Jose Sulaiman, the long-reigning president of the World Boxing Council (WBC), lashed at the multi-million match starring Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao by way of the Spanish-speaking media, calling the Dec. 6 event a fight between ?a pachyderm and a hobbit horse.?
Sulaiman likewise expressed that money was the reason behind the decision to pit De La Hoya, the pay-per-view king and Pacquiao, the pound-for-pound champion, for a welterweight tiff at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“The only reason why the fight was made was money,” Sulaiman told La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in circulation in the US.
Sulaiman, who assumed the presidency of the Mexico City-based governing body in 1975, even went to the extent of predicting that the De La Hoya-Pacquiao setto won?t generate the same amount of attention as last year?s blockbuster bout between De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather.
“I should say that this fight will never awake the expectation that took place when De La Hoya met Mayweather that has 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, while this one will probably sell 1.25 million,” added Sulaiman.
Sulaiman had earlier criticized De La Hoya, who is an American citizen but of pure Mexican ancestry, for not signing up Mexico?s Antonio Margarito as opponent for Dec. 6 and choosing to face somebody not his size.
Meanwhile, Top Rank chief Bob Arum expressed surprise why an Internet ticket seller is already offering tickets on sale when Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions have yet to issue tickets.
Still, Arum did not discount the possibility that in the final days leading to the fight, prices will skyrocket.
“With the prices being advertised (on the Internet), I might as well sell mine and watch it on closed circuit,” said Arum, laughing, but sounding more than optimistic that black market prices for ringside seats would surely go up.
The MGM Grand Garden Arena can sit 17,157 and Arum said it would take three MGM Grands to accommodate the fight fans who will converge at Sin City.
