Amir Imam sues Don King, seeks release from contract

In 2019, longtime promoter Don King is continuing his notorious reputation for stealing money from fighters — allegedly.

Junior welterweight contender Amir Imam (21-2, 18 KOs) has been out of action since an early 2018 loss to Jose Ramirez, and alleges it’s because King has been ineffective as a promoter.

Mike Coppinger links a lawsuit Imam has filed against King which accuses the promoter of a multitude of improprieties, including one in particular that that says King paid him only $29,000 for his world championship fight against Ramirez while unlawfully distributing $43,000 to his former manager Stacey McKinley and keeping the remaining $225,000 of his purse for himself. Imam also accuses McKinley of acting in cahoots with King while serving as his manager, acting more as an agent for King than himself.

The lawsuit goes on to cite King’s long history of illicit business practices before requesting the courts to immediately release him from his contract on the basis of King failing to properly promote him, stealing purse money, and providing ineffective representation per their promotional agreement.

The only real question here — the way I see it — is how any fighter in the world could possibly think that signing with Don King would be a good idea? That King, in 2019, is even in position to still potentially swindle fighters out of their money is, quite frankly, amazing. The man has decades-old feature films depicting him of doing all the nefarious behavior Imam accuses him of in this very lawsuit, yet he still manages to be a player in this boxing game (even if it’s mostly on the fringes).