By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The “Golden Boy” of boxing Oscar De La Hoya, in a surprise call to us late Monday night said he had a message for “ everyone in the Philippines and especially to Manny Pacquiao” the Filipino ring idol.
De La Hoya’s message was simple. “Do not worry about anything. Everything is okay. We have a legal contract with Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum who is threatening to sue Golden Boy, to sue Manny Pacquiaio, that his him being a bully like always.” De La Hoya said he had known Arum for a very long time and he had “done good things for my career and he has done bad things. I do not like talking bad about people because that is not my character. But when Bob Arum is again being a bully I have to stand up for what is right. And the right thing is that me and Manny Pacquiao have a good contract and Manny does not have to worry about nothing.”
In a wide ranging conversation De La Hoya said he agreed with WBC founding secretary general and eminent lawyer Rudy Salud who warned Arum that should he file a case against Pacquiao, he could be sued for “harassment.” De La Hoya said Golden Boy would “do the same thing.” He revealed that Arum had sued him twice before and “we beat him in court two times.” He said “as fighters Pacquiao and myself stand up for each other and we believe what is right and we win. No problem. We are doing the right thing.”
De La Hoya said he believes that Arum was trying to “destabilize” Pacquiao . He said he would talk to Pacquiao later in the day and his message would be “this is the typical Bob Arum. I have been through this many, many times and what Manny has to do is train, stay focused . He knows that everything will be okay and he did nothing wrong.”
“All he has to do is to win the fight ( against Erik Morales) on November 18 and we can move forward.”
De La Hoya revealed that he is a big fisherman and when he catches a tuna or a marlin “they fight in the water and the last second when you are going to bring them up into the boat they fight even harder because they know they are going to die and be eaten. That’s the way I describe Bob Arum. He is fighting as hard as he can and when we are going to bring him on top of the boat he’s gonna fight even harder. So don’t worry about it.”
When asked about his thoughts on the fight and Pacquiao’s chances against Morales, De La Hoya replied, “he has a very good chance looking at the last fight they had when Pacquiao knocked out Morales. I think that a well-trained, one hundred percent Manny Pacquiao will knock out Morales again. But he has to be in top shape because Morales I am sure will be in good shape.”
De La Hoya said he was impressed with Manny’s progress and said he’s been “learning a lot.” De La Hoya said he had watched a tape of Pacquiao’s showdown with Oscar Larios last July 2 at the Araneta Coliseum and noted that Pacquiao “did a lot of different things that I was impressed with. He is learning good and is progressing in a good way.”
