Oscar De La Hoya was once so happy with fight promoter Bob Arum that the young boxer presented him with his prized Olympic gold medal during Arum’s 65th birthday celebration at a Reno hotel ballroom. The gesture wowed the crowd.
“It was a stunner, it made the night, and Bob was very emotional,” said Bill Caplan, the longtime publicist for Arum’s company, Top Rank, recalling the 1996 party.
But that was then. Today the onetime father-son relationship between fighter and mentor is in tatters. De La Hoya and Arum no longer speak.
And a week before De La Hoya’s World Boxing Council super-welterweight championship defense against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas, there is fear behind the scenes that this bitter estrangement could cause lasting harm to boxing ? depriving the slumping sport of other marquee bouts.
De La Hoya, in his dual role as a fighter and head of Golden Boy Promotions, has emerged as a major rival of promoter Arum’s firm, Top Rank. The two camps control some of the top talent in boxing, potentially lucrative matchups ? if only the warring managers were talking and negotiating.
Mayweather, De La Hoya’s challenger this Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, left Top Rank last year, at least in part to escape the feud and improve his chances to fight De La Hoya.
