You gotta love the fight before the fight.
In boxing, it’s typical that before the bell rings to begin any big fight, there’s a lot drama and maneuvering just to make the deal for the fight to happen.
Sometimes it’s a lot more interesting than the actual fight. Anyone remember the chaos that reigned as organizers struggled to put together the Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson heavyweight championship fight? That negotiation was way more interesting than the beat down that Lewis laid on Tyson.
In any case, it looks like we’ve got another dose of drama surrounding a fight before the fight. This time it involves the proposed Oscar De La Hoya-Sergio Mora fight that could take place on HBO PPV on Dec. 6, the date De La Hoya has repeatedly said will be the final fight of his storied career.
A fight between De La Hoya and Mora, a junior middleweight titleholder and, as you should know by now, the winner of the first season of “The Contender” reality series, became a distinct possibility Wednesday after talks for a De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight crumbled like so many of their opponents have after being hit flush.
Jeff Wald, who runs Tournament of Contenders, the promotional company responsible for the series, is tight with Richard Schaefer, who runs De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. They’ve done a lot of business together and Wald has been angling for Mora to get a fight with De La Hoya for ages.
In June, Mora upset Vernon Forrest to win a junior middleweight belt, making him a viable opponent for De La Hoya, even if that match pales in comparison to the interest a fight with Pacquiao would generate.
Mora had a chance for big money fights with Kelly Pavlik and Shane Mosley in the immediate aftermath of his victory, but both went down the drain because Forrest exercised his contractual right to a rematch. Wald and his people felt the language in the contract didn’t necessarily bind Mora to an immediate rematch but to avoid lawsuits, show a bit of good faith and avoid damaging their relationship with Forrest’s promoter Gary Shaw and Forrest adviser Al Haymon, they scrapped the plans for another fight and honored the rematch clause with Forrest.
They’ll fight again Sept. 13. If Mora wins — which is absolutely no guarantee — Mora and Wald apparently have the fight of their dreams with De La Hoya sitting in front of them.
Here’s where trouble begins to brew.
After Shaw read the article I wrote Wednesday about the discussions for a De La Hoya-Mora fight, he got in touch with me Thursday morning to voice his displeasure with Wald.
Shaw said that Wald could not negotiate a De La Hoya-Mora fight, or any future Mora fight, without his input and approval because of the options he held on Mora.
A little background: When Shaw gave Mora the shot at Forrest, the contract contained language granting Shaw three options on Mora, one for the rematch plus two additional bouts.
Shaw’s point was that while he is not opposed to a De La Hoya-Mora fight in the event Mora defeats Forrest again, he is opposed to Wald running roughshod over his rights.
“He can’t negotiate without me,” Shaw insisted. “I’m telling you now there is no deal. The only thing that exists is a fight between Forrest and Mora. After that, the winner will be in a negotiation with someone to do the next fight. If it happens to be Mora, Jeff won’t sit at the negotiating table by himself. For Jeff to say that they’ve agreed to a deal with Richard is not possible. It makes him an idiot to say that. ? If Mora happens to win, I’ll be more than happy while I am in Las Vegas to sit down with Jeff and Richard and start the negotiations for a deal. But whatever they are doing now is wasted time and energy. Without my signature or approval there is no fight. I love Jeff, but he’s an idiot.”
So after I spoke to Shaw I gave Wald a call. I asked him if he had perhaps forgotten to mention his situation with Shaw during our Wednesday night conversation.
Apparently, he hadn’t. Wald said Shaw had nothing on Mora beyond the Forrest rematch.
“He has no options whatsoever,” Wald said.
Come again?
Here’s Wald’s side:
“Gary had an option for a rematch and two additional fights,” Wald said. “The rematch was 55-45 in Gary’s favor. The two other option fights were 50-50 with joint decision making power. And in the event of a tie, he got the tiebreak. All of that is true. Gary had until July 7 — 30 days after the first Forrest-Mora fight — to pick up the options. He had to do it in writing. A few days before July 7, we got a letter in the mail stating specifically that Gary Shaw is informing us that he picking up his option for the rematch between Sergio Mora and Vernon Forrest. There was no mention of the other two fights, which he needed to do. He needed to say he is picking up all three options or the rematch and one fight, or the rematch and two fights. Instead, he specifically said he is picking up the rematch, period. He never mentioned the other two fights. We got the letter. All of us looked at it and said, ‘Wow. Great.’ It is very clear.
“We are honoring our immediate rematch. Not a problem. We will do what we said we would do. Had he said he wanted all three options, we would not be having this conversation. He’d be part of these discussions. We would have both been on the phone with Richard, no problem. But he only picked up the rematch by July 7 and all the papers were drafted by Gary’s lawyers. He needs to talk to his attorney. His attorney wrote the letter. We didn’t write anything. So Gary has no right to anything beyond the Forrest rematch. We’ve had three lawyers look at the letter again this morning and all are in agreement. He can do whatever the f— he wants to do. God bless him. But he has nothing.”
Ahhh, the fight before the fight. So much fun.
