Boxing: Maloney 'refused to be treated like a nodding dog'

Frank Maloney said his 11-year connection with Lennox Lewis ended because he ‘‘refused to be treated like a nodding dog’’.

Lewis’ former manager Maloney was sacked last week as the Canadian-born fighter bids to regain his WBC and IBF titles from Hasim Rahman in Las Vegas tomorrow.

The split came when Maloney refused to sign a new contract which he described as ‘‘a joke’’.

‘‘It was so one-sided. My intelligence was insulted. I refused to be treated like a nodding dog,’’ Maloney said in an interview given before a gagging order was imposed by Lewis.

He continued: ‘‘The contract itself was a joke. I honestly believed that if I signed it I would have been taken along for the ride for the rematch against Rahman and then sacked.’’

Maloney said he was asked to thrash out his problems with football agent Jerome Anderson, one of Lewis’ team.

He continued: ‘‘I didn’t know him from Adam so I refused.

‘‘They persuaded me to take part in a telephone conference but I’d made up my mind I was not going to Vegas for the Rahman fight unless I had a properly defined role - but I wasn’t given one.

Maloney explained he was not going to be ‘‘wheeled out’’ in Las Vegas ‘‘as some kind of a face-saving job’’.

He added: ‘‘There was a nice chunk of money to be earned by just going along with everyone but it had become a matter of principle. I was not prepared to bury my head in the sand.

‘‘I have no problem with Lennox but I am disappointed in his behaviour as a human being.

‘‘I think he could have picked up the phone and I would rather he’d said ‘thanks for the memories Frank, let’s work out a settlement and part on good terms’.

‘‘I know Lennox personally better than anyone else and I believe he was not personally responsible for my sacking.’’

Lewis claimed Maloney was sacked because he had demanded ridiculous amounts of money.

But his former manager countered by saying his demand for a pay-off was based on what he would have earned for the next three fights if he had remained with the former WBC and IBF champion.

He added: ‘‘I’m not suing Lewis but I have instructed my lawyer to seek some kind of settlement that I feel I am due.’’