WBA doing Don dirty?

Don King going to court as heavyweight bid 'doesn't pass the smell test' (*****.net)
The article is from today on *World Boxing News*

I haven't seen any threads on this, so I thought it warrants conversation. Now, I think it is fair to say Don King will have made plenty of enemies over the years, but what is going on with the Bryan v Dubois situation?

I honestly, don't know why or how the WBA have justified such a generous purse split for Dubois. I'm looking at WBA's own rules here and on page 20 it states:

9. Disbursements of Bids Proceeds. Disbursements of Bids Proceeds. The boxers’ Purse shall be distributed as follows:

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b. 75% to the Super Champion and 25% to the Challenger, even if it is the Champion.
c. 50% to each contender in the case of vacant titles or elimination bouts.
d. 55% to the Champion in Recess and 45% to the Interim Champion, in the event of such a bout.
​

Microsoft Word - *** WBA Rules adopted in Bulgaria 6-11-15 (1).docx (wbaboxing.com)

I realise that Bryan got "the title" in very scummy circumstances with how they dealt with Charr (so it's difficult to have sympathy here), but what possible justification could there be for giving Dubois 45%? Which in turn clearly affected the purse bids.

First the WBO gave Dubois an inflated ranking at #2 for beating Fujimoto and Snijders. Then the WBA gave Dubois #1, for beating Bogdan Dinu after being stopped by Joyce.

Is the WBA actively trying to mess with Don King now, or is this just the orgs trying to get ahead of the pack to tie up an exciting prospect?

 

That is a fair point, but the interim title designation was removed in August 2021.
WBA eliminates all of its interim champion designations (espn.com)

I think this fight was announced in the run-up to Bryan defending his title in January.
Dubois to face Bryan-Guidry winner (ringside24.com)

Maybe there were some behind closed doors promises made to Warren/Dubois. Is it as simple as them honouring his former status as Interim Champion? Again why was he even fighting for an interim championship coming off the loss to Joyce and months of inactivity as his eye recovered?

No, the challenger should not be getting a bigger commercial cut than the champion. Besides, is he really that big of a draw? I think had he beaten Joyce, that would be fair enough. But I suspect this is the fight which they would hope to make PPV, and market him as a title holder once he gets past Bryan (which he likely does).

I don't know, it seems like the WBA is playing fast and loose on this one. And if King cancels his bid now he has won it, is that him out of the game?

 

Yeah, both him and Arum are 90 now. To be generous, I guess they do it for a love of the sport (and the power games)

 

Yeah, completely understandable. But in this case, both promoters have history of that. Maybe boxing is just a snake pit and this is ultimately the way of things. Even so, the orgs should be sticking to their rules. So, I have to agree with King when he says:

“They categorically said we got to go by the rules. They gave me the ruling of 72/25 [split].

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“When we had the interim

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, the rules said the champion gets 75, and the challenge gets 25. All of a sudden, the champion gets 55, and the challenger gets 45, so we’re going to court on that.

“They’ll say that ‘Don King is not playing the game,’ but this doesn’t pass the smell test”​

Don's right though, there is no rule that says if the interim champion gets 45%. That would only be the case if Bryan was "Champion in Recess". Bryan is the Champion and Dubois is the Challenger, it's 75/25.

Basically, there is a worrying trend where favoured promoters lobby the orgs to go outside their rules to change the splits, and the orgs oblige them at the expense of the other fighter (and promoter).

 

/thread