By now it’s obvious that the peace between Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions was short-lived. The newest edition to what has been a long-running feud came this week when Arum suggested to BoxingScene.com’s Michael Marley that Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer likely won’t have anything to do with negotiations for a potential fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Arum said that Schaefer is “on the outside looking in. Who knows and who cares what Richard says?”
De La Hoya on Tuesday played host to a workout for the four fighters involved in Saturday’s co-feature bouts at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. De La Hoya was asked how confident he is about Pacquiao-Mayweather being made. De La Hoya then went off on Arum on a variety of issues.
“Well, I mean, we know Pacquiao wants the fight, we know Mayweather wants the fight; that’s a given,” De La Hoya. “And Bob Arum is coming out with this nonsense that Richard Schaefer is not even involved with Mawywether. It’s ridiculous now what Bob is talking. Everybody wants the fight except Bob Arum; he doesn’t want the fight. What’s the problem? Let’s make it happen.”
De La Hoya, standing in the Westside Boxing Gym in Los Angeles, then was asked if perhaps Arum doesn’t want the fight because he knows Pacquiao would lose based on his less-than-convincing performance against Juan Manuel Marquez on Nov. 12.
“Well, that could definitely be the reason, but there’s no shame in losing to a Mayweather,” De La Hoya. “Pacquiao will still be Pacquiao. But who knows? Pacquiao might surprise everybody. It’s the biggest fight that the general public and the boxing public wants to see. And that’s huge for boxing. Let’s make it happen. The boxing world, the boxing public, wants to see it.”
De La Hoya then came with a completely unsolicited anecdote regarding Arum’s alleged inability to work with other promoters. It was as if he was searching for more missiles to launch at his former promoter.
“I think it’s like this Saturday with (Abner) Mares and (Joseph) Agbeko and working with Gary Shaw and working with Don King that, by the way, for me Don King has been the best promoter in the world by far compared to anybody because he knows how to work with other promoters,” De La Hoya said.
