By John Martinez. BoxingRealm.com: After reading all the brouhaha and alleged facts spread by the supposed insiders regarding the IBF/WBA, and as of now, WBO undefeated lightweight champion Juan “ Baby Bull” Diaz’s cancelled fight with the promising brawler Michael Katsidis I decided to ask the one man who would definitely know what happened or for that matter what did not happen. His name- Willie Savannah..
Willie, manager to the undefeated volume punching Diaz, was more than willing to give his thoughts on the matter and I of course was all to ready to lend my ear for the cause. Savannah was adamant that the fight with Katsidis was the only reason why Team Diaz signed a one-fight extension with Don King.
The original contract was to expire on December 31, 2007. King approached Savannah asking for an extension of the original contract and after receiving a mild response from the Diaz camp; he then placed Katsidis as the opponent that Juan could and would definitely see next in the squared circle. Team Diaz agreed to that fight and instead of the cliché “ the rest is history” we now know it was just the beginning.
JM: Willie, who should be blamed for the debacle that is occurring now regarding your fighter, Juan Diaz?
WS: Well Don King did not deal in good faith with us. He did absolutely nothing to make this fight happen. It isn’t Juan’s fault or my fault as to why we can’t fight Katsidis, it was Don that didn’t deal with us or Katsidis in good faith. I heard that Katsidis is suing Don. Then HBO pulled the plug because they got nervous that Don was going to sue them even though it was HBO that said they wanted the fight in the first place.
They (HBO) were the one that said to give King one more fight by March 31st and that they would put up 1.5 million in the contract for it so we did it.
JM: Looking back, did you see any sign that this fight wasn’t going to go occur as first thought?
WS: Well hell, he told me at least a month in advance of the purse bid (November 27) that he wasn’t going to bid on the fight. I thought he was f*cking joking. He contacted my lawyer and told him to get me to Florida to discuss options on Juan and I responded with “that wasn’t going to be an option.” So I think he basically decided to purge Juan because I wouldn’t go to Florida and on top of that threatened to sue us in New York if we don’t sign with him.
JM: So who was the last fight suppose to be with under DKP before the one fight extension request came up?
WS: It was supposed to be with Julio Diaz. But even right before the Julio fight we were having problems with this. He was getting ready to cancel the fight two days before the fight when we were already in Chicago. He said “ I’ll cancel the motherf*cker” because he wanted more options on Diaz. It was another intimidation tactic. I said ‘ let us know so we know what train to catch to go home.” I spoke with Kerry Davis and asked for the worse case scenario. He said that Diaz wouldn’t be able to get in the ring. I said that was fine, but now here we go again.
JM: So the fight with Nate Campbell, it is an all go?
WS: Well, we signed and gave the contract to Don to fight Nate Campbell around December 30th and we haven’t heard one thing back from King since then. We don’t have a signed contract or anything from King. I don’t know if Campbell signed up or not.
We are training in the hopes that the fight does come off but I wouldn’t bet my last dollar on it because there isn’t a signed contract. I don’t think the fight is going to happen. I haven’t heard from the Campbell either. As of 2:15 today, I don’t have a signed contract from King so I don’t know what the delay is. Isn’t that amazing?
But pretty soon, we’re going to have to send him something saying that there has been a breach of contract or null and void or something because we don’t have anything. We’re just training right now just in case the fight does come off.
JM: And what is going on with the WBO and possibly stripping Diaz of their title?
WS: Well they want to strip Juan of the belt because he isn’t fighting Katsidis. How the hell can we fight Katsidis if HBO won’t do the fight and Don won’t allow the fight? They want to give the belt to a guy that hasn’t even thrown a punch to earn it.
Now I heard that Don doesn’t want to do the Campbell fight as a unification bout because he wants to get the other organizations to strip Juan of his belts. That is the signal that I’m getting.
We had an agreement that Don would do all reasonable efforts to ensure that all the belts would be defended at that one time, but I hear from the WBO that Don has not made any effort to make this promise occur. I heard someone say that when the WBO spoke with Don, he said “ the hell with Juan” and I believe he is hoping that all the organizations strip Juan of his belts.
JM: Well aside from all of this, what plans do you and Diaz hope to have as far as possible opponents in the near future?
WS: Well we want the winner of Juan Marquez and Manny Pacquaio. We would love to do that fight. We are also interested in doing David Diaz. I even heard Barrera is coming back too. There are a lot of guys out there for us.
JM: Have you guys thought about moving up to 140 and if so who would you target?
WS: We want Ricky Hatton. I’ve heard he’s coming back down to that weight and that’s whom we want. It would be a real great fight.
JM: What about IBF junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi?
WS: No. We saw Paulie fight the last time and that wasn’t anything we were impressed with. So no.
JM: Do you have any final thoughts you would like to pass in relation to the King negotiations?
WS: Yes I do. There isn’t a day and night that goes by where I don’ kick myself in the ass for doing this last fight with Don. He is being totally unfair by keeping a young Katsidis down and a young Mexican kid from the barrio in Juan Diaz from making money and following their dreams. Don King just can’t do business straight up and down. He just can’t. That’s it.
I would like to thank Mr. Savannah for his time on this piece and hopefully this sheds a bit more light on a murky situation. Only in America.