For the nth time, Golden Boy Promotion top honcho Oscar de la Hoya is insisting Juan Manuel Marquez is the best of the three fight options for Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao?s next opponent.
Lost in the translation are Floyd Mayweather Jr (who doesn?t want to fight) and de la Hoya business partner Shane Mosley (who wants to do it alone against Pacquiao without Golden Boy Promotion).
The last two are arguably the biggest and bigger draws in a fight with the Filipino boxing phenom.
But all three, at one point or the other, were represented by de la Hoya. Mayweather is now making himself scarce, preferring instead the quiet of his European retreat as he prepares for his numerous legal battles next year.
It is Mosley who presented the next best business sense after Mayweather was ?done arguing a fight? with Pacquiao.
Golden Boy is left with a bag that only contains Marquez, a quirky technical fighter who gave Pacquiao plenty of difficult moments when they twice fought as featherweights.
Times have changed, however.
Oscar is no longer the golden boy of boxing. He no longer has in his stable marquee boxers that can punch in large number of pay per view buys in these times of economic crunch in America.
He knows he can no longer bully Manny into accepting onerous fight contracts like he did when he offered the Filipino far less money in fighting him and insulted the Manny by insisting on splitting the purse between Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton.
Four or five years ago, marquee boxers were lining up to be taken into the wings of Golden Boy Promotion.
Pacquiao almost did. No, once did but it ended with an acrimonious out of court settlement that gave ?entitlements? to Golden Boy Promotion every time Manny fights and for as long as the Filipino continues fighting.
If Manny fights a Golden Boy Promotion boxer, Oscar assumes the lead promoter role and gets a nifty percentage of the PPV proceeds.
If Top Rank?s Bob Arum does it alone, Oscar only gets a minimal percentage of Manny?s promotional earnings.
One wonders whether Oscar?s insistence on Pacquiao fighting Marquez is motivated by the desire to give quality fights for boxing fans or just for the lust of money.
Oscar sugarcoated his proposal for Pacquiao to fight Marquez by openly declaring he will step aside as a promoter. But on the other hand, he claimed back with his left hand what his right had given by insisting on a ?ludicrous? guaranteed purse for his ward.
Indeed, times have changed. And sorry, Oscar. Manny now calls the shots and no amount of crying out in the press will change that.
Like you once did, Manny is now cashing in on his stature as boxing?s biggest cash cow.
