Back in 2012, Australian boxer Billy Dib agreed to sign a three-year deal with 50 Cent after he formed a joint boxing promotion company called TMT Promotions with Floyd Mayweather. 50 and Mayweather had a highly-publicized falling out a short time later, though, which led to Dib falling under the control of 50’s new company SMS Promotions. And in a new interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dib claims that, once that happened, his life turned into a nightmare.
According to Dib, 50 only paid him a fraction of what he was owed during his time with SMS Promotions. He claims 50 would frequently disappear on him and not take his calls, and in general, it doesn’t sound like the two had a very good working relationship.
“We have no promotional ties,” he told The Daily Telegraph, “and thank God I’ve finally gotten away from 50 Cent. A lot of people would say, ‘Why do you want to get away from 50 Cent? That would be amazing.’ But it’s not amazing. It was very disheartening, sleepless nights, you wake up for phone calls, and the guy would never answer his phone. It was possibly the worst career move that I’ve made in my life.”
Dib went on to explain that not getting paid by 50 was ultimately his biggest beef with him. He wouldn’t say how much money he believes 50 still owes him, but The Daily Telegraph is reporting that it could be north of $1 million. And that money will be nearly impossible for Dib to get now that SMS Promotions has filed for bankruptcy.
“My career was skyrocketing, things were going amazing, and then unfortunately—and when I say unfortunately, I really do mean unfortunately—I signed for 50 Cent, who basically knew nothing about the sport of boxing," he said. "And I really believe that it’s from that point, because when you get promised something and it’s not delivered, that disheartens you a little bit. And that’s what was happening to me. I was being promised certain things, and I was only being delivered a quarter of what I was promised. So that became very disheartening, and then you find that you’re fighting for money, and you’re not fighting for the love of the sport anymore, and that’s what happened to me.”
50 sees things differently. After reading what Dib had to say in his recent interview, he took to Instagram this afternoon to tell his side of the story. According to 50, Mayweather didn’t want to sign Dib and advised him against it. But 50 decided to ink him to a deal anyway, only to find that, in his opinion, Dib wasn’t ready to compete at a high level in America. In his IG post, 50 also claimed he paid Dib everything that he was owed. You can read it here:
Dib is scheduled to climb back into the ring for the first time since November 2013 later this month against a Thai fighter named Sukkasem Kietyongyuth. Safe to say 50 won’t be rooting for him?
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[via Fight Hype]
