ARUM WANTS TO TALK IT OVER WITH GOLDEN BOY
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 11 May 2007
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he hopes that sometime later this month he can sit down with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions executives if not De La Hoya himself to resolve the current legal battle over the promotional rights to Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao.
In an interview with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today shortly after his arrival from Las Vegas on Thursday morning to give Pacquiao “moral support” in his bid for a congressional seat, Arum said “I would hope that sometime later this month we can sit down, stop all this legal stuff that’s burning up millions of dollars and get down to business to resolve the Pacquiao issue and other issues that we are litigating with them.”
Arum was responding to a statement by De La Hoya that he had no feud with the Top Rank promoter who handled him for years and built him up into a superstar of boxing. To Arum whether he helped De La Hoya’s career or not wasn’t important. What is important is that “mature people look to settle the case. If the case can’t be settled it can’t be settled but at least you give it a try.”
The conflict over Pacquiao started when Pacquiao signed a seven-fight deal with Golden Boy Promotions shortly after his arrived in Los Angeles from Manila in mid-September last year to step up preparations for his third fight with legendary Mexican Erik “El Terrible” Morales in an epic trilogy. Arum claimed at that time that Pacquiao had signed a contract with him which prevented him signing up with any other promoter until after the Morales fight last November.
Immediately after the fight which Pacquiao won by a sensational third round knockout, Arum announced that he had signed Pacquiao for a four-fight deal and shortly afterwards in a December press conference in Manila in the presence of Arum, Pacquiao confirmed he had chosen the veteran promoter to handle his fights. De La Hoya earlier accused Arum of ”tortuous interference” in a Los Angeles court while Arum countered by asking a Las Vegas court to decide on which contract was valid. Up to date the courts haven’t resolved the issue.
In a wide-ranging interview Arum said “mature people, after they fight in court for a little bit whatever comes out, always sit down and resolve their differences.” He branded the present situation between him and Golden Boy “insane.” Arum pointed out that “if major countries in the world can come and meet and resolve issues, certainly in this sport of boxing promoters can do the same.”
De La Hoya effectively opened the possibility of talks when he said before his recent mega-fight with undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr that there was “no feud” with Arum and that it was “just business” although he conceded they were not close.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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