Der Vogel meint er ist erheblich mehr wert:
"King, who promotes Byrd, says he is on board and a deal is in place – a statement which is confirmed by Shelly Finkel, who advises Klitschko.
There’s just one problem - Byrd is balking at the fight and hasn't agreed to anything.
[...]
But Byrd, it seems, does not want to go to Germany, especially since he's the defending champion.
"C'mon, Don's treating me like a challenger; it's crazy," says the usually mild-mannered southpaw. "He's going over there like it's a great opportunity for me. C'mon, I've paid my dues, I've fought there twice and I don't trust them when I'm over there. So pay me. If I gotta go, make it worth my while."
[...]
Byrd upset Vitali in 2000 for the WBO title when the big Ukrainian quit on his stool at the end of the ninth round. But he would be put on the shelf for over a year after signing over options to Klitschko's promoter Peter Kohl and then forced to fight Wladimir in Germany without the opportunity to take an interim fight in between.
That situation has left him bitter at the Klitschkos. And what took place during those promotions leaves him weary of ever going back.
"I stayed 30 miles, all the way across the city. I'm the champion, and nobody’s at my hotel," he recalls of those trips. “Everybody’s at the other hotel, all the judges, referees and Wladimir. And I go over there and the promoter’s hanging out with all the referees and judges, out to dinner, while I'm just trapped over at the hotel by myself. What's going on? I'm the champion, but I don't know nothing that goes on?
"I've got to travel in the cold to go to the weigh-ins, press conferences, everything. While everybody else stayed right there. That's just five-percent of it; who wants to go over there and deal with all that?"
[...]
"The story is this," explains Don King from his offices in Florida. "When Chris Byrd came to me, he was starving to death. The highest purse he ever got was $400,000 or $450,000. And that was years ago before he got to me because at the time he came to me, he had fought for $25,000 or anything else he could have got.
[...]
But Don King says those fears are unfounded and unwarranted this time around.
"They don't realize, I'm the promoter," he points out. "I'm the promoter in Germany.
Ain't no more Peter Kohl; Peter Kohl don't exist no more. The fear that they have, that was with Peter Kohl being the promoter. They ain't got no promoter over there now. So I'm the guy that's going to be promoting the fight." :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:
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http://maxboxing.com/Kim/Kim021005.asp
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