WBA junior welterweight titlist, "Vicious" Vivian Harris is disgusted with his promoter Main Events. Harris says he has been trying to get a release to no avail, and shortly after Arturo Gatti became the WBC junior welterweight champ he called Boxingtalk and explicitly stated, "I can't believe things like this happen in boxing! If a fighter doesn't want to be with you, you should let the fighter go. Main Events doesn't care about me; they treat me like a dog. They're treating me REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad. I want out of the contract, they want to keep talking, but there's nothing else to talk about. They're not doing anything for me, and everybody in boxing knows that. They have Gatti and Bojado, so they have people in my division who they could do things with, they should just let me go." It gets far more explicit as Harris continued. "I got kids to feed so why are they holding me back. I want to be with somebody else who wants me because I know these people don't care about me!"
BT: Why are you saying all this?
VH: "I'll tell you why, because when I became a world champion they haven't done anything for me. I knocked Hurtado out in two rounds on a Showtime Main event and since then I haven't been on TV once since then. No TV, and I'm a champ. After becoming champ, they let Don King win a purse bid, so I fought one of his guys in Vegas on his show. And at first they wanted to send me to France. There's big fights out there for me that they could make if they wanted to, but they want to protect those other fighters they have who are in my division. And I respect that. Just let me go. Because my kids got to eat too, and right now with the way they're treating me, they're taking food out of my kids mouths. JUST LET ME GO. Why starve me? Let me go! And I'm not going to stop until Main Events lets me out of the contract. That's what I want and they don't want to do it. They make all these promises but they never fulfill them. They're making a lot of bulls*@# promises.
I feel really bad about not being on TV since I've become champion. I'm one of the best fighters in one of the hottest divisions in boxing. And they can't get me fights? So how the hell do they get these young fighters who haven't done s*@# on TV all the time against bums? Cotto is my mandatory, Zab Judah wanted to fight me, and these guys can't get me fights? Bojado got his ass kicked and they built him right back up, on TV. If I got my ass kicked they'd use me as an opponent. And we have the same manager and the same promoter so what's the difference? It says something, and I don't want to say they're showing racism or favouritism, or discrimination, but I want out of the contract because they're definitely not treating me right.
"These people aren't pushing a Cotto fight, or my mandatory against Kostya Tszyu. But they're pushing Bojado and Gatti. Look who Gatti just fought! Some half dead motherf*@# and he couldn't even knock the kid out. Imagine what I would have done to Gatti tonight! And they know that, and that's why they're playing games. Gatti fought a bum and now they want to put him in with Leonard Dorin, another scrub. They won't put him in there with me because they need him to eat. So while they eat, I'm here starving.
"When I was coming up I was taking tough fights, real fights, for dirt money. I took the same money all the time because I figured that after I work hard to become world champion, these people are going to be pushing me. Now I'm world champion and things didn't get better.
BT: After reading this, do you think Main Events will let you out of their contract?
VH: Definitely. Because right now I don't even feel like I have a contract with Main Events. If you look at the contract that Shelly Finkel made me sign, it was a contract that I was signed for ten years. It's a bulls*@# contract and I'm telling you, the next time we do an interview I'm going to give you the contract so you can put it on the Internet. And I'm going to do it, just so the other people in boxing see what they're doing. They are good in public but behind closed doors they do a lot of dirty s*@#. And then they're trying to force me to go to Germany! Why are they coming at me with the bulls*@#? Main Events think I'm their Kunta Kinte.
BT: Are you saying Main Events signed you to a ten- year deal?
VH: Yes. When my new lawyer talk to me about the contract he said they signed me for ten years. They had me for four years with an additional three years. Then when I became world champion they added six more fights. They don't want to let me go because they know Gatti and Bojado can't f*@# with me! That's why they're trying to keep my name out of the mix. Plus if they keep me, they can keep me away from Gatti and Bojado and that's why they want to keep me. They want to f*@#. me! All I want them to do is let me go so I could be someone that's going to want to make moves with a fighter like me. If Main Events thinks so much of Gatti and Bojado and they promote all of us, why don't they put me in with them? Gatti and Bojado are fighting on HBO, but they want me to travel to Europe to fight on somebody else's show. It just doesn't make sense. I want to be with someone else so I could come back and kick their fighters asses!
BT: Unfortunately, you had to pull out of the Urkal fight because of a hand injury. Vivian, how is the hand coming along?
VH: Greg, I have not been able to resume my training yet, because I'm still having some difficulties with my hand, and my doctor has instructed me not to use my hand or resume training until the third week in February. But my promoter Main Events want to put money in their pockets, so they'd risk my career to line their wallets. I recently did an MRI on my hand and it came back fine, but I still have swelling and pain in my hand and I still can't use it. (Boxingtalk)