Notes on the back of an envelope: If Oscar De La Hoya wants to burnish his positive public image, I got just the ticket for him. If he is the president of boxing, and in many ways he is, then can do the sport a major service by doing one simple thing.
ODLH needs to sit down with Uncle Bob Arum and their respective lawyers and settle the Manny Pacquaio litigation. Let Golden Boy get some money, let Top Rank keep Pacman and then let’s move on to the real money that both promotional concerns would make by making Juan Manuel Marquez-Pacquaio, or Joan Guzman-Pacquiao or even Marco Antonio Barrera-Pacquaio, assuming MAB is still obligated contractually to GBP. In one fell swoop, Oscar could be viewed as taking the high road, putting the health of the beleaguered sport above his own selfish concerns and, yet, at the same time he would be insuring that some lucrative bouts happen. If one of his guys beats Pacquaio, wouldn’t that be especially satisfying to a competitor like ODLH? And there’s little doubt that Marquez and/or Guzman could accomplish that. This is why Oscar needs to call off his legeal bloodhounds. By doing so, Oscar would come off as the good guy. He could polish his halo a bit more. And the easy spin would be that Oscar decided to settle the matter for the good of all the fighters involved. I mean, he’s the guy who says he puts the fighters first, that GBP is the company that really cares about the welfare of the boxers, right? Here’s an opportunity to make peace over Pacman and to put some substance into those claims. I’m not talking just about boxing here, I’m talking about statesmanship. What do you say, Mr. President? Discuss this with Henry Kissinger, er I mean Richard Schaefer. The only winners in the situation now are the barristers, Daniel Petrocelli on Arum’s side and Bert Fields on your side. I’m not saying you’ll be whisked to Oslo to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize, Oscar, but you would come off as hero in some very important consttituencies, in particular in the Phillipines and Mexico. You would be perceived then as both a gentlemen and a nobleman. And you really would be doing what is best for boxing.
