By William Doherty

 

Florida Welterweight Antoine Smith (2-0) looked forward to traveling last month to Wild Bill’s Concert Hall in Duluth, Georgia outside of Atlanta, even though  he was putting his record on the line and giving his opponent the home field advantage.  Smith even decided to take short money for the four round fight (with the hopes that he would get the chance to be on television. The event promoted June 16th by Dana Pitcher Productions appeared on Comcast Cable, CSS, Cox Sports, and Direc TV’s Sports Package.

 

Smith who prevailed in his bout returned home and was shortly to learn  that the purse check that he had deposited in the bank was returned  for lack of funds according to his manager Nelson Guzman.

 

“It’s just not right that a month after the fight and Antoine has not been paid yet and worse by giving him a bad check it just snowballed his troubles with fees and other checks being returned, I thought that is was one of the things that commissions were supposed to insure didn’t happen”

 

“Antoine is such a great kid and has two children and a family to support, to take a fight and be on the road to do that is hard enough but then to get  hurt financially like this is worse.”

 

Guzman informed us that  Florida matchmaker Keith Terceira had been informed of the problem and was trying to get things right and had informed the Georgia Commission in their behalf.

 

“ I have informed the commissioner last week  that we had been trying to get this problem fixed since the last week of June. At first we attempted to deal with the situation without bringing it to the commission out of respect for Peyton Sher and Dana Pitcher but after several dubious promises and excuses we finally had to inform the commissioner.” Terceira continued with his own take on the issue.

 

“It is part and parcel of the problems in boxing. When this happens word gets around that promoters are not to be trusted even though the majority can be. When these things happen though it could be accidental, fighters begin looking out for themselves and dropping contracted fights when they get better offers, not showing up for planes, etc. It’s a cycle of disrespect. Same as with the Castillo weight fiasco. Something needs to be done to break this round robin in boxing. “

 

When asked Keith Terceira clarified why he was involved with the issue and the handling of this matter.

 

“A couple of month’s ago I introduced part of Smith’s management to Dana Pitcher Productions , that was just  prior to me ending my relationship with Dana, so that made me morally responsible, I also put together the main event for the 16th of June , negotiating with  Lawrence Chapman..   I honestly thought it was just a matter of Dana being to busy to juggle several things but after several promises of immediate payment for both Antoine and my own fees for the main event were not fulfilled we had no choice.  If it’s any conciliation to Antoine, I will offer to pay him myself,  my taking a stand for a friend and a boxer is more important than a fee. I hope that this is cleared up prior to Smith needing an attorney. I'm sure that the commissioner is going to handle things quickly. ”

 

We placed several calls to the Georgia Commission but a recording announced they were out of the office until Wednesday. Calls to the offices of Dana Pitcher Productions in Louisiana went unreturned.

 

On a personal note I agree with Mr. Terceira as to the cycle of shame there has been lately in Boxing, this is another example of disgraceful  and unprofessional  behavior in the sport that weakens us and forces fighters into a corner. On further investigation we also learned that other checks had also been returned to people from this event on June 16th.