Jilted Kushner Tries to Stay Positive

Sometimes in boxing, the clinches are the most dangerous part of the fight. Cedric Kushner, equipped with enough lawsuits to fully certify his role as a promoter, learned that the hard way.

Kushner has small stable of fighters, and like everyone else in his business, he keeps hoping one of them hits paydirt and emerges as a champion. One punch is all it takes--one punch in the right place at the right time.

Hasim Rahman landed that punch last April, knocking out Lennox Lewis and claiming the most glamorous title in boxing--heavyweight champion of the world.

When Rahman won that fight, there was Kushner in the middle of the ring, celebrating the stunning victory, hugging his champion.

After all, they were a team. They had come a long way together--the chiseled fighter and the somewhat rumpled promoter with the walrus mustache. They followed the bumpy path to the top of the division together, from the time Rahman was fighting every month for small purses in towns such as Woodlawn, Md., and Moline, Ill. And now they would enjoy the spoils of the title together.

Or so Kushner thought.

It turned out that Rahman didn’t view their relationship with quite the same devotion as his promoter. The fighter had been romanced by Don King before, intrigued by a $125,000 check to skip a fight that the world’s greatest promoter could not recall writing. Now that Rahman owned the title, their affair became hot and heavy.

Rahman’s head was turned by a $5 million contract and he signed with King a month after the first Lewis fight, explaining, “I felt like I was a free agent.”

The result was that Kushner, who had always dreamed of having the heavyweight champion, no longer did. He sued, of course, and got a payoff for his troubles. But it was not quite the same as being the promoter of the champion, who was to defend the title against Lewis on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Kushner was hurt by the snub but he is moving on.

“I wouldn’t wish the wrong things for Rahman,” Kushner said in his clipped South African accent in the days before the fight. “But I am most certainly angry with him.

“At this juncture, I’ve put that behind me mentally and I am getting on with my life. Sometimes, you dwell on things and they have too severe an impact on anything else you’re working on.

“I’m not happy about the situation. I made a financial settlement and I am moving on. If I thought a different approach would have an effect, I’d conduct myself differently.”

Kushner said he had no rooting interest in the Rahman-Lewis rematch, merely professional curiosity. He remains, after all, a boxing guy, a central figure in this eclectic community.

“First and foremost,” he said, “I never channel energy into something negative, only something positive.”

Right now, Rahman is very negative for him. What is positive is the promoter’s next project: a heavyweight doubleheader in New York on Dec. 1.

That card at Manhattan’s Javits Center has Wladimir Klitschko defending his WBO heavyweight championship against David Izon, and Lance Whitaker fighting Jameel McCline. Although he is WBO champ, Klitschko does not show in the WBA or WBC top 10 rankings. His brother, Vitaly, is No. 3 with both organizations.

There is some irony here. Izon was supposed to be Rahman’s first title defense, promoted by King in China, of all places. That was before the courts ordered the champ to give Lewis his rematch.

The Javits Center is far removed from Beijing and the Vegas strip, and these are heavyweights in pounds if not reputation. But right now, it’s the best Kushner can offer.

Certainly, he thinks about Rahman. He chooses, however, to accept things as they are and not as they might have been.

“I’m not totally without feeling,” Kushner said. “But I am handling this is a professional way and in such a way that life goes on. I am confident I will secure the champion again in the future, hopefully sooner or later.”

And, he hopes, one who doesn’t walk out on him.