Before Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Richard Schaefer, Bob Arum and HBO pay-per-view even begin dividing up what potentially looms as a $100 million pie, each and every one of them should give credit where credit is due and cut Freddie Roach in on the action. And Larry Merchant, too, while they?re at it.
The idea of a David-Goliath bout that would stretch across multiple weight classes and bring together the world?s best boxer and its most marketable one had its origins as little more than a pipe dream on the part of HBO?s Merchant, who initially proposed it several months ago. The concept took on a life of its own, picking up momentum until it brought the principals to the bargaining table, where it appeared to have dead-ended two weeks ago when Golden Boy promotions CEO Schaefer and Top Rank?s Arum, negotiating on behalf of De La Hoya and Pacquiao, respectively, were unable to get their fighters to agree on the financial arrangements.cw0
De La Hoya?s insistence on a 70-30 split marked him as a greedy pig in the eyes of many boxing fans, and Pacquiao felt understandably dissed by the suggestion that a guy who had lost three of his last six fights was worth more than twice what he was. De La Hoya eventually made a counteroffer in which Pacquiao?s take rose to 34 percent, but if he budged beyond that we may never know, since both boxers have pledged to keep the final ratio a secret.
What we do know is that Dedham?s Roach, the two-time Trainer of the Year who trains Pacquiao (and who trained De La Hoya for his 2007 fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.) quietly went to work on both men. By keeping the ball in the air when everyone else was ready to walk away, his behind-the-scenes campaign produced a resolution that Schaefer and Arum had been unable to achieve.
?I thought this was a great opportunity for Manny for several reasons,? said Roach, who advised Pacquiao to reconsider. ?I think it?s a fight he can win, and if he does, the whole world, not just the boxing world, will open up for him.?
Roach, the businessman, explained to Pacquiao that while 30 percent – or even 34 percent – might appear insulting, he would be thumbing his nose at a guaranteed payday of at least $10 million with the potential to double that figure for a fight with no real downside.
Meanwhile, Roach, the psychologist, played De La Hoya like a Stradivarius, zinging him with long-range barbs in conversations with reporters. He told one that De La Hoya was, at 35, ?no longer able to pull the trigger,? and another – this one – that De La Hoya would struggle with the 147-pound weight limit.
?Frankly, I think Oscar will be affected by having to make this weight for the first time in years,? said Roach. ?He got down to 150 for (Steve) Forbes, but if Forbes could break up his face and rock him a couple of times, I know Pacquiao is much faster and hits a lot harder than Stevie Forbes does.?
That Roach got both guys? attention is evident. In officially announcing the Dec. 6 megafight Thursday, De La Hoya probably wasn?t trying to thank Roach when he acknowledged that ?when Freddie started talking, it started to become a challenge,? but he should have been.
?Oscar? Thank me?? Roach said with a laugh. ?I wish.?
HBO falls for it
There was a time when perceived competition from the NFL and college football drove boxing into autumnal hibernation, but, commencing with the Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones Jr. bout Nov. 8, HBO has major fight cards for five successive Saturday nights, with Jermain Taylor-Jeff Lacy following Nov. 15, Paulie Malignaggi-Ricky Hatton Nov. 22, Paul Williams-TBA Nov. 29, and De La Hoya-Pacquiao Dec. 6. . . .
As the old saying used to go, ?Where there?s Smoke, there?s Roy.?
Jones? boyhood buddy, 38-year-old former featherweight champion Derrick ?Smoke? Gainer, returns to a familiar role when he performs in a supporting bout underneath Jones-Calzaghe at Madison Square Garden – a dozen years after he stopped James Crayton on the undercard of Jones? Garden debut vs. Merqui Sosa.
Another interesting bout on the Calzaghe-Jones card could be a junior welterweight title fight matching a pair of Ukrainian-born boxers. Unbeaten Dmitriy Salita, an Orthodox Jew now boxing out of Brooklyn, will face German-based WBA champ Andreas Kotelnik, though that bout is contingent on Kotelnik getting past Japanese challenger Norio Kimura on Sept. 13. . . .cw0cw0
HBO and Showtime go head-to-head once again on Sept. 13 with the former broadcasting the Joel Casamayor-Juan Manuel Marquez card on PPV from Las Vegas and the latter the Nate Campbell-Joan Guzman lightweight title bout from Biloxi, Miss.
