By Mark Vester
The feud between promotional competitors Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions will always be alive and well. In a recent interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, Top Rank's owner Bob Arum blasted Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions. Arum took offense to De La Hoya's recent blog that ran on the Ring Magazine's online website. De La Hoya penned an opinion blog about next Saturday's mega-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. Both fighters are under the Top Rank banner.
In the blog, De La Hoya claimed that Arum arranged for a larger ring in order to give Pacquiao and advantage in the fight.
“I believe that’s the reason (promoter) Bob Arum arranged to have a big ring, to give Pacquiao an advantage. Arum promotes both fighters but, obviously, it benefits him more if Pacquiao wins so they’re going to favor him,” De La Hoya said.
If you remember back in the month of August, Cotto's trainer Joe Santiago had placed some comments on the record which claimed that Pacquiao's camp requested a larger ring to give themselves an advantage in the fight. Arum contacted BoxingScene.com's publisher Rick Reeno and cleared up the situation. He said Pacquiao's team never requested a larger ring and per the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission the ring had to be a standard size of 20x20. Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada Commission, confirmed the rules to BoxingScene. The ring had to be 20x20 per their regulations.
The situation is still the same. Arum tells Iole that he never tried to give either fighter any advantage in the fight and Kizer once again confirmed that nobody made a request for a larger ring. Arum ripped De La Hoya for accussing him of trying to give one fighter an advantage.
Is that little (expletive) crazy?” Arum asked. “Who writes this (expletive) for him? I’m absolutely outraged. He can pick whoever he wants to pick to win the fight and he can say whatever he wants to say about me, but to write that I arranged to have the ring made bigger to favor anyone is a complete (expletive) lie and is just not true. For as long as I can remember, the rings in Nevada have been 20 feet by 20 feet and I didn’t do (an expletive) thing about changing it.”
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