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King won't step aside
NEW YORK (AP) -- Don King says if the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis rematch happens, he will be the promoter.Seth Abraham, head of Time Warner Sports, has said the pay-per-view fight, which is set for Nov. 13, is in jeopardy if King does not give Time Warner the right to order the promoter to step aside if he is indicted in connection with the first Holyfield-Lewis fight. That bout ended in a controversial draw.
"I'm not giving up my rights, I'm not giving up the presumption of innocence," King said Monday at a news conference for the Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad welterweight tile bout Sept. 18 at Las Vegas. That fight will be co-promoted by King and Bob Arum and carried on pay-per-view by TVKO.
Time Warner Sports operates HBO and its pay-per-view arm, TVKO.
"An indictment is only an allegation," King said. "If they have trouble being associated with me, then they can buy me out or I will buy them out," King said.
A buyout, either way, won't happen.
Abraham said that if King should grant Time Warner the right it seeks, it does not necessarily mean it would be exercised.
Most observers thought Lewis clearly won the March 13 fight in Madison Square Garden.
"When an unpopular decision came, not a corrupt decision but an unpopular decision, I was abandoned like the bubonic plague," King said.
There is a chance that King could be indicted in connection with an investigation that the IBF fixed rankings for a payoff. Abraham said Time Warner would not be concerned about such an indictment in connection with an Holyfield-Lewis rematch.
Last week, FBI agents raided King's offices at Deerfield Beach, Fla., reportedly seeking records involving the IBF. The FBI would not confirm that was the reason.
King was not present.
"I was in Seth Abraham's office (in New York)," King said, laughing. "My office was under siege. No woman could go to the bathroom without an agent. No man could go to the bathroom without an agent."
Abraham said that should the Holyfield-Lewis rematch not take place, Lewis, promoted by Panos Eliades of Britain and Main Events, could fight the winner of the Michael Grant-Lou Savarese fight, possible in Madison Square Garden on Nov. 13. Lewis is scheduled to fly to New York Thursday and attend a match Saturday night in The Theater at the Garden.
"The fight is made," King, Holyfield's promoter, said of the rematch. "I got a $10 million site fee (for the match at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas). Both fighters have signed. Holyfield wants the fight. I want the fight. The only one holding it up is HBO. If it falls through, we'll go on about our business."