By Rick Reeno
It didn't take long for promoter Lou DiBella to respond to the latest criticism from Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who is not exactly thrilled with Andre Berto's upcoming defense of the WBC welterweight title against Victor Ortiz. The fight takes place on April 16. A few days ago, Arum and DiBella traded words over the upcoming fight. He believes Berto (27-0, 21KOs) should be fighting unbeaten welterweight Mike Jones (24-0, 18KOs), and not Ortiz.
"You saw a real welterweight tonight in Mike Jones. When you people are tired of watching Andre Berto fight busboys like [Freddy] Hernandez and junior welterweights who's only distinction is quitting in a fight, then maybe we can test Andre Berto and see if he can really fight when he fights a real Philadelphia welterweight like Mike Jones," Arum said.
"That challenge is out there. If you want to keep seeing nonsense, that's okay too. But if you want to see a real test for Berto, who makes more per fight than everyone on the [Donaire-Montiel] card tonight, then you will register the way you should register."
DiBella, who promotes Berto, issued his response and gave his take on the situation with Jones. He tells Arum that Jones' co-promoter, Russell Peltz, turned the fight down on two separate occasions.
"I have nothing personal with Bob Arum. I don't understand on why he just doesn't pay attention on advancing his fighter, and instead he attempts to destroy other people's events. And Mike Jones, and Arum knows this, and he can call Russell Peltz and he will verify. When we fought Carlos Quintana, we offered the fight to Russell Peltz and it was turned down. Before we fought Freddy Hernandez, we offered the fight to Russll Peltz and he said 'Mike Jones wasn't ready.' This is the problem with Bob, he won't fight other people's fighters but he'll yell and scream on how people have to fight his," DiBella said to BoxingScene.com.
"He attacks Berto and we offered the fight to Jones twice. So now all of a sudden [Jones] feels he's ready so Bob is going after someone else's fight. How does he defend Miguel Cotto, who is one of the best fighters in the world, fighting Ricardo Mayorga. When was the last time he won a meaningful fight? And he's out there promoting an event with Shane Mosley, who lost eleven rounds, two minutes and thirty seconds to Mayweather, and then Mosley had a draw with Sergio Mora, who just lost to Brian Vera."
"He's out there screaming and yelling but I couldn't pass Mayorga through HBO against anybody. So he wants to tear off HBO's head because we want to make a good fight and Ortiz-Berto is a good fight. To sit there and yell about the Mike Jones and Karass fight. Karass is an exciting fighter, but he's at the top-end of ESPN fighters. If I was promoting a fight involving Mayorga, I wouldn't be attacking other people's shows."
"Maybe Bob doesn't know what happened with Russell so I'll give him that benefit of the doubt. But you can ask Russell Peltz if he was offered the fight and turned it down twice."
