Goossen: Toney ready to accept 60-40 for Klitschko fight!

By G. Leon

17/06/2005

Goossen: Toney ready to accept 60-40 for Klitschko fight!

"At least Riddick Bowe threw his belt in trash, Vitali gets his opponents there!"

GL: A couple of weeks ago I spoke with you and James shortly after Vitali Klitschko expressed his interest in the Toney fight. Since then Vitali has become interested in fighting Oleg Maskaev on September 24. What happened with the Klitschko negotiations that caused them to move on from Toney to Maskaev? "We made one mistake Greg, we accepted. I don't think Vitali thought James would be willing to fight him. As it relates to Oleg Maskaev, it's a typical move by Vitali. He's fighting someone that no one cares about. Fighting someone that doesn't do anything but hurt you and then you wonder why you don't sell tickets or PPV. It's because he doesn't want to take any risk."

GL: So when you say you accepted it does that mean that your intitial position which demanded parity changed ,and you accepted their 65-35 offer and then they reneged?

Dan Goossen: "No. What we've done is gone out there and said that we would accept the fight with better terms. But no matter what they said or we said, it's was all part of trying to make a deal happen."

GL: So do you believe Klitschko's intentions to fight Toney were merely smoke and mirrors?

Dan Goossen: "Well, we're going to find out. I'm going to tell you that after talking to James last week. I was supposed to hear back from Shelly (Finkel) last week but I didn't hear back from him because he was busy with Tyson. But after speaking with James we will accept a 60-40 split to fight them. And that's an offer that I'm making them right now. We're ready to prove our worth. The heavyweight division needs to move and James seems to be the leader as it relates to fighting the best and toughest out there. He always has been and he always will be."

"I got to give credit to Hasim Rahman. He also seems willing to fight everyone, and the same goes for Chris Byrd. I have a feeling that Brewster would too. The one trying to keep the donkey's in front of him is Vitali. It always has been. I think this is a situation of a fighter not trying to expose himself while trying to make as much money as he can. We all know that James Toney is at worst one of the biggest fights out there. When you go from the upper echelon to the third tier it's shameful. This is a man who beat Quinn Navarre and Sedrick Fields to earn the right to fight Vitali Klitschko?"

"At least Riddick Bowe threw his belt in the trash. Vitali seems to pick up his opponents from there."

"As far as I'm concerned I'm putting an offer out there it's up to them whether they want to accept or decline it. James Toney is on board, we're ready to fight him 60-40. Now it's all up to whether or not he wants to go out there and prove his worth. To sit there and have him fight Maskaev, I mean, I'm surprised he hasn't gotten Kevin McBride. Vitali needs to stop claiming that he is the best because the best don't act like this."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Send questions and comments to: gleon@boxingtalk.net