One rarely can be positive about everything that happens in failed negotiation talks between two individuals, although when it comes to the recent talks between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Sr., I can recite them verbatim.
If that’s all there were to this column, it would end here.
There were no words from De La Hoya, just as there are none from him today about anything to do with his May 5 fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., because he declined an interview request about the topic.
Not personally, of course. Through his public relations staff.
De La Hoya’s eight-fight, six-year relationship with Mayweather Sr. ended without so much as a howdy-bye phone call, although he did extend an offer to his erstwhile trainer through the chief executive of his promotional company, Richard Schaefer.
Whether De La Hoya was surprised by Mayweather Sr.’s refusal to accept a $500,000 guarantee to train him, plus an identical bonus for a victory, is impossible to say until he speaks about the matter.
But De La Hoya, without so much as dialing up and soothing his trainer with first-person negotiating banter, frittered away a historic advantage: In this most intimately individual sport, he had his opponent’s father, former coach, and original architect of a family boxing dynasty, in his corner.
Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith are friends and former colleagues, but if one of them had a former head coach from the other team on his staff right now, wouldn’t that person become invaluable on the cusp of the ultimate game?
For boxing’s Super Bowl, Mayweather Sr. requested $2 million, but was offered half that much for beating his son, or one-fourth for losing to his son. Against that backdrop, and in the context of potentially the richest fight ever, which mandates rethinking any previous financial strata for fighters and trainers alike, both may been off-target.
So they said goodbye with numbers, not words.
