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None of the involved people had expected to see this face at the purse bid for the WBC heavyweight championship bout between Samuel Peter and Vitali Klitschko. But Ahmet Öner showed up anyways as sort of “surprise guest” and with a big check in his pocket. The CEO of Hamburg based ARENA Box-Promotion was willing to put about 13 million US-Dollars on the table for the title fight.
“Why not?”, states Öner. “This is a huge show. We could have done it in Germany, America, anywhere in the world. And I’m pretty sure that we would have made a nice benefit with it.”
But proverbially in the last minute the involved parties in the championship – Don King and Dino Duva on the Peter side and Shelly Finkel and Tom Loefler respresenting Klitschko – reached an agreement for a co-promotion, obviously to avoid a third party getting in to “steal” the fight from them.
“Actually I even allowed them to negotiation beyond the appointed time for the purse bid”, reports Öner.
Even WBC president Jose Sulaiman complimented the “surprise guest” for his fairness and gave the recommendation to involve him or some of his fighters in the promotion.
“I think that’s a good idea”, says Öner. “At least my presence in Mexico made the agreement possible in the first place. It seemed to me as if the two sides needed a little ‘pressure’ from the outside to get this done. We’ll see how grateful they are for my help.”
