By James Slater – Though the fight wasn’t an official done deal anyway, talks were apparently going well for a showdown between Poland’s Tomasz Adamek and “Nigerian Nightmare” Samuel Peter. The former WBC heavyweight champ was sufficiently ranked by the IBF for the world-title-on-his-mind “Goral,” and fans seemed to be okay with the match-up taking place.
Adamek will still be fighting in his native Poland on April 16th, but now, according to an interview that went up on SPORT website yesterday, Peter might well have talked himself out of the date due to asking for too much money..
According to Ziggy Rozalski, the co-promoter of Adamek, Peter has demanded a 50-50 split with him getting half of the all live gate money and half of all TV money around the world.
“Adamek is ready to fight Godzilla or even King Kong,” Rozalski said. “But Peter wants too much. We offered him $150,000 dollars and he wants to get half of all income, including income from all of the television broadcasts around the world.
“Peter believes he has a lot of fans around the world, mainly in South Africa, Nigeria and Bulgaria, where his manager Ivaylo Gotsev comes from.”
So what gives: is Peter attempting to get one last big, retirement payday, or does he really feel he is still a big player in the heavyweight division? If Peter knows he is done, then his asking for as much as he can for an Adamek fights is at least understandable. However, if Peter truly believes what his manager said recently – that his fighter can beat anyone out there with the exception of the Klitschko brothers – then he should take whatever offer he has been given for the fight. A win would put Peter right back up there, after all.
Peter should probably feel lucky that he is even being considered for a fight with Adamek. Though he still has a fairly big name, Peter has not won a big fight in a long, long time. If he has priced himself out of a clash with the tough and exciting Pole, what else is there out there for Sam?
It seems to be a trend in heavyweight boxing just lately, for one or both of the fighters to demand 50-50 splits. Peter has to realise Adamek is the star right now, and that as such it is he who is in a position to be able to call the shots.