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PROFESSOR OF "DON KINGOLOGY" GIVES A HISTORY LESSON
Published August 25, 1995
Seth Abraham, President of Time Warner Sports, met with reporters to give his version of the November 4 pay-per-view dispute as well as a history lesson on Don King. Time Warner's TVKO has Bowe-Holyfield set for Caesar's, while King and Showtime Entertainment Television are likely to stage Mike Tyson against Buster Mathis at MGM Grand -- both on November 4. Abraham said that in negotiating over rights to Tyson in the '80s, King wanted HBO to give in on Tyson's request that analyst Larry Merchant not work any Tyson fights. He compares that to the present, and said King is misjudging him and Time Warner. Abraham: "We're in the boxing business. Showtime is in the Don King business." Bob Raissman of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS: "This issue of Nov. 4 gets more bizarre by the day -- even by boxing's twisted standards" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 8/25). Richard Sandomir calls it "filthy fun" and reports that Showtime and partner MGM Grand "cannot persuade" King to change dates and that it is Tyson co-manager John Horne, not King, who "refuses to see how much more money can be made" by moving Tyson-Mathis to December. King, on Abraham: "He's trying to restrain trade and make people submit to him because he's the biggest and baddest on the block" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/25).




