"Finkel always wants to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds, he wants it both ways!"

GL: Wladimir Klitschko is another Shelly Finkel fighter, and unlike Vitali who won't make a mandatory, he's suing the IBF to get enforced as a mandatory challenger. Can you give us any of your thoughts on that situation?"I think that's a total disgrace. What Shelly Finkel is doing on that end is, he's trying to get Wladimir forced upon Chris Byrd as a mandatory challenger when Wladimir did not fight anybody within the rankings and the IBF rules. People saw him fight Castillo who was really a cruiserweight. And even Larry Merchant said I don't know why we have this fight. Even Larry Merchant couldn't justify Wladimir's actions and I would love to hear how he tries to justify Vitali's when he gets behind the microphone and telling people how he is a great champion that will fight anyone, while they're trying to find someone that's breathing to put him in with.

"Wladimir is trying to force the courts and they said they only wanted a box-off, so I have to applaud DaVarryl Williamson. He said he would do the box-off and the judge offered them the box-off and said the courts should not be involved in boxing. Boxing is boxing and it should be boxing and Shelly Finkel in his infinite wisdom, refutes all of that because he wants to try to disgrace the IBF with lawsuits and tries to make a scandal sheet to see how great a scandal monger he can become, but at the same time, Klitschko ain't fighting. He's got the two brothers and it's like two brothers and a stranger and Shelly is the stranger that has captured their imagination who is leading them down the same path that he led my dear friend Mike Tyson.

"It's a shame because they will go down the same plight that Tyson has because of Finkel's advice. He's not standing up and fighting like a man, and let's not forget that this is the same man that had Mike Tyson fight Danny Williams without protecting Mike like he should have by putting a rematch clause in the contract. Then what does he do? He runs and brings Danny Williams to fight Vitali Klitschko, who had a rematch clause. No rematch clause for Tyson and Shelly had a piece of Williams, so when Frank Warren fought Williams with Vitali, Shelly got paid for that too. He's definitely conflicted out. He owned the opponent. A manager is not supposed to get an option on a guy, not a manager. Here you have a manager playing promoter. He doesn't know if he's the promoter or manager and he's conflicted out all the way down the line.

"Another rumor that I've been hearing is, Shelly Finkel owns a piece of Calvin Brock. So now he's got a piece of Calvin Brock who he's trying to bring right to Vitali and that could be another major conflict. I don't know for sure if it's true or not but there's a ripe rumor circling the industry that Shelly has interest in Brock.

"It's clear that Finkel wants to run with hares and hunt with the hounds. He wants it both ways, and so what he does is, he goes out as a student of propoganda, so he tries to put propoganda out to create a mythical illiusion like these guys are the second coming.

"This is a sorted affair and yet he wants to go out and castigate the IBF, villianize the IBF and threaten me. Because you know he called me up to tell me, 'it's not going to be good for you, it's not going to be good for you.' What he's doing to these two kids...You know I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the Klitschko brothers, they are both PHD's and they're intelligent, but they aren't getting the proper information. He's telling them one thing and doing another.

"We've made a 800 pound gorilla out of Shelly because nobody gets no information. He's the only one who's talking to HBO, so the Klitschko's don't know what HBO is talking about, they only know what Shelly tells them. The Klitschko's don't know what Shelly and I have discussed, they only know what he translates to them. The Klitschko's is the only one's talking to him, so nobody knows how to get to the Klitschko's so Shelly Finkel tells us what the Klitschko's want. This way Shelly is an 800 pound gorilla, who has the master of all the lines and then he tells everyone what he wants to do, not what the Klitschko's want to do or what's good for the sport of boxing.

"His limited mentality and inclination for treachery surpasses his path for righteousness. He's conflicted between right and wrong and always goes the wrong path because he like wrongness. He wants to write letters, he wants to go to the FBI, he wants to plant things at the scene of a crime with you and then go back and tell on you. Everytime he goes wrong he hollers copper after he's plots some asinine schemes he comes up with and then he tries to entrap others to go along with it.


"You know I realize that a white man can tell us a lie and it's believable, a black man can tell the truth and it's questionable. You've got to understand that and I've got to deal with that all the time, but I'm fighting for a better America, black and white alike, working together works. I don't have to play the race card because the race card plays itself. I don't have to play it, it's there blatant."

GL: Dan Goossen told me he's in the midst of negotiating a Byrd-Toney fight. What can you tell us about that?

Don King: "There's credibility to that and it's something that we're working on, it's a great fight and I will certainly be working towards making that fight happen.

"The public must understand that if Klitschko is able to fight a voluntary that gives him another year, and HBO would be destroying the concept of a tournament  right after saying they want. By airing Klitschko against anybody other than the winner of Rahman and Barrett, HBO is speaking with a forked tongue. Becasuse this man that you have a minimum of six months before this man fights again. And I'm sorry if I'm being redundant, but the guys like Hasim Rahman and Monte Barrett that are taking the risk shouldn't be punished by having to wait another six months."

"I was praying that HBO would stand up and I was totally disillusioned by their deception and duplicity. I don't understand it, this is what we all want, this is what we're working for. This is what all these matches were for. What are the matches for when you're putting on Toney-Ruiz and Brewster-Golota? What were they for? It's almost like it's an exercise of futility and they're leading us to the point of no return. I wish Ross Greenburg would change his mind and make a bold statement that they don't want any Klitschko fight but his mandatory.

"That's the Ross Greenburg I know and that's the Ross Greenburg that I'm looking for. I'm looking for that man that's a fair man who won't let Shelly manipulate him and HBO by allowing one man to hold up the whole heavyweight division. You can't have one undisputed champion without the WBC title and all they're doing is subsidizing the WBC title by searching for lesser opponents. They're categorically going against the very thing they're saying they want to uphold.

"And then Shelly says he's going to try and destroy the IBF, for what reason? He's going out and preaching scandal, for what reason? What I have done other than work 24-7 for the betterment of my fighters? It's just like he's doing the manner of the low road, I'm doing it the manner of the high road and that's why I've been able to survive and succeed.

"Some of these guys lobby to get things done and they do. Nobody gets mad at them, there be a little stretching here and there but you do that for the good of the sport. But then when they don't get what they want, they want to take their marbles and go home because they can't have their way.

GL: Cory Spinks recently signed a promotional agreement with Bobby Bostick. The other day you told me you believe you still have Spinks under contract until next June.

Don King: "Out of the many people that I've met in the world of boxing, Kevin Cunningham is one of my top adoptions. I really like Kevin and there's nothing negative I could say about him. I'm just hurt and disappointed that he would do this after giving me his word. I like Kevin and I think he's one of the great guys in the sport of boxing and I have nothing bad to say about him. I think he has another year left on his contract, so I think he made a mistake there by signing a contract when he had a contract. Whoever this guy is, I don't know, but I imagine he's a gentleman because if he's given Kevin some money, I like that.

"But I don't think that he can't give Kevin money to breach his contract and his word. I'm a little shocked and disappointed that something like this happened without them really talking to me. The last words he gave me were, I'm signing these papers and I'll get them back to you, but man there's people sure are offering a lot of money. But he said, I'm staying with you, that's the last words I got from Kevin. So until Kevin talks to me and tells me something, I won't understand it, but I'm not going to discourage Kevin."

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