Apparently unlike boxing promoter Lou DiBella and his world middleweight champion, Jermain Taylor, Australian Sam “King” Soliman is not one for clowning around. Responding to a recent article on SI.com whereby DiBella announced that he is negotiating a fight between Taylor (25-0-1, 17 KOs) and the light-hitting recent winner of “The Contender” television boxing reality series, Sergio Mora (18-0, 4 KOs), Soliman is taking DiBella to task for trying to put his champion in with a prelim fighter. “DiBella’s going backwards with Taylor rather than forward.
“His champion just beat Bernard Hopkins twice and had a recent win over Winky Wright, and now he looks to put Taylor in with a fighter with one 10-round fight. It’s utterly ridiculous. I don’t know if any reputable commission in the world would allow this type of discrepancy between a world-class champion and an untested 5-round fighter,” stated Soliman.
“This would be a huge fight,” DiBella told SI.com of a matchup with Mora, whose only career fight scheduled for ten rounds (by comparison, Taylor’s last 16 bouts were 10 and 12 rounders) was his last one – a seventh-round TKO over Archak TerMeliksetian back in May. “Because of The Contender, He’s (Mora) one of the most recognized middleweights in the world. I’ve walked into casinos and have seen him get mobbed (by fans).”
Soliman (32-8, 13 KOs) -- who has attained cult figure status and top-ten rankings in all of the major boxing organizations by virtue of both his outstanding performance in a close and somewhat disputed loss to Wright in an IBF Title Eliminator on HBO last December, as well as his impressive stoppage of Raul Munoz after flying from his homeland to take the fight on five-days notice back in March -- believes that DiBella is doing an injustice to a fighter of Taylor’s caliber and showing a lack of respect by suggesting the Little Rock, Arkansas native fight against Mora in Mora’s hometown of Los Angeles (or Las Vegas), instead of Taylor defending his titles against the King.
“It shows me that when DiBella said after the Hopkins and Wright bouts that he wanted to fight a ‘bum’ or ‘Bozo the Clown’ respectively, in his next bout, he again had a change of direction and now wants to fight a ‘reality star’ that gets mobbed. He’d be better off matching him with Johnny Depp, a real star that I’m sure has had a few fights of his own,” exclaimed an irate Stuart Duncan, manager of Soliman. “Mora’s record of six 4-round bouts, two 5-round bouts, five 6-round bouts, two 7-round bouts and one 8-round bout, hardly qualifies him for a world championship bout.”
The thought of being passed over for his well-deserved title shot so that Taylor can get an easy win against an overmatched opponent after two hard-fought wins against Bernard Hopkins and a draw against Winky Wright, doesn’t bother Soliman. “That’s their prerogative, but the thing that gets me mate, is this a kid (Mora) who doesn’t belong in a championship bout. At least get a ‘bum’ that’s in the top 10 of the world.”
“If its easy victories he wants, he may as well have Jermain join The Contender series rather than subject himself to the other legitimate top contenders of the world,” continued Soliman.
With this announcement, it appears DiBella had second thoughts about fighting Bozo the Clown by fighting a boxer the level of Mora. It appears he wanted to match Taylor with no one remotely as capable as Bozo the Clown. Bozo must have been too much of a threat with his vast years of experience, not to mention his tremendous fan following. When choosing an opponent for a true champion to gauge the interest of the viewing public, it isn't about who gets mobbed with the public; it’s about fighting the real challenges out there; not the Survivor of Reality TV shows.
DiBella explained his position to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael: “We will fight who we want next and knock him out, and maybe we will get a little respect,” Dibella said. “My kid just went two fights in a row with Bernard Hopkins and then fought Winky Wright in a close fight. What does he have to do to get your respect?”
For one, get back to reality and show some respect to the boxing public.
