Rick Glaser, the man who is representing heavyweight boxer Curtis Harper through an ongoing investigation, explained Harper's reasoning for walking out of a fight on national television.
In an interview with Fightful, Glaser said Harper's reasoning for not going through with a fight between him and Efe Ajagba goes beyond than simply being unhappy with his $6,000 purse. Glaser explains that the people in charge of putting the fight and the card together made promises to Harper that were not fulfilled.
Harper considered not fighting at all, but when he walked to the ring and saw a matchmaker speaking with Ajagba's team and being in their corner, Glaser said it was the last straw and Harper made the decision to walk out of the ring as the fight started.
“Everything that led up to this, he was completely japped around and he felt like he was being abused and he was being set up as cannon fodder. They didn’t give a sh*t about him. They didn’t pick him up for an hour and 45 minutes after arriving at the airport, everything they did was wrong. There’s 20 things that was done wrong or is ambiguous. He was completely fed up. He then saw the matchmaker that was at the show and he was in the corner of the other fighter when the fight was about to start and that was the breaking point for him. It was incredible! The matchmaker was supposed to be unbiased and in the meantime, you look up and you see him in the corner of the other fighter. He just had it up to this eyeballs with this whole promotion and he was tired. He was thinking about not fighting before but that was the coup de grace. That was the final straw,” Glaser said.
Since the walkout, Harper has garnered a negative reputation among the boxing community, but Glaser was quick to point out that Harper was not scared to fight Ajagba and that his new reputation is unwarranted.
“Everybody is making him out to be this scared coward and that’s absolutely not true,” Glaser said.
As a result of him walking out, Harper was disqualified and could be facing a suspension from the Minnesota Office of Combative Sports. A decision from the commission is expected to be announced soon.
