When “Sugar” Shane Mosley lost back-to-back junior middleweight title fights to Winky Wright in 2004, it appeared to many experts his days as a world champion might be over. For a few days this week, it looked like Mosley was going to get his shot at another world title when Golden Boy Promotions sent out a press release Wednesday that said Mosley would be challenging Kermit Cintron for his International Boxing Federation welterweight belt Feb. 10 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
But Friday, that fight fell apart. Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Mosley, said that Cintron is apparently still under contract to New Jersey-based Main Events Inc. Cintron had signed the contract to fight Mosley under the banner of Bobby Bostick Promotions of Palm Beach, Fla.
Meanwhile, Schaefer and Golden Boy are still embroiled in a vicious battle with Top Rank Inc. for the promotional rights to super featherweight superstar Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines.
Schaefer was understandably disappointed in the sequence of events surrounding the now-dead Mosley-Cintron fight.
“Just before Christmas, Bobby Bostick confirmed to HBO and to us that we have a fight,” Schaefer said. “Emanuel Steward (Cintron’s trainer) was instrumental in making the fight happen. He was very pleased the fight was happening. “I actually talked to him. He said, `Well, now that the fight is done, I have to tell you I think Mosley is going to lose.’ I said, `Obviously, we feel differently, but that’s what makes it an interesting fight.’ We circulated a press release and everything was cool.”
Then came word everything was not cool. After the release went out, Schaefer said Main Events filed a lawsuit against Cintron and Bostick.
“I think they have certain rights,” Schaefer said of Main Events, which had promoted Cintron for some time. “Cintron and Bostick, they find themselves in a bunch of legal issues that unfortunately nobody had disclosed to us or to HBO.”
Schaefer said Friday in the past 24 hours, he had given Cintron and Bostick a chance to rectify the situation, but they could not.
Schaefer said that he does have a new opponent for Mosley, but he would not say who he is for the record because he wants to make sure it is a 100 percent solid deal before going public. He did say that the date and site would remain the same, and that HBO would still be televising the fight. It would not be a title fight, however.
As for Pacquiao, he recently signed promotional contracts with both Golden Boy and Top Rank, Golden Boy’s chief rival.
Schaefer has filed a lawsuit against Top Rank in Los Angeles, and Bob Arum of Top Rank has filed a counter suit in Nevada, where his company is based.
Pacquiao, at a news conference in his native Philippines this week, said that he would prefer to go with Top Rank. Arum had flown to the Philippines and was with Pacquaio when he made the declaration at the Manila Hotel.
“We promise you and all the Filipino people that what we are going to do for Manny is going to be something special,” Arum told the Manila Standard Today.
Schaefer said it is still being decided where this case will be heard – in Los Angeles or Nevada. In the meantime, Arum has offered Golden Boy and Marco Antonio Barrera, who is promoted by Golden Boy, $2.5 million to fight a rematch with Pacquiao. Pacquiao stopped Barrera in the 11th round in November 2003. A March 17 pay-per-view date has been set aside for that fight, which would take place at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Schaefer has an idea how that fight can be made while the rights for Pacquiao are being decided.
“Bob Arum is not the promoter of Manny Pacquiao,” Schaefer said. “That is currently the subject of the litigation. And we will see who will be the promoter of Manny Pacquiao. Having said that, if Pacquiao really wants to fight, we don’t want to be in Pacquiao’s way, and we don’t want to be in Barrera’s way, either.
“So we would suggest, and we would be open to, Golden Boy being the promoter of the fight because we obviously are the promoter of Barrera and we believe we will be the promoter of Pacquiao as well once everything is said and done. But let the fight go on, Golden Boy will promote the fight, and we will put the money into an escrow account until such time that the courts decide who is the legal promoter of Manny Pacquiao.”
Just another day in boxing.
