"He's welcome home and we'll continue to work like nothing happened. He can choose a manager, but he cannot choose a promoter until 2021...We will not commit suicide any longer; we will fight to the end. I will never give up. There will not be another Masada again where the Jewish commit suicide before they get killed by the enemies. I will fight to the end and this is my promise. I will fight to the end for this kid," stated promoter Sampson Lewkowicz, who responded to recent news that super middleweight champion David Benavidez has signed with fellow promoter Bob Arum. Check it out!
PC: Sampson, I wanted to ask you about the situation going on with David Benavidez and Bob Arum and...
SL: [Cutting in} I call him Captain Hook of the Desert. He has no sea, but he's still a pirate.
PC: You guys sent out a cease and desist letter. Obviously you're protecting your investment, you're protecting your fighter. Like you said, he's a 21-year-old kid. This has to be a tough ordeal for him as well because he's put in the middle of all of this.
SL: I believe that he was misled and is a young kid, because if he calls me up and tells me what is his problem, I will fix the problem. Now he lost the opportunity to make this year a million and a half [dollars], because he had a fight for half a million dollars, a bout agreeemnt that he never signed, and he has a million dollars for November or December, so I cannot understand. My understanding from the deal that he get from Bob is less.
PC: That's unfortunate, very unfortunate, because he's actually probably one of the hottest fighters out there right now, so this is definitely a setback for what he had going on. So absolutely 100% we won't be seeing him on the Lomachenko card in August.
SL: For that, I give you my personal guarantee. And definitely I never make a deal with Bob and I will never make a deal with Captain Hook of the Dessert.
PC: Where would you like to go from here as far as moving forward with David?
SL: I want to send a message to David Benavidez that if you have any issue, I know it's not with me. He's welcome home and we'll continue to work like nothing happened. He can choose a manager, but he cannot choose a promoter until 2021.
PC: When you say he was probably misled, a lot of these fighters now, because of social media, you can get at them a lot easier. Do you think that's starting to become a problem that these guys are so accessible?
SL: This is one part. Another part is where Captain Hook, he lies yesterday and today he's telling you the truth, says that he has a big fight for him. The only big fight for him, I have it. I have a million dollars for [Anthony] Dirrell and then probably have the mandatory of the winner of the tournament [World Boxing Super Series]. That would be two million plus. I cannot understand how bigger...he has nobody besides Gilberto Ramirez. He has nobody. And besides that, he did hundreds of rounds as sparring partners with Benavidez, so it would be a lousy fight because they know each other, and you cannot sell that on pay-per-view. The problem that Captain Hook has is he has $30 million for 16 dates on TV and you divide, it's $1.8 [million] and some change per fight, so he will not pay so easy a million plus to every fighter, you know what I mean. He under-pays some, he over-pays the others; he doesn't have Showtime.
Look, it's very painful because each one of these kids is like my own child. The worst thing is he [Benavidez] comes for the first time to my house last week and he hugged me and then this happened. I'm very sure that is very embarrassing for him, but sometimes, your own son, he makes mistakes, but it's time to come back home because a father will forgive him. And I will forgive him. And his own father, Jose Benavidez Sr., will forgive him and he will continue training and he will continue being a champion. It's shameful for an old man of over 85 years old, a legend in this boxing world, to finish as Captain Hook.
PC: I know you've been in this sport for a long time, so I'm sure you've probably worked with Bob Arum in the past. Have you ever dealt with anything like this from him?
SL: He has a date in court with Crawford and, most likely, he will lose that one too [Crawford's former promoter, Middendorf Sports, filed a lawsuit against Top Rank last year]. That is my personal opinion. And he has Bradley that he needs to pay a lot of money and he has so many fighters that Captain Hook took from the hard work of the promoter that he's a disgraceful person, he's a liar, and he's a theif. Now I go hard on him. I had two big fights with him. One was with Maravilla Martinez versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., which I helped him with that. The same thing with Cotto, I helped him on that, and this is what he do.
But you can tell him, the message for him is that the Jews, we said we never be in "Masada" again. Masada was when the Jews commit suicide. Masada was the story that thew Jews committed suicide and in the Jewish way, we say it will never happen again. We will not commit suicide any longer; we will fight to the end. I will never give up. There will not be another Masada again where the Jewish commit suicide before they get killed by the enemies. I will fight to the end and this is my promise. I will fight to the end for this kid. I'm so disappointed. I'm so upset that a man of 85 years old signed this kid for 5 years knowing that I have a contract and it's like nothing happened; we'll see you in court. When you'll be 90 years old, you'll already be in a nursing home. He'll be retiring. That is crazy. He doesn't need to do that.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]