Celebrity boxing promoter Damon Feldman has announced that he is cancelling the planned fight between rapper DMX and George Zimmerman, the controversial figure at the centre of the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. The fight was scheduled to take place this March.
DMX had never officially signed off on the fight, with the rapper’s publicist telling Rolling Stone, “The boxing match between George Zimmerman and DMX is not officially confirmed. DMX has promised to ‘beat his ass’, but no contract or paperwork has been signed or agreed to yet.”
However, Feldman, who in the past has organised boxing matches involving other controversial figures like Tonya Harding, Rodney King, and Joey Buttafuoco, has now called off the fight completely, tweeting, “I’m sorry for anyone I hurt with this, but this was a very big opportunity.”
Feldman cited a conflict of conscience, writing, “More to life then [sic] money. It was worth a lot of money to me, but people’s feelings meant more to me. I walked away from a million dollar payday with this fight but to be honest, I’d rather be happy and make people happy. Thank you.”
“Zimmerman was the wrong person to have in this,” Feldman told Rolling Stone. “I looked into the eyes of my son and daughter today and couldn’t imagine someone killing them and getting off scot-free. It just really hurt. It was a tough decision because I could have made two million dollars here…”
Feldman added “at least I have my dignity” and said that he is “happy.” Meanwhile, DMX’s publicist Domenick Nati has reiterated previous comments, telling the magazine that his client “never agreed to the fight,” while adding, “we thank you for all of the support from DMX’s fans.”
When asked previously by RS why DMX was approached as Zimmerman’s opponent, Feldman said, “We like him because he’s controversial,” adding, “Zimmerman’s controversial. And that’s it. He asked to fight him and said, ‘He’ll piss on his face.’ It’s not like we picked him out of a hat.”
Done with George Zimmerman if you had a major payday sitting in front of you , I know no one else would walk away like I did ***Next!!
— Damon Feldman (@hollywoodbox11) February 9, 2014
