Last Thursday, the big news in Puerto Rico was a game of golf. A game of golf being played by WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya, owner of Golden Boy Promotions. The two played 18 holes at the Bahia Beach Resort & Golf Club in Puerto Rico. With Cotto’s contract running out with Top Rank at the end of year, and De La Hoya owning one of the largest promotional companies in the sport, rumors began to run wild.
Cotto said the two ran into each other by chance, and their meeting was not previously planned. He also told reporters that the two of them never discussed the sport of boxing. Few reporters believed his story.
WBO president Francisco ‘Paco’ Valc?rcel has come to Cotto’s aid and backs his story. Paco has played several games of golf with De La Hoya in the past. He says Oscar does not like to talk about boxing when he plays golf.
“De La Hoya does not like to talk about boxing when you are playing golf,” Paco said to El Nuevo Dia. “In fact, during the many times that I’ve played with him, I do not remember once where he did. But he is a great golfer. Had he devoted himself entirely to golf, I think he could have been a professional player.”
Reporters are still holding many questions over the meeting. Both fighters live in Puerto Rico, and even if the meeting took place by chance, few reporters believe that the subject of boxing was never discussed at any point during the game. De La Hoya was stopped last December by Manny Pacquiao, who Cotto will likely face on November 14 in Las Vegas. De La Hoya was also trying to get Shane Mosley a fight with Pacquiao and threw heavy criticism on Top Rank making Pacquiao-Cotto. But, because Cotto is under contract with another promoter and because De La Hoya is a promoter himself, Oscar could have placed himself in a serious legal situation by saying the wrong thing to Miguel.
