Tyson-Williams promoter has his own dubious history
Posted: 25 Jul 2004, 11:18
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnew ... 14755.html
The promoter of convicted rapist Mike Tyson's heavyweight fight Friday at Freedom Hall has his own history of abusing women and other brushes with the law.
Chris A. Webb — a 10th-grade dropout from DeSales High School and former amateur boxer who has worked as a carpet cleaner, male stripper and real-estate investor — has a record of abusing three women over the past 15 years.
He is scheduled to appear in court three days after the Tyson bout for allegedly violating a domestic-violence order and threatening the mother of his child, according to a warrant that claims he called her and her family repeatedly last December to say he was in a state of mind that he could "kill someone or hurt someone really bad." He has pleaded not guilty.
Webb, who said he has staged more than 10 fights in three years as a promoter at venues that include Louisville Gardens, Caesars and Broadbent Arena, acknowledged he has had "problems in the past."
But he said: "I don't understand what any of my past mistakes have to do with this event. This is about bringing boxing back to Louisville."
Webb, 33, also has been under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to report income, according to six people who say they have been questioned by the agency. Webb confirmed he has been interviewed by the IRS.
He has been charged four times with theft in the past three years in cases that were dismissed — three of them when he paid last-minute restitution — and he has been named as a defendant in more than a dozen lawsuits.
He also was convicted of felony cocaine possession in 1994, which has barred him from getting a liquor license but did not stop the Kentucky Athletic Commission from licensing him as a promoter.
Doug Hogan, a spokesman for Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who previously distanced himself from the Tyson fight, said the disclosure of Webb's background "reinforces the governor's decision not to embrace the event and to re-evaluate the athletic commission ... so that we can have an aggressive agency that secures sporting events all Kentuckians can be proud of."
Webb supporters, and local financial backers of the Tyson fight — including one of Louisville's largest law firms and two of its best-known venture capitalists — describe him as a tenacious, charismatic man who has overcome huge personal obstacles to pull off an event that will focus world attention on Louisville.
Tyson will face Danny Williams, a former British heavyweight champion, in the main bout on a nine-fight card.
Todd Blue, whose family firm, Cobalt Ventures LLC, is helping finance the event, said: "We don't conduct background checks on everyone we transact business with. But my impression is that Chris is a very hard worker, and he wants what is best for Louisville."
Lawyer Michael Tigue of Middleton & Reutlinger, whose firm is representing Webb's Straight-Out Promotions, said Tyson and Webb both are "individuals trying to build a future."
Several boxing enthusiasts say Webb is driven by a true love of the sport. He has helped fund a free boxing program for children at Louisville Legends, a Portland neighborhood gym, where he has trained young fighters and counseled them how to avoid the mistakes he made, said trainer and manager James Doolin, who runs the club.
"He has a lot of heart," said Ward Plauche, owner of five nightclubs at O'Malley's Corner, including Coyote's, where Webb staged his first fight. Plauche discounted questions about Tyson's background — and Webb's.
"This is boxing," Plauche said, "not cheerleaders' camp."
Tyson's New York manager, Shelly Finkel, said he initially was wary that Webb had so little promotion experience but found Webb to be persistent.
"He's got a lot of aggression, in a positive way," Finkel said. "He kept calling and doing and running and getting it done."
`A good tactician'
"One-Punch Webb," as he is known, started fighting at 16, at St. George Boxing Club in the basement of an Episcopal church at 26th and Oak streets.
He stands 5 foot 5 and fought at 119 pounds — about 65 pounds less than he currently carries, although he still gets in the ring to spar.
He never lost as an amateur and scored his biggest win over Angel Manfredy of Hobart, Ind., later a world super featherweight champion, Doolin said.
"He was smart fighter, a good tactician," Doolin recalled. "He didn't like to get hit."
Webb said he grew up in "less than ideal circumstances." His mother was a cashier. He said he never knew his father, who was convicted in the 1980s of marijuana trafficking.
His older brother, whom Webb said he has seen only twice in 20 years, was paroled in May from an Indiana prison after serving time on a trafficking charge.
At 16, Webb said, he left home to live on his own, quitting school to support himself and help two younger siblings.
Even as a teenager, he was a consummate promoter and leader, recalled Plauche, who then ran a teen club called Troubadour's.
"We did a beach party, and I brought two semi-trailers full of sand," Plauche said. "Chris helped round up 100 kids with wheelbarrows and shovels who wheeled every bit of sand in and out of the building."
In his own enterprises, Webb has known both success and failure.
He has sold swimming pools, opened a carpet-cleaning business, distributed products for an Internet marketing company and owned a stake in Shakey's Lounge, a South End bar known for its "Thong Thursdays." The businesses are all now defunct.
Webb said he toured as a stripper for Hunk Mania, a New York-based company that bills itself as "the hottest male revue," catering to women and bachelorette parties.
"I was at a point that I had to do what I had to do," Webb said. "I was never totally nude. I don't know if that makes a difference."
His greatest business success came in real estate. From 1999 through 2002, he said, he bought and sold "several hundred properties," including federally subsidized Section 8 rentals he purchased, rehabbed and then quickly "flipped" for a profit.
For a time, he lived in a $500,000 home with an Iroquois Park view and drove a $67,925 red Mercedes convertible. But he was forced to sell the home, the car was repossessed and many of his properties were foreclosed upon, because he and investors couldn't pay the mortgages, according to Jefferson Circuit Court records.
In lawsuits and interviews, two of his investors alleged that Webb conspired with others to inflate the value of properties so Fifth Third Bank would lend more money than the properties were worth — and so Webb could take some of the loan proceeds.
They also contend Webb exaggerated their potential rental income. He denied any wrongdoing, and the corporate counsel for Fifth Third, John Rippy, said the cases were settled before any determination was made on the merit of the claims.
Mike Lake, the stepfather of one of Webb's ex-girlfriends, said Webb "has a heart of gold — he'll give money to everybody. But you don't want to deal with him. He gets over his head. He takes on too many things."
Four former investors, as well as Lake and his stepdaughter, Christi Barr, said in interviews or through their lawyers that they had been interviewed over the past year by an IRS agent asking about the sources of Webb's income.
Investor Golden K. Jackson said he had spoken with the agent as recently as two weeks ago, and Jackson's lawyer, Wallace Rogers, said he and his client also had discussed the matter with federal prosecutors.
Special Agent Tere Mynatt, who has served as a spokesman for the agency's criminal investigation section, said he could neither confirm nor deny the investigations. But he added: "Let me put it this way. I am very familiar with that situation."
Webb said he reported all of his income to his tax preparer.
"I think I always in my mind try to do the right things by other people," he said.
Three women in his life, however, have claimed otherwise in court.
Webb was convicted in 1989 of assault and terroristic threatening of one woman, and received a year sentence that was conditionally discharged.
In 1995, he was convicted of menacing and harassing communications of a second woman, Susan Martion, who alleged in court papers that Webb pulled a knife on her.
He has pleaded not guilty to pending charges in Jefferson District Court filed by Barr, with whom he has a daughter.
Webb wouldn't comment on the charges.
"I love my daughter too much and have too much respect for her mother to discuss my family business publicly," he said.
`Much more than Tyson'
Webb acknowledges that Tyson is no role model. And he said he can understand the concerns about bringing the volatile fighter to Louisville.
The former champ served three years in prison for the 1991 rape of beauty queen Desiree Washington in an Indianapolis hotel room.
In 1997, after Tyson bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during a bout, his Nevada boxing license was suspended for a year and he was fined $3million.
In 1999, he was released from a Maryland jail after serving 3½ months for assaulting two motorists, and in 2002 he threw a punch at Lennox Lewis' bodyguard at a news conference, setting off a brawl between the boxers.
But Webb said the nine-card match on Friday in Louisville is about "much more than Tyson," noting that Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, is on the undercard, along with other title matches.
Webb said he has wanted to bring a major fight to Louisville since he promoted his first, a pro-amateur event in which the youngest boxer was 7.
He might have gotten his biggest break about a year ago, when he staged a match outdoors at Shakey's and met Jonathan Blue, a lifelong fight fan.
Webb said he tracked down Tyson through a friend and had no trouble convincing him he was serious about the Louisville fight. "Mike was already aware of who I was at that point," Webb said.
Webb said he approached three or four potential financial backers — "only people who I knew were capable of facilitating a deal of this magnitude" — before the Blue brothers signed on.
Last week, Todd and Jonathan Blue said they had heard rumors about the problems in Webb's past, although they thought he had been pardoned for his felony conviction. He hadn't.
In a written statement to The Courier-Journal and in an interview, the brothers said Cobalt is not investing in Webb's company, Straight-Out Promotions, or promoting the fight, but instead investing in a company that has agreed to provide a portion of the crediting financing for the event.
Citing confidentiality agreements, they wouldn't say how much money they are providing.
They say their role arose out of a prior business relationship with Showtime Pay Per View, which will offer the fight live in 84 countries.
In the interview, the brothers acknowledged they hope to make a profit on their investment, but said they love the sport and have crisscrossed the country to watch it.
"There is nothing like the excitement of fight night, wherever it is," Todd Blue said.
Tyson's allure
Why does he still draw fans? "People are looking to see if he implodes," one boxing journalist says.
The promoter of convicted rapist Mike Tyson's heavyweight fight Friday at Freedom Hall has his own history of abusing women and other brushes with the law.
Chris A. Webb — a 10th-grade dropout from DeSales High School and former amateur boxer who has worked as a carpet cleaner, male stripper and real-estate investor — has a record of abusing three women over the past 15 years.
He is scheduled to appear in court three days after the Tyson bout for allegedly violating a domestic-violence order and threatening the mother of his child, according to a warrant that claims he called her and her family repeatedly last December to say he was in a state of mind that he could "kill someone or hurt someone really bad." He has pleaded not guilty.
Webb, who said he has staged more than 10 fights in three years as a promoter at venues that include Louisville Gardens, Caesars and Broadbent Arena, acknowledged he has had "problems in the past."
But he said: "I don't understand what any of my past mistakes have to do with this event. This is about bringing boxing back to Louisville."
Webb, 33, also has been under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to report income, according to six people who say they have been questioned by the agency. Webb confirmed he has been interviewed by the IRS.
He has been charged four times with theft in the past three years in cases that were dismissed — three of them when he paid last-minute restitution — and he has been named as a defendant in more than a dozen lawsuits.
He also was convicted of felony cocaine possession in 1994, which has barred him from getting a liquor license but did not stop the Kentucky Athletic Commission from licensing him as a promoter.
Doug Hogan, a spokesman for Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who previously distanced himself from the Tyson fight, said the disclosure of Webb's background "reinforces the governor's decision not to embrace the event and to re-evaluate the athletic commission ... so that we can have an aggressive agency that secures sporting events all Kentuckians can be proud of."
Webb supporters, and local financial backers of the Tyson fight — including one of Louisville's largest law firms and two of its best-known venture capitalists — describe him as a tenacious, charismatic man who has overcome huge personal obstacles to pull off an event that will focus world attention on Louisville.
Tyson will face Danny Williams, a former British heavyweight champion, in the main bout on a nine-fight card.
Todd Blue, whose family firm, Cobalt Ventures LLC, is helping finance the event, said: "We don't conduct background checks on everyone we transact business with. But my impression is that Chris is a very hard worker, and he wants what is best for Louisville."
Lawyer Michael Tigue of Middleton & Reutlinger, whose firm is representing Webb's Straight-Out Promotions, said Tyson and Webb both are "individuals trying to build a future."
Several boxing enthusiasts say Webb is driven by a true love of the sport. He has helped fund a free boxing program for children at Louisville Legends, a Portland neighborhood gym, where he has trained young fighters and counseled them how to avoid the mistakes he made, said trainer and manager James Doolin, who runs the club.
"He has a lot of heart," said Ward Plauche, owner of five nightclubs at O'Malley's Corner, including Coyote's, where Webb staged his first fight. Plauche discounted questions about Tyson's background — and Webb's.
"This is boxing," Plauche said, "not cheerleaders' camp."
Tyson's New York manager, Shelly Finkel, said he initially was wary that Webb had so little promotion experience but found Webb to be persistent.
"He's got a lot of aggression, in a positive way," Finkel said. "He kept calling and doing and running and getting it done."
`A good tactician'
"One-Punch Webb," as he is known, started fighting at 16, at St. George Boxing Club in the basement of an Episcopal church at 26th and Oak streets.
He stands 5 foot 5 and fought at 119 pounds — about 65 pounds less than he currently carries, although he still gets in the ring to spar.
He never lost as an amateur and scored his biggest win over Angel Manfredy of Hobart, Ind., later a world super featherweight champion, Doolin said.
"He was smart fighter, a good tactician," Doolin recalled. "He didn't like to get hit."
Webb said he grew up in "less than ideal circumstances." His mother was a cashier. He said he never knew his father, who was convicted in the 1980s of marijuana trafficking.
His older brother, whom Webb said he has seen only twice in 20 years, was paroled in May from an Indiana prison after serving time on a trafficking charge.
At 16, Webb said, he left home to live on his own, quitting school to support himself and help two younger siblings.
Even as a teenager, he was a consummate promoter and leader, recalled Plauche, who then ran a teen club called Troubadour's.
"We did a beach party, and I brought two semi-trailers full of sand," Plauche said. "Chris helped round up 100 kids with wheelbarrows and shovels who wheeled every bit of sand in and out of the building."
In his own enterprises, Webb has known both success and failure.
He has sold swimming pools, opened a carpet-cleaning business, distributed products for an Internet marketing company and owned a stake in Shakey's Lounge, a South End bar known for its "Thong Thursdays." The businesses are all now defunct.
Webb said he toured as a stripper for Hunk Mania, a New York-based company that bills itself as "the hottest male revue," catering to women and bachelorette parties.
"I was at a point that I had to do what I had to do," Webb said. "I was never totally nude. I don't know if that makes a difference."
His greatest business success came in real estate. From 1999 through 2002, he said, he bought and sold "several hundred properties," including federally subsidized Section 8 rentals he purchased, rehabbed and then quickly "flipped" for a profit.
For a time, he lived in a $500,000 home with an Iroquois Park view and drove a $67,925 red Mercedes convertible. But he was forced to sell the home, the car was repossessed and many of his properties were foreclosed upon, because he and investors couldn't pay the mortgages, according to Jefferson Circuit Court records.
In lawsuits and interviews, two of his investors alleged that Webb conspired with others to inflate the value of properties so Fifth Third Bank would lend more money than the properties were worth — and so Webb could take some of the loan proceeds.
They also contend Webb exaggerated their potential rental income. He denied any wrongdoing, and the corporate counsel for Fifth Third, John Rippy, said the cases were settled before any determination was made on the merit of the claims.
Mike Lake, the stepfather of one of Webb's ex-girlfriends, said Webb "has a heart of gold — he'll give money to everybody. But you don't want to deal with him. He gets over his head. He takes on too many things."
Four former investors, as well as Lake and his stepdaughter, Christi Barr, said in interviews or through their lawyers that they had been interviewed over the past year by an IRS agent asking about the sources of Webb's income.
Investor Golden K. Jackson said he had spoken with the agent as recently as two weeks ago, and Jackson's lawyer, Wallace Rogers, said he and his client also had discussed the matter with federal prosecutors.
Special Agent Tere Mynatt, who has served as a spokesman for the agency's criminal investigation section, said he could neither confirm nor deny the investigations. But he added: "Let me put it this way. I am very familiar with that situation."
Webb said he reported all of his income to his tax preparer.
"I think I always in my mind try to do the right things by other people," he said.
Three women in his life, however, have claimed otherwise in court.
Webb was convicted in 1989 of assault and terroristic threatening of one woman, and received a year sentence that was conditionally discharged.
In 1995, he was convicted of menacing and harassing communications of a second woman, Susan Martion, who alleged in court papers that Webb pulled a knife on her.
He has pleaded not guilty to pending charges in Jefferson District Court filed by Barr, with whom he has a daughter.
Webb wouldn't comment on the charges.
"I love my daughter too much and have too much respect for her mother to discuss my family business publicly," he said.
`Much more than Tyson'
Webb acknowledges that Tyson is no role model. And he said he can understand the concerns about bringing the volatile fighter to Louisville.
The former champ served three years in prison for the 1991 rape of beauty queen Desiree Washington in an Indianapolis hotel room.
In 1997, after Tyson bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during a bout, his Nevada boxing license was suspended for a year and he was fined $3million.
In 1999, he was released from a Maryland jail after serving 3½ months for assaulting two motorists, and in 2002 he threw a punch at Lennox Lewis' bodyguard at a news conference, setting off a brawl between the boxers.
But Webb said the nine-card match on Friday in Louisville is about "much more than Tyson," noting that Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, is on the undercard, along with other title matches.
Webb said he has wanted to bring a major fight to Louisville since he promoted his first, a pro-amateur event in which the youngest boxer was 7.
He might have gotten his biggest break about a year ago, when he staged a match outdoors at Shakey's and met Jonathan Blue, a lifelong fight fan.
Webb said he tracked down Tyson through a friend and had no trouble convincing him he was serious about the Louisville fight. "Mike was already aware of who I was at that point," Webb said.
Webb said he approached three or four potential financial backers — "only people who I knew were capable of facilitating a deal of this magnitude" — before the Blue brothers signed on.
Last week, Todd and Jonathan Blue said they had heard rumors about the problems in Webb's past, although they thought he had been pardoned for his felony conviction. He hadn't.
In a written statement to The Courier-Journal and in an interview, the brothers said Cobalt is not investing in Webb's company, Straight-Out Promotions, or promoting the fight, but instead investing in a company that has agreed to provide a portion of the crediting financing for the event.
Citing confidentiality agreements, they wouldn't say how much money they are providing.
They say their role arose out of a prior business relationship with Showtime Pay Per View, which will offer the fight live in 84 countries.
In the interview, the brothers acknowledged they hope to make a profit on their investment, but said they love the sport and have crisscrossed the country to watch it.
"There is nothing like the excitement of fight night, wherever it is," Todd Blue said.
Tyson's allure
Why does he still draw fans? "People are looking to see if he implodes," one boxing journalist says.