Heartbreak Hotel (Editing)

Chapter 97: Faint Whispers

Michael's POV

I sat down at the table was stood in front of a window that overlooked all of New York City. My manager, Frank Dileo, sat across from me. His chubby face sat on his neck with his black hair just falling a bit off his forehead. He was lightening his thick smelly cigar that hung out of his mouth. After taking a puff his small brown eyes met mine and he pulled it of his mouth, licking his lips. "What did you find out?" I asked him, as I sat my leg over the other.

He shook his head and sighed. " It doesn't look good, man. The guy is a crook-like you said-I dug up some information on all the boxing matches he promoted, and I found out that he skimmed money from closed-circuit fights and sold five-hundred-dollar tickets to boxing matches but he didn't report the sales. Back in '82 he was sued by Muhammad Ali for underpaying him 1.1 million dollars for a fight against some guy-I can't remember his name-but apparently he settled the case..."

"I heard about that," I said. Deep in thought.

"Apparently, he got in touch with one of Ali's friends. His name was Jeremiah Shabazz, and he gave him a suitcase with $50,000 in cash. After the the case was settled. " He stuck his cigar back in his mouth before continuing. " Ali was in the hospital at the time and he went there to visit him to give him the money. But before he gave it to him he made him sign a contract stating that gave him the right to promote his future fights." He reached into his brief case and handed me a copy of the contract.

"He always was accused of cheating Larry Holmes out of $10 million in fight purses. Even claiming 25% of his purses as his hidden manager. He only got $150, 000, out of a contract worth $500,000." He laid out more papers that he was able to gather on Don King. " He was also accused by Tim Witherspoon, and the list goes on and on. All for the same thing, underpaying the people who hired him."

"You're kidding," I said as I glanced at all the papers. " I told them not to hire him. I told them the guy's crook."

"And was able to find out who brought in the idea about the dumb tour ticket policy."

"Who?" I asked. The main reason why I told him to dig up Don's history was because I wanted to know who came up with that idea. I was convinced that it had to have been him because I was no fool to his history. I had heard whispers about all the people he had supposedly cheated money out of. I just didn't know how much of was the truth. I had never met him until that year before, and once I did, I knew something wasn't right. I could see our reputations being broken the more he continued to work for us.

It was nearly broken when the tour ticket policy was announced back in June. Everybody thought the idea was outrageous, and crazy. We were being called selfish, and greedy by the press, like I said we would. Then I received a letter from an eleven year old fan named Ladonna Jones. She told me that she had been saving up money to see one of our shows, but with the system that was created, she couldn't afford them. She flat out called me selfish and greedy in the letter and that's what really had me pissed. Being called that by the press was on thing, but by a child? That was the lowest low for me.

Liyah said this would happen. She told me that it wouldn't look good on me, and that I need to do everything in my power to change it. Especially because the majority of my fans were children or teenagers. We spent night over the phone talking about it while we were miles away from each other. She kept saying it wasn't gonna look good, but what she didn't understand was that I was completely powerless against them. I was voted out, one out of six.

After receiving the letter I called a meeting with Joseph, Don, and Chuck. I sat there down and simply said, " Change the ticket policy. It's a rip off and you know it. I know it. Now change it. Or I won't tour." They tried to stop it, but I was serious. I was serious when I said that this tour was their last shot, and that I was tired of helping, but I wasn't going to let them rip off my fans.