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'They were trying to abuse me' Jury rejects grandfather's claim Moorer owes him money
Posted: Tuesday December 21, 1999 07:02 PM
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A federal jury took just about an hour Tuesday to reject claims by Michael Moorer's grandfather that the former heavyweight boxing champion owed him more than $1 million for work the grandfather claims he did training the fighter. Henry Smith, 79, introduced Moorer to boxing and, in the 1980s, regularly took him from his home in Monessen to a gym in Charleroi, southeast of Pittsburgh, where Smith trained fighters. Moorer, 32, convinced the eight-person jury that Smith's work as his trainer ended when the boxer turned professional and signed a contract with Emanuel Steward to be trained at Detroit's Kronk gym in 1988. Following the verdict in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, Moorer said his grandfather's lawsuit was motivated by greed. "Everyone was trying to be greedy. They were trying to abuse me," the boxer said of the lawsuit, which he first heard about in 1997 as he was training to fight Evander Holyfield, a bout he lost. "I'm not going to say anything good [about Smith]. I'm not going to say anything bad. The dirt was done," he said. Moorer, who now lives in Boca Raton, Fla., has not fought since that loss to Holyfield, which kept him from regaining the IBF and WBA heavyweight titles he had won in 1994. Moorer had lost the titles later in 1994 to George Foreman. Moorer said he is considering a return to the ring next year. Smith, who did not testify during the trial because of his health and attended court Tuesday in a wheelchair, said in response to the verdict, "That's the way the mop flops." "They owe me -- if nothing but respect, they owe me," Smith said of Moorer and his handlers. The trial hinged almost entirely on whether Smith could be considered one of Moorer's trainers after the fighter signed a five-year contract in 1988 with Steward and JEB Enterprises Inc., which handled his financial management. Shortly after signing that deal, Moorer moved to Detroit to train with Kronk and live in Steward's home. In a videotaped deposition played for the jury Monday, Steward said he had never been closer to a boxer before or since and that Smith played no role in Moorer's training. In that contract, Smith was to be paid 10 percent of Moorer's fight purses if he helped train the fighter. If he did not, Smith would still receive 5 percent -- an arrangement Moorer said amounted to a family commitment to the man who had taught him how to box. Moorer said Smith never trained him as a professional, coming to his fights just a few days in advance in most cases and attending only one training camp. Moorer's handlers testified that Smith received some $65,850 in payments and more than $20,000 in fight tickets, plane tickets, hotel rooms and meals -- which was in excess of the 5 percent amount on Moorer's purses for the length of the 1988 contract. But Smith maintained that, even though he did not train Moorer on a daily basis, his advice and "pointers" before and during his fights qualified him for the full 10 percent. And he said that he should have continued to receive that percentage even after the contract expiration in 1992 because, Smith claimed, manager John Davimos promised to "carry" him. Smith's lawyer, Richard DiSalle, said Moorer's purses were larger than his handlers acknowledged and that Smith was owed an additional $151,000 for Moorer's fights between 1988 and 1992, and more than $1 million for the boxer's bouts between 1993 and 1995. "This is not a case of a greedy grandfather coming out of the woodwork," DiSalle said in his closing argument. "It is a case of greedy people not paying Henry Smith what they contracted to pay him." Moorer's lawyer, Richard Dandrea, called the lawsuit filed by Smith "a predatory act of greed." Moorer and his handlers "were rewarded for that kindness by this lawsuit," Dandrea said.
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