Seth Abraham: (former president of HBO boxing) http://www.secondsout.com/columns/thomas-hauser/seth-abraham-then-and-now What would you do if you were Abraham?
I'd like to think that I would have stood up to the extortion attempt by the wily, vicious criminal King. I'm sure glad that HBO did. Lets not forget that King stomped a guy half his size to death at gunpoint over an illegal bet, and has ripped off numerous fighters. No surprise that King tried to silence Merchant, just like Stalin or Hitler would want to stifle their critics.
"editorial integrity", that's funny. I'm sure it had a lot to do with 'dollars and cents' as far as what King was demanding etc as I'm pretty sure this was in the latter 1990's and Tyson had already started to escalate his erratic behavior and become less of a draw (to an extent)
But wait, King and Tyson leaving also meant that a guy like chavez left as well. hmm hard choice then. I would just make a deal to keep larry away from tyson fights.
King was basically looking for an excuse to jump ship anyway, if it wasn't that it would of been something else. He had basically srewed HBO out of Tyson-Holyfield, it should of happened around 1989-1990, but King wanted HBO options on Tyson fights to run out, so he could sell the fight to the highest bidder.
Tyson's last fight on HBO was when he knocked out Alex Stewart. In his post fight interview with Jim Lampley, Tyson states: "I would just like to say this is my last fight on HBO, so to all my fans on HBO, thanks for your support. Its my last fight because they think you (the fans) would rather see Holyfield than me!"
