Okay, okay, okay....so I found an example of a doctored up interview. For those that always wondered why Leon likes to take credit for "making" the Mayweather-Judah fight, this interview is probably one of the biggest reasons. In the first version of the interview (see below), Zab, who had just lost to Baldomir, was doing a lot of complaining about the money not being right and that he might not fight Mayweather if things didn't change. Leon took the liberty to change a lot of it in order to "save superman from himself" by preventing him from pissing off Don King and talking himself out of a big money fight.
Here's an image of the first version:
And here's an image of the heavily doctored version:
Here's the full first version:
QUOTE
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Leon [mailto:vze2bxtt@verizon.net]Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 6:59 PM
To: Ben Thompson
Cc: ray@boxingtalk.com
Subject: Zab Interview
GL: What's popping Superman? "Ain't nothing. I'm fresh from Aruba right now. I'm in Puerto Rico right now, the fans here are beautiful and they're treating me really nice so viva Puerto Rico. I just touched down and my phone has been going crazy. I've been checking all my messages and I'm seeing how everybody is presuming that the fight is done for April 8. I have no knowledge that it's going on yet, but as soon as I get the chance to talk with my promoter we'll see what's going on. But from the numbers I hear, it looks like it might be Mayweather standing in the ring by himself on April 8."
GL: What do you mean when you say the numbers that you hear, can you elabortate on that any?
Zab Judah: "They're talking about one million for me and Don to split and Mayweather's getting $5-6M. It ain't going down like that you know what I'm saying? It ain't even going down like that homey. I don't want all of my great fans to get too hyped up because if nothing changes nothing budges."
GL: So if there's not more than a million there isn't going to be a fight?
Zab Judah: "Oh hell no!"
GL: Don't you think people will look at that and say why can't you split a million with Don when you took much less to fight Spinks in St. Louis?
ZJ: "It's a different fight. This fight is bigger than the Zab Judah-Cory Spinks fight. This fight right here is there Hagler and Leonard of today. This is like what Winky Wright did when he fought Trinidad. That was his big hurrah and nobody knows what comes after that. You have to cash in while you could cash in."
GL: Coming off the Baldomir fight don't you think people would...
ZJ: (cutting in) "Listen, the Baldomir fight was a joke to me. Those who were around me know the real story and they know what it was. I'm not making no excuses, but Baldomir couldn't beat me if I had no arms. I beat him on my bad day, but I'm not going to make no excuses. I can't even talk about Baldomir no more. I got sparring partners that are better than him."
GL: Is there anything you'd like to say in closing?
ZJ: "If you want to get the real deal on Zab "Super" Judah, the first live interview, because I ain't doing nothing with nobody else...Straight from vacation, I 'm calling him while I'm on vacation right now, I called my homey at his crib, G. Leon y'all tap into Boxingtalk.com and remember ya boy said it first, ya heard!"
GL: I think most would agree that if you were at your best you win the Baldomir fight ten out of ten times. But based on the fact that he took the decision, if the Mayweather fight doesn't come off because of you not being satisfied with the money are you concerned people will paint you as the villain and reason the fight isn't happening?
ZJ: "Since I was a little kid, I've always been the villian in the movie so it wouldn't be nothing new in my book. It's just another chapter, being the bad guy in the movies is something that I like. If boxing was my only way of making money, I would be desperate and have nowhere else to go. That's like being starving on the corner if someone throws you a crumb you're going to eat it. Right now I'm just not interested in the numbers that they're talking about right now. Everybody knows that I want this Mayweather fight more than anything. Critics in boxing and boxing fans know I don't get pumped up enough for a guy like Carlos Baldomir, but if I get a guy like Cory Spinks of Floyd Mayweather, I'm known to bring out my 'A' game and my 'A' game is Super."
GL: If the Mayeather fight doesn't come off, how else could you become a million dollar fighter by April 9?
ZJ: "I don't know. That could be talked about in the future, but I'm already that. You see the made-backs and the Lamborghini's...That didn't come from no Don King you know what I'm saying. You seen my house, I'm alright homey."
GL: Are you and Don King back on the same page these days?
ZJ: "Don is my promoter and I'm a fighter so we'll handle things. I have managers and people who handle my business. King and me spoke but I wasn't really coherent to what he was saying because I busy playing my video games."
GL: So can we expect the Mayweather fight to get done when you return from vacation?
ZJ: "Anytime I got to split a million with somebody and not that I'm clocking his money, he's getting $5M and I'm supposed to splt the million 50-50 with my promoter, so $500,000 for a Mayweather fight? Nah, you're out your mind. No way America, not when we had a signed contract for $3.5M. If they want to use the Baldomir fight as an excuse to drop the money down like that, they could go ahead and look for another fight. I'm pretty sure Mayweather would be happy with that anyway, because he don't really want none."
GL: Do you feel you'll get more money than what's on the table to fight Mayweather on April 8?
ZJ: "If he wants to fight we can make it happen. To make this fight happen it don't take no Bob Arum's or Don King's. None of them dudes. All he has to do is call my phone. He's got my number and he could talk to me like a man one on one. We could do this whole shit ourself and go ahead and get money. But if we're going to be children about this, let the games begin. Floyd already knows my style."
GL: Floyd just told everybody on Boxingtalk that he's training for the Zab JUdah that fought Cory Spinks, but he says he's going to knock you out anyway...
ZJ: (cutting in) "That's Floyd Mayweather for you. That's boxing talk right there. Any fighter in their right mind is supposed to say that. That's a given. I could basically write the script of what Floyd has to say to make himself feel bigger."
GL: People were really looking forward to this fight because of the feud that developed on Boxingtalk.com between you and Floyd after years of being close friends. Then after the Baldomir fight you were speaking with each other politely as gentleman. Are you guys friends or are you going to be at each other's throats on April 8?
ZJ: "I'm not with no kissing and make up shit. If I say something that's what I mean. I don't hate Floyd and I want to be clear about that. I don't hate him and I have a great deal of respect for his family. I don't hate the dude, but in this day and era right now we're the two best fighters out here right now so that causes us to clash. Before we could clash and really go at it there's going to be some shit talking. We got to put our friendship aside so we could lock ass and lock ass serious. God knows people don't want to see a boring twelve round fight with Judah and Mayweather playing around with each other. Everybody wants to see a brutal fight."
GL: Would you be able to give us a brutal fight after that Baldomir fight Superman?
ZJ: "That's what I do, that's exactly what I do. People who want to dwell on the Baldomir go ahead and waste your breath. Bet your money and make it even better. I got tons of money and I got friends with money so if anyone wants to make some bets contact me through Boxingtalk.com, put your money up and let's make it happen."
GL: So Zab's taking all bets?
ZJ: "That's right!"
The actual "members-only, paid-for" version of the interview that made the website can be found at this link:
http://www.boxingtalk.com/pag/article6775.htmlObviously you have to be a member to view it, but here's the full second version that was emailed to me FREE OF CHARGE and copied directly from the Inbox of MY Microsoft Outlook:
QUOTE
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Leon [mailto:vze2bxtt@verizon.net]Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 7:25 PM
To: Ben Thompson
Subject: saving superman from himself
GL: What's popping Superman? "Ain't nothing. I'm fresh from Aruba right now. I'm in Puerto Rico right now, the fans here are beautiful and they're treating me really nice so viva Puerto Rico. I just touched down and my phone has been going crazy. I've been checking all my messages and just getting ready to enjoy the rest of my vacation before I put Floyd to sleep."
"Listen, the Baldomir fight was a joke to me. Those who were around me know the real story and they know what it was. I'm not making no excuses, but Baldomir couldn't beat me if I had no arms. I beat him on my bad day, but I'm not going to make no excuses. I can't even talk about Baldomir no more. I got sparring partners that are better than him."
"Everybody knows that I want this Mayweather fight more than anything. Critics in boxing and boxing fans know I don't get pumped up enough for a guy like Carlos Baldomir, but if I get a guy like Cory Spinks of Floyd Mayweather I'm known to bring out my 'A' game and my 'A' game is Super."
GL: Are you and Don King back on the same page these days?
ZJ: "Don is my promoter and I'm a fighter so we'll handle things. I have managers and people who handle my business. King and me spoke but I wasn't really coherent to what he was saying because I busy playing my video games."
GL: Floyd just told everybody on Boxingtalk that he's training for the Zab JUdah that fought Cory Spinks, but he says he's going to knock you out anyway...
ZJ: (cutting in) "That's Floyd Mayweather for you. That's boxing talk right there. Any fighter in their right mind is supposed to say that. That's a given. I could basically write the script of what Floyd has to say to make himself feel bigger."
GL: People were really looking forward to this fight because of the feud that developed on Boxingtalk.com between you and Floyd after years of being close friends. Then after the Baldomir fight you were speaking with each other politely as gentleman. Are you guys friends or are you going to be at each other's throats on April 8?
ZJ: "I'm not with no kissing and make up shit. If I say something that's what I mean. I don't hate Floyd and I want to be clear about that. I don't hate him and I have a great deal of respect for his family. I don't hate the dude, but in this day and era right now we're the two best fighters out here right now so that causes us to clash. Before we could clash and really go at it there's going to be some shit talking. We got to put our friendship aside so we could lock ass and lock ass serious. God knows people don't want to see a boring twelve round fight with Judah and Mayweather playing around with each other. Everybody wants to see a brutal fight."
GL: Would you be able to give us a brutal fight after that Baldomir fight Superman?
ZJ: "That's what I do, that's exactly what I do. People who want to dwell on the Baldomir go ahead and waste your breath. Bet your money and make it even better. I got tons of money and I got friends with money so if anyone wants to make some bets contact me through Boxingtalk.com, put your money up and let's make it happen."
GL: So Zab's taking all bets?
ZJ: "That's right!"
GL: Is there anything you'd like to say in closing?
ZJ: "If you want to get the real deal on Zab "Super" Judah, the first live interview, because I ain't doing nothing with nobody else...Straight from vacation, I 'm calling him while I'm on vacation right now, I called my homey at hwBoxingtalk.com and remember ya boy said it first, ya heard!"
So when people wonder why certain fighters, like Zab, are "loyal" to Leon, it's simply because of situations like this. A particular fighter might express his opinion about things, but because of Leon's perceived relationships with certain people, he "advices" them that it may not be a "good look" and suggests other ways to say things or simply just rewords it himself in order to make it come out differently. There are several examples of this and if you read between the lines, you can pretty much tell when it's happening...well, at least I can.
Not exactly a bastion of journalistic integrity, but then again, you probably already knew that.
But that's just a small, tiny example of "advice" given to fighters and the monkey business that goes on behind the scenes. The best example I ever witnessed was the masterful maneuver he pulled with Cory Spinks...getting him to bounce from Don King behind his back to sign with Bobby Bostick. Very, very sneaky move. Ah, but that's another story...all in due time...all in due time.
<<< Greg after this whole thread. lol
