The King-dom Has a Storm Brewin'

"Then I got a call back saying, ’Oh, and, by the way, the kid is hurt. So he can’t fight on April 10th.’"

DiBella says he is now working on a new co-feature for that card.

When reached at his offices in Florida, King, explained his side of the story. "What they did was, they announced the fight, they told everybody, but the fighter. And so what it is, the fighter was injured, so therefore, the fighter can’t fight because he’s injured. He wants the Glen Johnson fight and especially on HBO. So, y’know what I mean? He would love to fight him; there’s no problem there at all."

But does the veteran promoter dispute that Cloud has a valid promotional deal with Richie Boy Promotions?

"I don’t dispute it, I don’t know what he’s got with Richie Boy Promotions," answered King. "The one factor that I do know is that the fighter said he didn’t have any contracts with anybody and he made a deal with me five weeks ago, with his manager and we finished off the deal. But we had no idea, none of this here and everybody was shocked and amazed that he was fighting. Y’know, we’ve been out of that since the Emancipation Proclamation. You just can’t sell a guy without him being part of it and he’s a fighter. I have no idea of what a promoter would do in signing a fight without signing the fighter. I mean, you announce it; you get a signed contract by the fighter. It used to be the manager could sign (for the fighter) if you remember, years ago. But even then, the manager had the fighter. But here, the manager and the fighter came to me.

"And when the manager tried to tell that to HBO, they say that they wouldn’t talk to him."

This begs two questions, if everyone is to be believed, first, how did this process get so far without Cloud telling anyone he had inked a deal with King? And was HBO reticent to talk to Cloud’s manager because of their new association with King?

As usual, most will point the finger at King, because when things go haywire, that’s what you do- blame him.

But King states clearly, "Let the world know, I’m not interfering; I’m not trying to be no part of this here, at all. All I know is the fighter signed with me and that’s it. But he’s incapacitated and he was sending a letter to the IBF and a doctor’s letter, whatever it is, they went to the doctor and the doctor told him he couldn’t fight."

Speaking of that letter, Maxboxing was faxed a copy of that letter sent by Lindsey Tucker of the IBF to [Vice President of Boxing Operations] Dana Jamison of DKP that read:

"Dear Ms. Jamison:

The is a follow up to your E-mail dated March 2nd, 2010. In your E-mail you requested a 90 day Medical Extension for IBF Light Heavyweight Champion Tavoris Cloud.

According to the letter submitted by Dr. Allan Fields, Cloud complained of severe pain and inability to walk or run normally due to a left leg injury sustained two days ago while training. Dr. Fields’ impressions are: Torn fibers of the left biceps. Femoris muscle with hematoma formation most likely of the long head.

Dr. Fields’ recommendations are: No running or weight training for six weeks with re-evaluation at that time.

Cloud’s mandatory due date was February 28th, 2010. The 90-day Medical Extension has been granted and Cloud will be expected to defend the Title on or before May 28th, 2010 under Rule 5.D.2."

Expect lawsuits to be filed by DiBella and Co. As for King, well, he feels Cloud is an integral addition to his stable.

"I think that Cloud is one of the best fighters out there. I think that he’s a guy that has an opportunity to become a superstar,” said King. “I think he can fight Bernard Hopkins. I think he can fight Chad Dawson. I think he can fight any of the light heavyweights out there that want to fight. I think he will make a great fight for them. I believe that he will beat them all because he’s the kind of guy that throws a hundred punches a round and he has power and he’s not afraid and so he’s a blood-and-guts guy. That’s what impressed me about him; he’s got such a presence in the boxing ring. He had an attitude of never-say-die and he’s not afraid of anything. So here’s a guy- I thought hadn’t been promoted right because if he were, he would’ve already been a superstar. But as it is now, he came to me, asked me to help him and I’m trying to help him.

"And I will help him because if he does his part, I tell you, he will become undisputed light heavyweight champion. But more than that, he will become a people’s champion, while he has an opportunity to make a lot of money, at the same time, fight everybody and fight them on HBO or anywhere else that he can go.”

SPRING FLURRIES

Saw the little shoving match between Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley in New York. My first thought? That’s the most aggressive Mayweather has been in years...DiBella said he reached out to J. Russell Peltz to make a bout between his streaking young welterweight Antwone Smith and Mike Jones, but it looks like Jones will appear on the Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez undercard in Atlantic City on April 17th...The April 3rd edition of “Top Rank Live” on Fox Sports Net/Espanol will feature Miguel Garcia and Mike “Free at Last” Alvarado in Corpus Christi, Texas. The next week “TRL” will have Jesus Soto-Karass facing Norberto Gonzalez and Diego Magdaleno takes on Manny Perez. Also on that card, is Lamont Peterson...Is the Winter Olympics over yet?...Golden Boy Promotions is thinking about a fight between Juan Diaz and Joel Casamayor for the Mayweather-Mosley undercard on May 1st...Can we all say a prayer for Guru? Long live Gang Starr...Any questions or comments can be sent to k9kim@yahoo.com. You can follow me at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We have a new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Maxboxing.