A day after petitions and protests against the George Zimmerman and DMX “celebrity” boxing match spread like wildfire on social media, promoter Damon Feldman has canceled the fight.
The news broke over the weekend when Feldman took to Twitter to apologize for anyone he hurt or offended by trying to organize the brawl that many people felt was profiting off of Trayvon Martin’s death.
“The George Zimmerman fight is canceled,” Feldman tweeted. “I’m sorry for anyone I hurt with this but this was a very big opportunity thank you.”
Feldman also tried to convince social media users that he did have a heart and that he wasn’t willing to put money over morals.
“It was my decision to cancel the george zimmerman fight it was worth a lot of money to me but people’s feelings meant more to me,” Feldman said.
The next tweet, however, rubbed many people the wrong way as the promoter earned more backlash for what some people considering bragging about doing the right thing.
“Wow all these people keep trying to get me to still do this fight I’m done I’m out I want nothing to do with george zimmerman fight.”
The backlash poured in once again shortly after.
“Glad the fight is canceled but u still shouldn’t have even considered it,” one user responded to Feldman’s announcement.
Another tweet read, “Im sorry r u bragging about doing wat u should have done all along?”
Despite the criticism, Feldman didn’t respond and instead spoke to Rolling Stone where he elaborated on his decision to pull the plug on the boxing match.
“Zimmerman was the wrong person to have in this,” he said. “I looked into the eyes of my son and daughter today and couldn’t imagine someone killing them and getting off scot-free. It just really hurt. It was a tough decision because I could have made $2 million here, but at least I have my dignity. I’m happy. Thank you.”
Later in the interview, Feldman seemed to confirm that he put the fight together purely because of the controversy surrounding both parties, and the potential for a healthy profit.
“We like [DMX] because he’s controversial,” Feldman said. “Zimmerman’s controversial. And that’s it. [DMX] asked to fight him and said he’ll piss on his face. It’s not like we picked him out of a hat.”
As far as DMX’s publicist Domenick Nati is concerned, the fight was never going to happen anyway
“As previously stated, DMX never agreed to the fight, and we thank you for all of the support from DMX’s fans,” Nati said.
After DMX became the target of heavy criticism as well, his publicist released a statement explaining that he never officially signed a contract to participate in the fight, but reports were later released that revealed the rapper was indeed considering getting in the ring with Zimmerman, in addition to agreeing to it in an interview.
The boxing match was originally scheduled to air on March 15 via Pay Per View on the Internet.
