Since late last summer, as Manny Pacquiao was whisked away in a limo at LAX with a briefcase full of cash by Oscar De La Hoya as he arrived for his training camp to begin preparations for his rubbermatch against Erik Morales, Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank – two promotional powerhouses who have been engaged in a Cold War the past few years – began battling over ‘the Pac Man’ as if they were the Israelis and Palestinians fighting over the Gaza Strip.
Pricey attorneys were hired, litigation was filed on both ends, and mud and accusations were flung in every direction.
Last week, as the various individuals who were involved in the sordid affair were deposed, a mediation was held in hopes of ironing out some sort of compromise regarding Pacquiao’s promotional rights and even more than that, the hopes that the two companies can at least have some detente, where the only battles involving the companies would happen inside the ring with their boxers and not in the courtrooms.
So can we expect to see Bob Arum, Richard Schaefer, and De La Hoya all clasping hands in unison a la the Camp David Accords with Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat?
Is there peace in the Middle East (or at least in boxing’s version of the Cold War)?
“No,” was the flat reply of Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, last Thursday afternoon, when he was asked that question.
And why not?
“Well, I can’t talk about it,” he would say, as a gag order on the recent talks was ordered. But when he was asked if it was a good thing for the sport of boxing to have two of it’s biggest promotional entities not doing business with each other – thus depriving fans of potential hook-ups like Shane Mosley-Miguel Cotto or Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez II – Schaefer, would concede, “No, it’s not good for the game.”
In his opinion, what would resolve this dispute?
“Arum being reasonable,” he would state. When pressed what he defined as ‘reasonable’ behavior, he would say, “Well, I can’t say more,” with a laugh. But he would add, “Maybe there’s a way, a formula can be worked out where we can promote Pacquiao together.”
Which sounds reasonable given that Pacquiao signed promotional pacts with both Golden Boy and Top Rank last year.
Both Schaefer and ‘the Golden Boy’ himself were at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club last week to promote their July 21st pay-per-view show featuring Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright.
When De La Hoya, who seemed to be the only guy keeping his cool inside the sweltering gym, was asked if this dispute could be resolved so that Pacquiao could move on with his future, anticipated fights could be made, and legal costs quelled, he would answer much more optimistically.
“I’ll tell you this much, I do wish we could patch things up. Can they get patched up? Yes, they can. Yes, they will. There’s many fights we can make together, exciting fights we can make together. It’s just a matter of a little give and take here and there.
“Bob Arum has to take his guard down, we have to take our guard down and let our egos that sometimes get in the way – more his side, I have to admit, I really do – because we want to make the fights.
“But can it be done? Yes, absolutely, it can be done.”
It was speculated last week that Arum would be making an official announcement regarding Pacquiao’s next bout by Tuesday. But the promoter would tell Maxboxing, “A lot of things are happening, but obviously we haven’t forgotten about it. There will be an announcement shortly.”
It was thought that Pacquiao-Humberto Soto on October 6th in Vancouver was the leading candidate, but that may or may not be the case currently.
Arum, like Schaefer and De La Hoya, could not comment on what took place last week specifically, but he was asked if he was more hopeful of the two sides at least being able to work together in the future.
“I can’t comment on that,” he would say, before adding, “Obviously, if things were going s**tty, I would comment. So draw your own conclusions.”
Hey, could that be a glimmer of hope for boxing fans?
When De La Hoya was asked if part of the give-and-take process involved his gold medal he gave to Arum years ago, he would answer, “I need my gold medal back,” laughing at the thought. “That’s part of the package, it has to be.”
M.A.B.
It was interesting to some observers that Marco Antonio Barrera showed up to see his good friend Ricky Hatton perform this past weekend in Las Vegas but not for ‘the World Awaits’ featuring De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather last month, which was promoted by Golden Boy.
There was rampant speculation that Barrera was dissatisfied with the company that gave him a branch of the firm (Golden Boy Mexico) upon his signing back in 2003. It was rumored that he was unhappy with the inability to get the Pacquiao rematch – instead getting Marquez in March – and that he was looking to leave.
“I don’t think it was dissatisfaction,” said his advisor Robert Diaz, after Hatton’s fourth-round stoppage of Jose Luis Castillo on Saturday night. “I think it was just Marco’s dissatisfaction with the way the point spread was in the Marquez fight. It was more not being happy with the point, the knockdown not being called a knockdown, how wide the scoring was, regardless of who won. I think people know it was a very close fight and it was a great fight.”
Barrera is someone who is watching the ongoing litigation between Top Rank and Golden Boy intently, as it could directly affect his future plans.
“My next fight, I’d like it to be against Manny Pacquiao,” he would tell Maxboxing, through Diaz. “He’s one of the best fighters out there at this moment. I’m coming towards the end of my career and what better way to go out than fighting one of the best fighters in the world.”
Diaz would say of the situation: “Marco is possibly going to fight in October or November. He really wants the Pacquiao fight, but of course, they’re still in litigation. Depending on the outcome, hopefully if it’s resolved either way, that fight can happen by the end of the year.”
If he can’t get the rematch, Barrera may just walk off into the sunset.
“I believe so,” he confirmed. “I believe retirement would possibly be an option for me. We would sit down with Golden Boy and see if they have a big name out there comparable to Pacquiao. Otherwise, I would really contemplate retiring.”
Asked about his supposed unhappiness with his promotional company, Barrera would state, “No, everything is in order, everything’s the same, everything’s good. There were rumors that came out because I pulled away a little bit from the media, from interviews, because I wanted to take some time off. I wasn’t happy with the decision and the wide point spread and I took a vacation with my family and that was all rumor.”
REVIEWING OSCAR’S NIGHT
So, as he looks back on his loss to Mayweather, what goes through De La Hoya’s mind? Are there any regrets?
“I think I only had one,” he would say, “not really a regret but just mad at how…. truthfully, I was in great shape, I trained hard, I was ready. There were no excuses, whatsoever, but when it’s out of your hands – and I’m not making excuses – because I give Floyd Mayweather all the credit in the world, he really is a good fighter, I don’t think he’s pound-for-pound. I just felt he wasn’t….”
As good as advertised (mostly by himself?)
“Yeah,” agreed De La Hoya. “I think he is very beatable. Because when you throw a jab at Mayweather, he’s very vulnerable.”
So where did De La Hoya’s best two weapons go in the second half of their affair?
“There was no left hook, there was no jab,” said a regretful Oscar. “I’m not going to keep it a secret, I had injuries that popped in or kicked in, I think it was in the third round. You suck it up as much as you can. After that, it’s like, what can you do? Freddie (Roach) will tell you, we took off like almost three weeks of training because of injuries. But I was still in great shape and that’s probably why I was so ticked off – because of the injuries.”
OK, but that does seem like he’s making excuses. But why not give it another go against Mayweather with a sounder body?
“I think at this point in my career, from my experience with Mayweather, I don’t feel it would be an exciting fight, anymore,” responded De La Hoya. “I really don’t. I want to be in an exciting fight, I really do. I was in there to be in an exciting fight where we’re going to exchange. I wish the fight had turned out to be where we had that little exchange at the end. I wish it was like that, I really do. I was ready for that.”
“I think Mayweather was saying he was ready for that. Was it a tactic of his to throw me off? Well, great job, he did it. But if I do fight again, I would love to fight a guy who’s going to stay there.”
And not make it a ‘Mayweather fight’.
JULY FIREWORKS
I gotta hand it to Doug Loughrey of ESPN2, he gets pretty good mileage out of a miniscule budget (Maybe he should run the Baltimore Orioles). His July lineup figures to have an entertaining slugfest or two.
July 11th: Joel Julio vs. Cornelius ‘K9’ Bundrage
July 13th: Allan Green vs. Darrell Woods
July 18th: Mike Oliver vs. Cruz Carbajal
July 20th: Elicier Castillo vs. Fres Oquendo / Daniel Edouard vs. Eromosele Albert
RECOMMENDED READING
There was some insightful and revealing stuff in Thomas Hauser’s latest piece on Secondsout.com, ‘Larry Merchant and HBO’, which details the saga that took place behind the scenes between the veteran analyst and a decision maker (Ross Greenburg) that wanted to oust him and then seemingly lied to everyone about it.
The most eye-opening aspect of this article (from which I am told is deadly accurate by various sources) is that Merchant, when presented with a demotion to just doing ‘Boxing After Dark’ telecasts, demanded that if that were the case, he would have to be it’s matchmaker.
That’s how little he thought of the job being done by those in charge.
Yeah, he went all Kobe Bryant on them.
MID-WEEK FLURRIES
Say what you will about HBO’s boxing franchise, they can still produce as good a vignette as anybody televising sports. Their features prior to Hatton-Castillo were outstanding….Odds are that if Jermain Taylor-Kelly Pavlik happens on September 29th, it will take place at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey….In addition to Hatton, we may not see Juan Diaz the rest of the year, as it seems that HBO may not have any available slots left. Aren’t we just getting to July?….Here’s a first, DiBella Entertainment, which had options on Andre Dirrell, decided to pass them up. Well, they are called ‘options’ for a reason….A source tells me that HBO has turned down a Paulie Malignaggi-Dmitriy Salita fight….Look for super middleweight prospect Jean Pascal to be back on ‘the Deuce’ in early August….In doing the interview with Barrera and standing right next to him, while he said all the politically correct things, just judging by his body-language and expression, I got the sense that he’s like that guy who’s stuck in a loveless marriage, whose wife put on 30 pounds and won’t even do that ‘special thing’ on his birthday anymore, and is just sticking around for the kids. In other words, he really has no other choice but to stay….But, that’s just my opinion…..For the record, at this moment, I’d rather see Pacquiao-Marquez II, than a rematch between Pacquiao and Barrera……
