King and Mayorga: Together Again

You’ll recall that boxer Ricardo Mayorga somehow convinced burgeoning MMA promotion Shine Fights that he was not under any contractual obligation to Don King. Shine bought into this despite A). Mayorga having signed a promotional agreement with King in 2008, and B). King being litigious to the point where he has a reserved seat in court. Predictably, King got an eleventh hour injunction against Shine, halting Mayorga’s MMA fight with Din Thomas and gleefully contributing to one of the biggest meltdowns in promotional history.

There were pessimists who believed Mayorga’s MMA fight was simply one long, loud attempt to get King moving on his contracted boxing matches: Mayorga happened to be in the shape of a water balloon leading up to the Thomas bout. Now FightNews.com reports that King and Mayorga have reconciled and that Mayorga will have a fight Sept. 4 in Germany against Felix Sturm.

Why is it media could easily imagine this exact outcome, yet Shine did little but choke on the sand they stuck their collective head in? Granted, it’s old news, and the industry has moved on to other things. But there’s also a kind of pleasure in seeing a fighter manipulate the system for a change. Mayorga may be abrasive, but he’s far from dumb. If only we could say the same about some of his business partners.