By Luke Furman

As previously reported on bokser.org and BoxingScene.com, Mariusz 'The Viking' Wach (31-1, 17 KOs) is practically fighting for free on November 4, when he confronts Olympic gold medal winner Alexander Povetkin (29-1, 21 KOs). Polish giant was having difficulties with his promoters and saw this fight as opportunity to get out of the contact. After this bout, Wach will become a free agent. The stakes are also high on the sport's level - Povetkin is the current mandatory to WBC heavyweight the title.

Wach claims that "ninety percent of the purse will not fall into his pocket". In the recent inteview for Polish site bokser.org he elaborates on crisis situation.

"The formula of cooperation between me and my promoters (Mariusz Kolodziej and Jimmy Burchfield) is exhausted. For a long time there was no trust between us, and the trust is essential for a business partnership to be a success. I'll give you the example. I was initially added to Polsat Boxing Night fight card when opportunity to fight Povetkin suddenly came out and I started to wait for official information from the Russian side. Then Jimmy Burchfield sent me an e-mail with a fight proposal. But it wasn't the original contract, it was just a string of sentences put together by Burchfield." - Wach explained.

"I wanted only one thing - to see the original version. I realized then that there was no will from my promoters to show me the proposal of Mr Riabinski, Povetkin's promoter. On top of that, Burchfield and Kolodziej started to put pressure on me to sign the contract submitted by them. I realized that something's being done behind my back so I decided to contact my manager, Ivaylo Gotzev, who is obviously supposed to look after me and check up on promoters. It turned out that Gotzev has a very good relationship with the Russian side. Also, the Russians checked on Gotzev's managerial authority in my case. Ultimately, they showed him the original contract, the one which was sent to my promoters. As you can probably guess, my worst fears were proved correct. Original contract's financial terms were completely different from the one which was sent to me. The difference was huge."

"In the offer presented by my promoters there was nothing about television broadcast rights in Poland, and I was guaranteed such rights automatically by Mr Riabinski’s World of Boxing. So, the television broadcast rights in Poland are on my side. At present, it is me who is entitled to sell such rights, and these television rights will ultimately prevent me from paying additional money for the fight, and I’ll have some cash left for living. Each television station may theoretically buy these rights from me, however, I must admit that we have been carrying out some negotiations with one TV station and soon we should come to a compromise. We will see at what price we’ll be able to negotiate the terms of this purchase, because, I stress yet again, after receiving my part of the payment and paying for all sparring partners, hotels and travels, I would lose a lot of money because of this fight. Thanks to the television rights I’ll break even, or maybe I’ll be able to save some money for living. Now, looking back, I regret a little that I didn’t care about learning the terms of each fight at the very beginning. In my career I’ve never seen an original contract, and it was my mistake."

"Bad things started to happen from the day of the fight with Klitschko. The misunderstandings had occurred already before the event. And you know what happened next – the disqualification. OK, what’s gone is gone, but the time passed and I waited for offers to come. I wanted to rebuild my career, but there were no offers, or at least they weren’t presented to me. When it comes to the famous fight with Bryant Jennings... I didn’t see an original contract then as well. The same situation happened not long ago when the fight with Anthony Joshua was much talked about. And the funniest thing was that it was the British who gave up the fight! Joshua’s trainer simply came to the conclusion that his boxer was a world champion material and there was no need to rush in order not to overdo. Moreover, the trainer decided that at that stage I could be too dangerous for Joshua, because he had never fought for a longer distance, and there was a high risk that a fight with me could last more than two-three rounds.

"And because of Mariusz Kolodziej’s tweets it was thought that it was me who refused the offers. First, I was being made a fool of, and then I was being dissed by unaware fans. In fact, I was always last to know, mostly from the press. Nobody contacted me with serious intents after the fight with Klitschko. There was nothing specific, only some questions. And it was me who put my life at risk. It was me who would take heavy blows from Povetkin, not the promoters. However, it was them who earned more than me. And honestly: was that normal? Of course, money isn’t the most important thing, but I need to be the breadwinner for my kid and my wife, and I have to pay bills.

"Therefore, for some time, I have been surrounding myself with people that I completely trust. The fight with Povetkin will be very hard, and certainly I’m not his favorite, but because of the situation and the opportunity to terminate this contract, I decided to fight almost for free. I want to get it over with and look calmly to the future. There is still some time and a few fights ahead of me."

"I was once offered to come to the USA to Burchfield’s show, but I had to pay for my own fight! The contract clearly said that I was guaranteed three fights per year. But my promoters didn’t comply with the contract at all. Theoretically, I could terminate this contract, but I didn’t want to be dragged to courts in the USA and lose more and more months and even years. I just wanted to rebuild my career after having been defeated by Klitschko, nothing more. So I decided to take actions similar to those I took due to the present situation with Povetkin. It costs me a lot, because I could’ve earned a huge amount of money, but as I said, I just want to get it over with.

"Note that my promoters wanted to discredit Ivaylo Gotzev from the very beginning. They presented the situation in such a way that I allegedly didn’t get any offers because of him. In the meantime, the Russians respected his position of a manager. If it wasn’t for him, I would be aware of a different sum of money for the fight than the one presented to me by the Russians. This sum was very, very different from the one that was presented by my promoters. Gotzev was discredited not only by Mr Kolodziej but also by Andrzej Wasilewski. At some point there was a great smear campaign against him. But why? Because he cared about his client’s interests and tried his best so that my promoters complied with the contract they had signed with me. That’s the fact! Moreover, my promoters spent no single cent on me since the fight with Klitschko. None, zero! And what is more, Mr Kołodziej repeated many times that he treated boxing as a hobby. You know, it’s hard to be a heavyweight boxer and conclude a promotional contract, which your whole career depends on, with a man who doesn’t treat it in terms of business, who doesn’t have a professional approach but treats boxing as his hobby.

"Do you remember the alleged offer to fight with Jennings? And I won’t mention the original contract again, but there was something more. I had a foot injury, I wasn’t in a good shape, and I and my trainer Piotr Wilczewski decided that I could agree to the fight only when I knew the specific date of the fight and had the time to prepare myself. I couldn’t go straight into the fight with such a daredevil like Jennings, could I? And that’s what our reply to Kolodziej looked like. If there was enough time for preparation, fine. And my promoter instead of respecting my decision, made me look like a quitter and coward. He announced the fight in the media, although it wasn’t completely agreed on. And it was the same this time. First, he announced that the fight with Povetkin would take place, and only then they sent me the fight offer. When I and Gotzev started to negotiate this fight with the Russians, Kolodziej allegedly spread the word that I had already signed the contract.  And I hadn’t even seen it… The Russians were also confused. You know, I’m not afraid of anyone, but if I’m a professional boxer, I want to be surrounded by real professionals.

"During those negotiations we were clearly informed that either we gave them back our 90% of our payment or I would be banned from my career, and I would fight neither in Russia, nor at Polsat Boxing Night. We were bluntly informed about it by Jimmy Burchfield Jr., the son of my promoter, who’s a lawyer. My promoters understood that in that situation I could make a great fuss about two different contracts. The real one with the Russians, and the second one which wasn’t even a contract but an offer to fight, with different sums of money. And I didn’t want to spend many months or years at courts, and not evolve. So we came to a compromise. I do my thing, go into the ring in Kazan, and the next day I’m a free player who can finally decide about himself."

"I am grateful to Kolodziej for what he’s done for me at the beginning. He boosted my career and because of him I fought for the heavyweight world champion title. I won’t take it away from him and I’m grateful for that. But what happened next was very mean to me. He went in Rome and did as the Romans do, becoming a typical promoter who only cared about his business. Then I just felt like I was being deceived. I’m glad that someone like Mariusz Grabowski showed, because thanks to him my career took off a bit again. It was him who funded four fights, and without these won fights (even if the opponents are nowadays only of an average category), Povetkin’s team would have never contacted me. These four victories were the reason why people talk about me again. Of course, it was a win-win situation, because Grabowski and his team became well-known thanks to my fights. So we both benefited from the situation.

"Moreover, Polsat TV also helped to achieve all of that. Those four recent fights were under the banner of Global Boxing and Tymex, but in fact, my promoters didn’t spend any cent, and all was paid by Grabowski, supported, as well as me, by Robert Wasowicz, who’s known among fans as “Babcia Malina” (Granny Raspberry). In fact, the only good thing that my promoters have done for me recently is a letter from Jimmy Burchfield to the President of WBC. But they were just bricking it, because when I got higher in the WBC table, they wanted to offer me a fight with Joshua. So I’m closing this chapter, I’m leaving it all behind, and I’m focusing on the future. Now I want to breathe a sigh of relief, and cause a sensation in Kazan. In the fight with Povetkin I will do my best! This fight in my view is a “Fight for Freedom”, so it’s a double motivation."