bout with another promoter and had been warned by Eddie Mafuz, a King associate, to get Chavez’s money up front. Bazan disputed this, saying Chavez’s contract was with King, who reassigned the rights.
As for the copies of King’s deals with Chavez, Braverman said: ”If Don elects to give it to him, he’ll give it to him. It’s not public domain.” Inconsistent Logic
Go figure Tim Witherspoon.
The former W.B.A. heavyweight champion, who has a multimillion dollar suit pending against King, recently visited the promoter at his Orwell, Ohio, farm.
While he was there, Witherspoon took a $1,000 loan from Tyson, who was also there visiting King.
When a business associate of Witherspoon’s heard about the visit and the loan and pointed out the legal and logical inconsistency of Witherspoon’s action, the fighter said, ”I’m short of money.”
Yet Witherspoon repeatedly has turned down fights offered him by his promoter, Art Pellulo. But Pellulo has not given up. He has a December date against Larry Alexander in London if Witherspoon wants it. Olajide Cancels Bout
Michael Olajide was to have headlined tomorrow’s Felt Forum card, but had to cancel when he came down with the flu late last month. In Olajide’s place, Tunde (The Doctor) Foster, Glenwood (The Real Beast) Brown and Felix (Superstar) Santiago will be featured in separate 10-round bouts. Art Tucker, the undefeated heavyweight, appears in an eight-round fight. . . . Marc Risman, a Las Vegas, Nev., attorney, who is representing Riddick Bowe, the Olympic super heavyweight, said that Larry Holmes, the former heavyweight champion, had expressed an interest in training Bowe when he turns pro.
”It’s not a done deal,” said Risman. ”There are still some details that need to be worked out. But Larry told me Sunday night that he’d like to train a young heavyweight and make him a champion. Larry wants to do it, but he’s not going to lose money on it. So we have to figure what it’s going to take.” . . . Tyson has said that while he is still in love with Robin Givens, and even phones her, he is nonetheless intending to go forward with the divorce. . . .
Word is that King showed more flexibility in his negotiations with Cayton about his position in Tyson’s boxing future than Tyson himself did. Tyson, it is said, stonewalled Cayton, insisting that King be given a four-year promotional deal. Cayton wanted a short-term deal, renewable at Tyson’s discretion. . . . George Foreman is now being considered as a future Tyson opponent. Foreman is scheduled to fight David Bey in Las Vegas on Nov. 26. . . .
Dan Duva, the promoter of Medrick Taylor, the International Boxing Federation junior-welterweight champion, would like to match Taylor against Hector Camacho or Chavez, but does not really expect either man to accept a fight against Taylor. Duva’s Plan B will be to keep his man busy in network television bouts and build interest in his fighter that way. . . . Buddy McGirt, whom Taylor beat for the title, is expected to headline against Martin Quiroz, on Dec. 15 at the Felt Forum.