By Michael Marley
He doesn't offer financial specifics, or any actual numbers or dollar figures, but rival promoter Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, claims that Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions is drowning in red ink.
Arum told me that he thinks he has an accurate picture of incoming and outgoing revenues at the Los Angeles based operation and that the red ink is flowing.
You may put Arum's comments down as the standard venom and vitriol but I leave it up to the discerning readers.
"The magazine (Ring) is bleeding money for them," the 79 year old promoter, whose constant feud with former charge De La Hoya and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer is well documented.
"Their soccer team (the Houston Dynamo) is doing terribly and costing them a fortune. And in boxing, what do they have with the oldest guys leaving (Sugar Shane Mosley, age 39, and 46 in January Bernard Hopkins). What do they have beyond those two?"
I pressed Arum for money details and he backed up slightly.
He did say that he thinks financial issues have, so far at least, prevented Golden Boy from going public with its stock.
"You can't go public when don't have some earnings or can't show real profits," Arum said. "It's easier if you a start up company but, as an already operating company, you've got to show strong financials.
"Do I know the facts as to what they make or don't make? Do I know this factually? No, I don't, but I have a good idea what they have spent and what they have brought in on pay-per-view TV.
"And I can't see how they are making any money in my opinion."
At this point, as is my custom, I take pains to mention that either Oscar or Schaefer are more than welcome to tell their side of the story herein. It's never a one way street in this fistic forum and the Goldens would do well to punch or counter-punch Arum's constant criticisms.
Arum said that Golden Boy has an inherent staffing problem which makes them different than his Las Vegas based company.
"At Top Rank, we have solid, boxing guys with plenty of experience. Oscar, well he has never understood the boxing business. As for Schaefer, he's a great businessman but he does not understand the business of boxing. Richard is not in the category, even now, of being a boxing guy."
Arum said that Golden Boy is especially vulnerable with 2011 being the final year of the infamous "output deal" it has with HBO, where the prime cable network gave it favored status in terms of broadcast dates and left it up to Golden Boy to fill in the blanks as to who would fight who.
"They had great leverage when Oscar was big business, when Oscar was fighting," Arum said. "HBO thought it was a good business move for them and so did Golden Boy but Golden Boy did not have the experience to fully utilize those HBO dates. Ross (Greenburg, HBO Sports president) made a mistake in doing that kind of a deal...he never should've done such a deal with Golden Boy or with anyone else."
Golden Boy does have flashy Amir Khan, likely to become a superstar in America and already a huge name in the UK. Khan faces danger man Marcos Maidana on HBO from Las Vegas Saturday night.
Arum said he had a shot at signing Khan but ran into interference.
"I met with Khan and I was told they were told by HBO to sign with Golden Boy and that they were going to do it because of that stupid output deal. HBO was feeding fighters to Golden Boy and they still could not deliver the product."
I asked Arum when Mosley would be inking a promotional deal with Top Rank.
"It's up to Mosley but I understand he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao and then maybe to fight some of my other guys. I don't think Mosley is interested in having me to promote him (exclusively)."
It's hard to picture Mosley getting the money shot against Pacman without some future tie to Arum but, hey, the man said what he said.
Maybe Arum just wants to be persuasive and not coercive.
