Remember when just a few short months ago, Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank were embroiled in a bitter lawsuit over the services of Manny Pacquiao? That the former antagonists had kissed and made up was aptly illustrated last week when Bob Arum leapt to the defense of Oscar De La Hoya after the Golden Boy was quizzed (on a national conference call) about the scandalous fishnet photos of himself in drag that had popped up all over the Internet over the past couple of weeks.
Although the photos, depicting De La Hoya as a cross-dresser, were quickly labeled a Photoshop fake by experts, the story made it to the tabloid television shows, as well as to the pages of the New York Post, which ran one of them under the headline: The Lady is a Champ in Fish Net. Golden Boy publicists, who would doubtless have preferred to ignore the bourgeoning story, were forced to e-mail a denial to newspaper outlets around the world.
On Monday’s conference call held to push Saturday’s Pacquio-Marco Antonio Barrera fight in Las Vegas, the second question of the day was about the lingerie photos.
“These pictures are obviously fabricated,” De La Hoya said. “I have been advised by my attorney not to comment further. I am convinced the whole mess will be cleaned up.”
At which point Arum jumped in to deride “this nonsense, this crap. We have two guys, Barrera and Pacquiao, who have worked their asses off here. Let’s keep this call to questions about the fight.”
Bogus or not, the “Golden Girl” photos have apparently taken on a life of their own: A few days ago Ricardo Mayorga, who faces Fernando Vargas Nov. 23 in their rescheduled bout, sneered that “Vargas will start dressing like De La Hoya after I knock him out.”
HBO will prime the pump for Pacquiao-Barrera rematch by replaying the 2003 first fight between the two, along with Barrera’s 2001 undressing of Prince Naseem Hamed. The replays will be shows on HBO2 on Friday at 11 p.m. and Saturday at 8:30 a.m.
Mesi good to in R.I.
As expected, Rhode Island has approved a boxing license for heavyweight Joe Mesi, who will fight Shannon Miller on Jimmy Burchfield’s Oct. 12 card at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, R.I. Mesi, a Buffalo, N.Y., native, has dedicated the Miller fight to Bills tight end Kevin Everett, who was seriously injured three weeks ago in the season opener against the Broncos.
While we continue to have our reservations about the wisdom of Mesi fighting in wake of his head injuries, Baby Joe’s advisor, Bob Spagnola, makes an excellent point in noting that the Nevada State Athletic Commission, whose medical suspension of Mesi (following a subdural hematoma) led several other states to similarly ban him, is allowing Barrera, a boxer whose prior brain surgery was far more extensive than Mesi’s, to fight Pacquiao there, and that the Association of Boxing Commissions has been strangely silent about that apparent inconsistency.
Some heavy lifting
Q: What do you call a Russian with a bad back?
A: A heavyweight champion.
Oleg Maskaev became the latest heavyweight beltholder to limp to the sidelines when he injured his back in training Sept. 21, forcing a postponement of his World Boxing Council mandatory defense against Samuel Peter. Maskaev’s injury resulted in some fast shuffling on the part of both the sanctioning body and promoters Don King and Dino Duva. By the following Monday, the WBC had promoted Peter to “Interim champion,” and two days later Los Bandidos issued the following communique:
“The WBC is naming Jameel McCline from the USA as the next challenger for the new interim heavyweight champion of the world, Samuel Peter from Nigeria, in order to take special actions to save the date of October 6 at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York, as the WBC heavyweight title can not continue being frozen after 10 months of inactivity, and at least for four more months for the recovery of the injured champion Oleg Maskaev.”
Oh, did we forget to mention that McCline just signed a promotional contract with King?
Maskaev’s defection ran the string to an incredible six consecutive Saturday night cards that have been either postponed, scrapped, or had seen a replacement in one of the main event performers due to injury. . . .
McCline’s approval as Peter’s opponent did leave intact Kevin McBride’s fight against Andrew Golota. King had initially hoped to cannibalize the undercard by using Golota against Peter, but Showtime turned thumbs down. Another fight of New England interest, between Worcester’s Jose Rivera and Daniel Santos was unaffected.
Although Mike Oliver’s July win over Cruz Carbajal at Boston’s Park Plaza Castle was supposed to earn him a mandatory challenge to IBF junior featherweight champion Steve Molitor, something must have slipped through the cracks: Oliver has moved to No. 2 in the organization’s ratings (and the No. 1 spot is vacant), however, Molitor is scheduled to defend on Oct. 27 in Canada against No. 8-rated Narongrit Pirang, the Thai who fights under the name “Fushang 3K Battery.”
Oliver, according to the Mohegan Sun’s posted schedule, is supposed to meet Al Seeger (who won’t have fought since being stopped by Daniel Ponce De Leon more than a year previously) at the Uncasville casino on Nov. 8. That bout, staged in conjunction with amateur bouts between members of the U.S. Marine Corps and Native American boxing teams, is for the essentially meaningless IBO title. Connecticut heavyweight Tony Grano (10-1) is also slated to box.
Foxwoods, meanwhile, will host Showtime’s Dec. 1 telecast, with Antonio Tarver-Danny Green in the main event and Vernon Forrest-Michele Piccirillo in the co-feature. . . .
New Haven super middleweight Elvin Ayala secured the opponent’s role against Sergio Mora on the Oct. 16 Alfonso Gomez-Ben Tackie card in Carson, Calif. Mora was originally to have met Kassim Ouma on the aborted Sept. 15 HBO pay-per-view telecast of Juan Manuel Marquez-Rocky Juarez. The broadcast that evening will be split, with ESPN Classic televising Mora-Ayala and regular ESPN showing Gomez-Tackie. . . .
Happy birthday, Micky Ward.
