You are ignorant of the facts .Terry Lawless was a Mother Hen who coddled his fighters too much ,even to the point of not letting them spar with top boxers. He and/or Mickey Duff made world champions out of Honeyghan,Stracey,Magri Watt,Edwards,Hope,McKenzie ,Mugabi,and Duff was involved in the careers of Minter,McGuigan,Maske,Drayton,Bruno,Winstone,Conteh. Marvin Hagler accused Duff of cheating John Mugabi out of his money Duff told him to go away and do some checking ,later,at aWBC convention,Hagler stood up and made a public apology to Duff.
Don has no one else really in his organisation wheras arum did he had todd lebeuf for a while.Also after Dons wife sadly passed away he has been inactive.Also the recent make up of their fighters....in their last active phases king had a far flung demographic such as mayorga,valuev,and africans....whilst arum had cornered the local mexican american market...and in vegas based pacman had a huge moneymaking star who made promoting a big bill so much easier wheras don didnt have that and at his age he didnt have the energy or health to travel to far flung places like the 70s that said arum who os the same age has done just that right now in china......i guess it comes down to arum still wants it
I boxed as an amateur for Lawless ...I live a stones throw from his old base..I lived through his whole era.... Lawless fell out over money with almost all of his top level fighters.After charlie Magri lost his world title at 25 and knew he had no where to go ..in typical brutal fashion lawless told magri " right your going to have to get off your backside now and get a real job and work for a living"....some mother hen... Duff was a bottom line guy who many fighters like honeyghan and sibson were put on a killer schedule by and sacrificed so duff could earn a huge cut with his american fixers and networks. He bullied and blocked Gary Mason from earning a living.its all on tape. I think you have it upside down he didnt "make" fighters like honeyghan .Duff was their employee but acted like their employer.the cut lawless and duff took imo meant world champions like honeyghan,hope,magri never really made much in comparison to what their managers/promoters did comparatively speaking....wheras sibson who defected to warren made some good money in his later years. Eastwood was a boil on british boxing...he ruined the careers of mcguigan and graham.. Thank goodness frank warren came along
I knew Terry and Sylvie slightly and Duff too.Honeyghan went to Duff because he became a pain in the arse and Lawless couldn't handle him. Magri would never have become a worlds champion without Duff & Lawless he had a china chin.Jim Watt owes the rebirth of his career to Duff & Lawless.Stracey was manouvered into a title shot against a rapidly fading Champion at precisely the right time .He too would never have become a worlds champion without them.Same goes for Maurice Hope. How near you live to the Royal Oak means nothing to me. Eastwood we agree on. Sibson wasnt managed by Duff.
Sibson wasnt managed by duff but it was duff who set up the don lee fight...lee was a fourth place substitute...duff had failed to deliver czyz which was a payday that made sense....it was duff who pushed him into going through with it even tho he was ill...and it was duff who after the devastating defeat held tony to contract and forced him to go through with a european title fight his head wasnt right for and which would have ended his career had he lost... I know lawless traded honeyghan...lloyd wouldnt have burned out seemingly overnight if duff hadnt ignored lloyds hand problems and put him on a killer schedule.....granted duff was a colourful competent figure,he delivered big fights ...but they werent big financially for any of his fighters once he took his cut... Duff and barretts selecting the who needs him dangerous ron harris as an opponent for minter,when minter already had a guarantee world title eliminator v briscoe in monaco cost Alan badly and delayed his workd title shot by almost 3 years...it also cost him a european titke fight that was lined up. Jim watt was an older more mature man,a canny intelligent scott he more or less managed himself and was better equipped to use lawless and duff how they should be used by a fighter Lawless wasnt all bad but hes not the gandhi like mother hen u make out...lawless/barret/duff/astaire had a cartel on british boxing at the time ....all those boxers you name made it on their own hard work but they were always going to have to go through these lot. Joe bugner knew what this gang were about so was maligned...after bugnerclost to Lyle in the dressing room duff as he tried to bully joe into agreeing to a quick follow up fight said " the name of the game is money" "Yeah and being able to count it" replied joe who preffered to schedule fights at his own schedule. So stracey got manouevered at the perfect time with napoles so did mcguigan with pedroza that didnt make eastwood a genius.it was just coincidence
Under the cartel stracey was finished at 25,bugner and conteh for all intents and purposes at 27 and 25...these "mother hens" did nothing to extend world class fighters careers with their brutal schedules imposed on fighters ...wheras at the same time in america fighters wrre having longer careers.....stracey never spoke to lawless again after 1977, Magri and honeyghan were bitter Sibson was sent to the usa by duff as a sacrifice for john collins.. How different it is now with hearn and warren
Wrong .Duff didn't select Harris for Minter,Duff was inCalifornia when Barrett who imo didn't know much about the game made that match.Duff tried to get the fight cancelled but the contracts were signed and the promotion was too far advanced to cancel it.Duff referred to Harris as," the President of the who needs him club". Barrett wasn't with the rest of the"cartel "as you call it that long, he wouldn't have been included but for the fact that he had exclusive promotional rights to the RAH Duff ,Astaire,Lawless and Barrett broke Soloman's strangle- hold over the BBBOC and eroded his power until he dwindled away. The Bugner quote was actually after the Ali fight in which Bugner underperformed. I was ringside for many of these fights,including Honeyghan losing his title to Vaca and regaining it because Duff offered Vaca £100,000 to comeback and defend it against Lloyd.
The instant vaca rematch was some of duffs best work. Mcvey,what were your feelings seeing honeyghan struggle with vaca the first time around? I had a bad feeling a few rounds before it ended...honeyghan was becoming more and more removed from the guy who beat rosi ,shufford and curry.
America was always the suing capital of the world with a dozen ambulance chasing litigators a dime a dozen...in the uk it was very very different...suing someone was always going to ne a very very expensive ,risky and lengthy process...thats why your legends didnt sue One guy who did...mcguigan widely regarded as the most savvy of british fighters...had to wait 6-7 years to get his day in court against eastwood ,lost and almost ended up bankrupt...only his sky job saved him from ending up on the streets..
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/was-don-king-good-for-boxing.591835/page-5#post-18722668 I was reading this article about Gerald McLellan which discusses Don King at his bedside proclaiming that the comatose Gerald had quit like a dog against Nigel Benn
