The press release issued by Golden Boy Promotions "formally announcing" a February 10 Shane Mosley-Kermit Cintron fight, scheduled to be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing live from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada was sent out a bit prematurely. Moments ago Cintron and his trainer and manager Emanuel Steward contacted Boxingtalk and informed us that no deal has been solidified and the quotes attributed to Cintron in the release were fabricated. There are several unresolved contractual issues between 'promoter' Bobby Bostick and the IBF welterweight champion. Neither Steward nor Cintron would provide us with a formal confirmation, but Boxingtalk.com understands that Cintron never received his contractually obligated minimum for his title winning effort against Mark Suarez in the Maxboxing fight that nobody saw, nor did he receive the contractually obligated bonus due him in the event that he captured a major world title. Boxingtalk wouldn't be surprised if Cintron were owed significantly more than $100,000 in contractual breaches. "The fight has been agreed to by everyone invovled, but there are lots of specific details that need to be ironed out and a lot of it is basically dealing with the contractual obligations of Bobby Bostick Promotions to Kermit Cintron that have not been lived up to and have to be straightened out. I expect the fight to go on, but it's not like it's a done deal or anything is signed. Bobby has certain things that he has to straighten out some major contractual violations, not just one or two little small ones. There are a lot of problems that need to be ironed out between Bobby Bostick and Kermit Cintron. Basically Kermit wants to fight him, Shane wants the fight and HBO wants the fight and it probably will happen, but it may happen and Bobby Bostick may not be involved as the promoter of Cintron in any capacity," said Steward.

GL: Earlier I spoke with Kermit and he seemed very upset that someone fabricated his quotes in the press release...

Manny Steward: (cutting in) "And that's what Kermit is upset about and it's very disrespectful for them to do something like that before letting us see it or approve it. It's not fair to the public either, becuase you guys are only doing what you're supposed to do, but they need to check with us first. Anybody could say anything in random and it could have no truth to it. They should have been courteous enough to copy us on whatever they were doing to make sure we understood the message they were trying to get out."

GL: I don't understand how they put quotes in the press release that he didn't say. I mean if he didn't say them who did?

Manny Steward: "And that's bullshit. What they said Kermit would never say. We respect Shane and he's fought the best fighters of his time. He had two brutal fights with Vernon Forrest, two tough fights with Oscar, two fights with Winky Wright and two fights with Fernando Vargas.

Kermit Cintron: "The saddest thing about it is I don't even talk that way to the press."

Manny Steward: "I've gotten calls from the press and I've declined to comment on it because certain things had to get ironed out for it to take place. When you're sending out quotes and this and that, and he's sending the damn contract to Kermit for $250,000 or something like that."

GL: So tickets are going on sale next Thursday for a fight that hasn't been signed yet?

MS: "And that's unprofessional. This is part of a serious thing here. We had a chance for Kermit to fight on November 18 as part of the Pacquiao card and there was a good offer there and he chose to put it on down there with 800 people. You can't do things like this, Kermit has done everything that has been asked for him."

GL: Since we're coming on the record to say that the fight is not signed sealed and delivered...

MS: "It is not signed, sealed and delivered. The negotiations are ongoing.

GL: (continuing previous line of questioning) can we detail some of the things that need to be ironed out between Bostick and Kermit to make the fight a done deal?

MS: "Well Bostick has to live up to obligations that he hasn't fulfilled and our lawyer believe he hasn't fulfilled."

GL: And does Bostick have to come of out pocket to right some of these wrongs?

MS: "Well...I just can't believe...he's new to this and he's never been involved with a fighter like Kermit who is a world champion. This is a fight I feel Kermit needs and deserves."

GL: Kermit, I imagine it's important to you to send a message to HBO that if this fight doesn't happen for whatever reason it's not because of you, because following the Gutierrez fight falling through you certainly don't want to build up a reputation as a guy who pulls out of HBO fights.

Kermit Cintron: "Definitely...

MS: (cutting in) "And this is the first time Kermit is refuting anything to anybody. He hasn't said shit about the whole situation. He has been talking to me trying to get things worked out, I had some people who are closely associated with Bobby Bostick and I told them about these problems and I made it very clear to them that there's a whole bunch of things that had to be rectified. They told me they were going to take care of it and it would get rectified, but in the meantime nothing has happened. But Kermit hasn't made any comments about anything."

GL: When will there be an update on the final decision as it relates to Bostick's involvement with the fight?

MS: "There will be news coming out probably on Monday because a lot of people are away and the lawyers need to talk to each other."

GL: So in other words the fight will still be up in the air three days before tickets go on sale?

MS: "I don't know nothing about tickets going on sale and it sounds like I've got a lot of work to do in the next couple of days. I didn't know any releases were going out and this whole situation has been very stressful, it's been stressful since the time we pulled out of the HBO fight to make the fight with Suarez."

GL: So Bostick is making deals on Kermit's behalf when he's aware of certain contractual breaches? That sounds pretty stupid to me.

MS: "Well it's not very smart Greg."

EDITORS NOTE: GOLDEN BOY CEO RICHARD SCHAEFER WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE COMMENT. BOXINGTALK ALSO UNDERSTANDS THAT MAIN EVENTS, CINTRON'S FORMER PROMOTER, WAS CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED THE RIGHT TO MATCH OR EXCEED ANY OFFER MADE BY ANOTHER PROMOTIONAL OUTFIT. THEY COULDN'T MATCH BOSTICK'S OFFER, BUT NOW THAT THE CONTRACT HAS SUFFERED MULTIPLE BREACHES, MAIN EVENTS HAS TAKEN LEGAL ACTION AGAINST BOBBY BOSTICK AND KERMIT CINTRON.

M

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