The last show that promotional powerhouses Top Rank and Golden Boy worked in conjunction with each other was on Thanksgiving weekend of 2004, when Marco Antonio Barrera would take the rubbermatch against his arch-rival, Erik Morales. At that post-fight press conference, the vitriol and animosity were very clear between the two sides.
Since then, the Everlasts had come off as insults were thrown and both companies had no problems in delivering low blows to each other. Things came to a head in recent months as they played tug-of-war over the services of Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao.
But finally, peace was brokered after a couple weeks of mediation. A press release sent out on Friday afternoon would read:
“Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank have reached a settlement of the various legal disputes including that pertaining to Manny Pacquiao.
“Bouts between Manny Pacquiao and marquee fighters under contract to Golden Boy will be co-promoted by Golden Boy and Top Rank. Fights between Manny Pacquiao against fighters other than Golden Boy fighters will be promoted by Top Rank with Golden Boy retaining a promotional interest.”
A relieved Bob Arum would tell Maxboxing on Friday afternoon: “Everything is behind us, we’re going to be working together, putting on big fights for the good of boxing. And I’m very pleased now, and I think that the first fight that we’ll be working on together is ‘the Pac Man’ and Marco Antonio Barrera. All the terms have been agreed to on that fight. It’ll be at the Mandalay Bay on October 6th and it’ll be the first of many.”
Yes, Arum, who was called a ‘snake’ by Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, in response to being derisively being labeled a ‘Swiss banker’ and everyone else involved are smoking peace pipes.
“Yeah, but I don’t know what’s in it,” said Schaefer, from his offices in Los Angeles, with a hearty laugh.
In the words of Susan Powter, former late night infomercial queen, everyone had to STOP THE INSANITY!!!
“Absolutely,” agreed Arum. “It was really the mediator that was able to break the logjam. Because you get into a mold where you’re fighting for the sake of fighting, instead of taking stock and saying, ‘Hey, if we’re not fighting, we can make some great business and it’s much more productive and better for the sport.’
“The mediator did a fantastic job.”
That mediator would be one Judge Daniel Weinstein. Schaefer agrees wholeheartedly with Arum (see, they?re already getting along famously again) on his impact.
“A few weeks ago, when the mediation process started with the judge, Daniel Weinstein, who is really considered – not just in California – but in the nation as one of the leading mediators, when he took ownership of that case and very quickly understood the issues at hand and was able to talk to us and talk to Bob and both sides were open to his points – and there were very valid points – and he was outlining the strengths and weaknesses in the respective cases. It put a stop to the hostility and I think at that time both parties started to recognize that, ‘Hey, it ain’t that bad enough to fight. So why don’t we just see if we can settle that and move on for the betterment of everybody and put these big fights together.’
“So we started to have discussions and we met and we ironed everything out.”
Perhaps Weinstein should be sent to the Middle East.
“Oh, absolutely,” laughed Schaefer, who added, “Let me put it this way, that man deserves a ringside seat at the October 6th fight.”
One thing both sides feared was ongoing and costly litigation with skeletons being brought out of the closet and into the public view.
“Lawyers are the most imaginative people in the world, finding new cases of action and new lawsuits,” explained Arum. “And this thing was becoming so enormous, this litigation, that it would never stop. Everybody was getting into the act.”
Bygones will be bygones, as Top Rank and Golden Boy look towards the future, co-promoting Pacquiao and making matchups involving their fighters.
“Absolutely, when you are in such a heated position in cases and so on, you say things which maybe you later regret and I think that goes for both sides,” said Schaefer. “So we let that go and we move on and we really want to move on.
“When I was sitting down with Bob, we both recognized how we both promote and what kind of things we can do together to really help the sport and expose it more. We really felt immediately comfortable again and we said, ‘the past is the past.'”
