Damon Feldman says the fight isn’t canceled–the cancellation tweets were sent out during an “emotional” moment. Feldman claims he has a “plan” for the fight to have a “happy” ending.
Damon Feldman, the promoter behind the Zimmerman/DMX boxing match, seems to have a history of jumping the gun and doing things prematurely.
He did it when he announced the fight–and he did it when he canceled.
According to Feldman himself, as of Sunday evening, 9 PM, America can disregard the tweets he sent saying the fight was canceled.
Feldman says he sent the tweets during an “emotional” moment:
“I sent those tweets because I went through an emotional situation. I looked at my kids and I got emotional. I didn’t sleep for three days because I’m trying to figure out how this thing happened. As of right now, the fight is not canceled.”
Feldman revealed that he’s been in meetings all of Sunday to figure out “what direction” to take the planned boxing match:
“Right now we’re in meetings as we talk. It all happened so fast; It became a worldwide story. I honestly didn’t know it would go as far as the White House and me being threatened. Zimmerman still wants to fight but I’m trying to find out what direction to go in. I have a plan, though.”
He swears that his intent isn’t to hurt anyone, alleging that if he backs out of doing the boxing match now, someone else will come along and do it if he doesn’t. He also acknowledges that any proceeds would be the ill gotten gains of blood money.
However, the acknowledgement does little to deter him from going through with the fight:
“This is a life altering thing for me career wise. If I didn’t do this and I did call it off, who’s gonna take care of my kids and family? If I couldn’t do this, who’s gonna put food on my table? I understand the blood money thing, but if I don’t do this, someone else will.”
When I raised the issue of Zimmerman’s (non) “celebrity” status with Feldman, he was quick to state that he didn’t find Zimmerman a celebrity either, saying that Zimmerman is, however, “infamous.”
“People who are infamous and controversial” are the kinds of people he books for his fights. He supported his statement by saying that he’s done a lot of controversial fights before–Tonya Harding, Michael Lohan, Rodney King, Jose Canseco.
I immediately countered that none of those individuals had killed an unarmed teenager; nor anyone else for that matter.
Feldman’s response? That he’d been in talks with O.J. Simpson before.
Simpson, while also despicable, was at least at one time in his life a legitimate celebrity–and it was before he was accused of killing two people–not because of the accusations.
Zimmerman was neither a “celebrity” nor infamous prior to the slaying of Trayvon Martin.
To draw a comparison between the celebrity of O.J. Simpson and George Zimmerman is impossible; simply because unlike Simpson, prior to the killing of Trayvon, Zimmerman had no “celebrity” or infamy.
Unlike Zimmerman, Simpson was not thrust into the spotlight solely because he was allegedly a killer. It was in fact, the opposite: Simpson’s celebrity is what drew mainstream media attention to his wife’s murder.
Nor did Feldman or Simpson use the possibility of a fight to troll America in a quest for shameless self promotion.
There’s also the fact that Simpson was legally unable to profit off the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman; the Goldman family sued him civilly and won. The rights to his If I Did It book were given to the Goldmans to partially satisfy their judgement against him.
This is blood money; this is giving Zimmerman opportunities because he gunned down an unarmed teenager.
This is not O.J. Simpson.
Zimmerman wouldn’t have this opportunity if it wasn’t for Trayvon Martin’s murder.
To Feldman, it fell upon deaf ears.
“The media made George Zimmerman a celebrity,” he said. ”Not me. I don’t think he is a celebrity.”
Feldman says that he has to realize that Zimmerman “technically” got off:
“I do have to realize that technically he got off. He was found innocent. I have nothing to do with the case. I’m not a judge. I wasn’t following the case. I only knew about the verdict. I’ve since then gone back and read things. I don’t like Zimmerman. I don’t dislike Zimmerman. Do I like what I’ve read? No. Do I like what he did? No. I feel terrible about the situation, I really do. I wasn’t there, though. None of us were. It was only him and Trayvon. The rest of us are going on theory. He got off…that means he has the right to work in the United States. It’s only going to be one fight. He’s not working for me or anything.”
Feldman doesn’t seem to understand the bigger picture; nor does he seem to understand the message that this fight sends America, a message that goes out to everyone, no matter what side you’re on: George Zimmerman should be celebrated for what he did. He should be rewarded for killing an unarmed teen. If you happen to be a victim–a young black unarmed male, as is often the case–your life is worthless to the justice system, but a cash cow to your killer and other capitalists who wish to profit off of you.
I asked Feldman if he knew about the murder of Jordan Davis, another unarmed black teen in Florida, who was gunned down over loud music.
Jordan’s executor, Michael Dunn, is on trial right now, in Jacksonville, Florida.
Should we expect to see Dunn in a fight?
Because the only fight he should be getting in is one where his opponent’s name is Big Bubba, aka Inmate No. 555555, in cellblock three.
I explained to him how this goes much deeper than just justice–it points to unresolved problems that lie in the hearts of many communities–communities where young black and Latino males are unjustly targeted.
Feldman said he’d never heard of Jordan Davis.
While DMX’s team has said there’s no contract and denied DMX was holding out for money, Feldman insists that’s not true, saying that there would “obviously” be pay involved.
The statement Feldman gave me was that both The Game and DMX wanted paid for their participation in the boxing match.
He also said that DMX does have a contract; X just hasn’t signed it and returned it yet.
DMX’s publicist, Domenick Nati, was legitimately stunned when I reached out to him and told him Feldman still hasn’t canceled the fight.
Feldman says there’s a “50/50 chance” the fight will happen and that he will announce his decision at Tuesday’s press conference.
He also asked me to link to his site in this post–something neither myself or The Source would ever do.
“But I’m giving you a one on one before anyone else,” he said. ”What if I stop the fight? Will you guys do it then?” he laughed.
Feldman also clarified something that all of America desperately needs to know: This is not and would not be a charity boxing match.
The participants–including Zimmerman–will be compensated.
Per Feldman, Zimmerman is to give “some” of his earnings to charity–how much and to what charity hasn’t yet been determined.
Who determines the amount that goes to charity? Why, the killer, of course. How convenient.
As for Zimmerman’s opponent, so be it DMX or anyone else, “What they do with their earnings is solely up to them,” says Feldman.
Feldman says if it doesn’t work out with DMX, he’s getting “major offers from people in hip hop” as we speak. He listed the aforementioned rapper The Game, but declined to give any other names, saying he couldn’t release that information at this time.
The boxing promoter mentioned that he knew the Reverend Al Sharpton had commented on the fight, but he “didn’t exactly know” what Sharpton’s comments were. He went on to say that he reached out to Sharpton to get a suggestion as to what charity to donate the money too; Sharpton hasn’t responded.
According to Feldman, the most any participant in one of his “celebrity” boxing matches has ever been paid was $5,000.
He declined to say how much Zimmerman and his opponent would be paid–but I’m more than willing to bet it’s a much larger figure than $5,000, given that the fight is backed by Alki David, a billionaire with a bad reputation–and a reputation for streaking.
In the past, David has offered $1 million dollars to anyone who would streak in front of President Obama–like he did in 2010. He’s also tried to engineer a Chris Brown/Drake boxing match, for which he offered up $10 million dollars.
Alki David has also fooled the media in the past, having them believe that his company had the first livestream of an assisted suicide.
Guess who’s company would be livestreaming this fight?
None other than that of Alki David, which is how I’m also certain that Zimmerman, Feldman, and any opponent would be looking at a much more substantial payout than $5000.
Perhaps this is why Feldman is so convinced that anyone given the opportunity he’s been given would jump on it.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he said meekly. ”I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not about anything other than doing what I love–entertainment. And boxing. It’s not about anything personal. It’s not about anything other than business,” he insisted.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said again.
To me, he sounds as if he’s making an attempt to convince himself he’ll still be able to sleep at night, whilst in the the cushy comfort of blood money and ill gotten gains.
Perhaps this is why Feldman is struggling with his emotions, having “emotional” moments as he looks at his own children and tries to put a price on their lives, like the price he is putting on Trayvon Martin.
Or the price he’s putting on himself; the price to be bought by Alki David–to be Alki David’s puppet, who puts a price on Trayvon Martin’s life.
Feldman told me that he has a plan for everything and there would be a “happy” ending for everyone.
When I asked him about the Martins and their happy ending, he alluded to the fact this would somehow benefit them, saying he “had a plan for that” but “doesn’t want to comment.”
To the Martins, there’s no amount of money in the world that can bring their greatest joy–their son Trayvon–back.
There are people in the world who have learned that people’s lives matter more than profits; that money cannot buy happiness. Sometimes, they have to learn this the hard way.
It sounds like Damon Feldman may just be one of those people.
April Dawn (@scarlettsinatra)
