By Robert Morales

Oscar De La Hoya stood on the dais inside a third-floor Mexican restaurant in East Los Angeles on Monday. De La Hoya and some of his Golden Boy Promotions cohorts were there to formally announce the signing of amateur star Frankie Gomez of East Los Angeles.

But De La Hoya was only too happy to discuss Saturday's welterweight title fight between champion Manny Pacquiao and challenger Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium, as well as some of the Texas-size venom unleashed on Golden Boy by rival promoter Bob Arum.

Pacquiao won an easy decision. And Clottey has taken some heat for not taking more chances, but De La Hoya didn't go there.

"I actually predicted the fight going that way," De La Hoya said. "Clottey is a very difficult style, very difficult fighter to fight. I'm surprised that Pacquiao didn't knock him out because he was hitting him with a lot of shots. But Clottey's a very difficult fighter and Pacquiao did well and I'm extremely happy for him.

"And I think Pacquiao is now going to run for Congress, so I wish him all the best."

De La Hoya seemed in good spirits, but they were dampened a bit when the subject of Arum was broached. Arum last week told several reporters attending the fight that he probably would never have Pacquiao fight at the MGM Grand again because, according to a story in the L.A. Times, "Golden Boy is in bed with MGM."

When Arum was asked if he was concerned about ticking off Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer and the rest of Golden Boy with his comments, Arum reportedly said, "F**k Golden Boy."

Considering there has already been a big war between boxing's two largest promotional companies, this does not bode well for future co-promotions with the two giants.

Golden Boy seemed to help rekindle the feud because of the role it played in the failed negotiations between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"Well, it just makes me sad that a man at that age can really have that grudge toward somebody," De La Hoya said of the 78-year-old Arum, his former promoter. "At that age, just be happy and enjoy life and be happy about life and what you have. There is no resentment toward him. Let him do his thing and we do our thing and we're moving in different directions. His comments are his comments and that's who Bob is."

Arum took the high road on De La Hoya's remarks.

"I have no comment on what Oscar De La Hoya said," Arum said Tuesday night. "I have no comment. I'm not going to be involved in any kind of verbal altercation with De La Hoya because that is beneath me."

De La Hoya was asked if this resurfacing of bad blood will kill any chance of Pacquiao-Mayweather happening at some point. Arum promotes Pacquiao, Golden Boy represented Mayweather in the previous negotiations that did not bear fruit.

"No, I don't think so," De La Hoya said, "because as long as both fighters are willing to take the blood tests under the USADA rules, then there's a fight. So whatever comments Bob makes, that's fine."

Arum decided to bypass the high road on this one.

"There he goes. Of course not," Arum said, meaning the USADA testing is unacceptable. "There he goes again. The fight will never happen. De La Hoya isn't the brightest penny on the block, so I tend to disregard anything he says."

In Defense of Joshua

Arum scoffed at the notion Clottey didn't do everything he could against Pacquiao. His reasoning made some sense.

"Pacquiao is way too fast for any welterweight, so everybody is looking for a way to beat him," said Arum, who also promotes Clottey. "Joshua Clottey's way was to go into a shell, particularly when Pacquiao started landing those body shots."

Arum said Clottey assumed that since Pacquiao was throwing over 100 punches per round, he would eventually slow down.

"He figured when he tires, like any welterweight would do (at that pace), then he would be able to come on and take Pacquiao out," Arum said. "That was his only chance. The problem with that strategy, Pacquiao works harder in the gym than he does the fight. That was his strategy and it can't work against Pacquiao."

"Miguel Cotto's strategy was to be aggressive and to bully Pacquiao and it worked, sort of, for the first couple of rounds. But at the end, that couldn't work with Pacquiao. Oscar's strategy was to stand there and wait for Pacquiao to make a mistake and then catch him, and there was no way Oscar was going to catch him."

And then there was Ricky Hatton.

"And Hatton's strategy was to brawl with him, wrestle and brawl with him, and Manny handled that," Arum said. "Everybody has a different strategy to fight Manny Pacquiao and so far none of those strategies have worked. Not since the kid has become a two-handed fighter."

Margarito headed to California?

Antonio Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo, had their licenses revoked in February 2009 by the California State Athletic Commission after Margarito was caught with plaster inserts in the knuckle pads of his hand wraps prior to his January 2009 fight against "Sugar" Shane Mosley in Los Angeles.

Apparently, the Texas commission wanted no part of being the first to re-license Margarito in the States, so it washed its hands of what could have been a public relations nightmare. But Arum intimated that was only a temporary setback for the "Tijuana Tornado."

Arum said Margarito will fight in Mexico in May.

"In the meantime we are petitioning various commissions to give him a license," Arum said. "We think we are very optimistic it is going to happen. He might even appear before the California commission. Everybody now realizes he should get a license, that he has paid the price for what his trainer did."

New attitude for Arreola? It's about time

It was last Thursday, and Henry Ramirez called with some interesting news about his fighter, heavyweight contender Chris Arreola. The weight issue with Arreola has almost become a tired issue at this juncture, but Ramirez was convincing when he said that Arreola was making inroads in that regard.

Ramirez said Arreola weighed in at 259 1/2 pounds on the morning of this telephone conversation. Arreola weighed 263 for his December fight against Brian Minto and has not weighed less than 251 for a fight since he weighed 239 for Chazz Witherspoon in June 2008.

Arreola's next fight is not until April 24 against Tomasz Adamek in Ontario, Calif., so for him to weigh 259 1/2 six weeks out would seem to be a good thing.

"The target weight should always be 240, give or take a pound," said Ramirez, Arreola's trainer. "We haven't gotten there in two years. I'll tell you this, he'll be in far better condition than in any fight since the Chazz Witherspoon fight."

Arreola is training in a private gym in his hometown of Riverside, Calif. Ramirez said no one is coming in off the street to watch, and that Arreola has been a picture of focus.

"Chris has not missed one scheduled workout," Ramirez said. "Right now there is a morning and an evening routine."

Ramirez said he is hopeful the one-sided loss to Vitali Klitschko last September has made Arreola realize that in order to be the best, you have to train like it.

"I hope so," Ramirez said. "I have a saying: If the light hasn't gone on by the time you are 30, it is not going to go on. He just barely turned 29 (on March 5)."

All eyes will be on Gomez, Golden Boy

De La Hoya said the signing of the aforementioned Gomez - a Mexican American - was a big deal for boxing and a big deal for Golden Boy. He is certainly correct on the latter point. Golden Boy has never taken a boxer straight out of the amateur ranks and guided him to a world title, like Arum did with Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik, De La Hoya and Mayweather.

Vicente Escobedo, a 2004 U.S. Olympian, fought Michael Katsidis for an interim lightweight title last September, but lost a split decision. Abner Mares is getting close to a title fight. The world-ranked bantamweight is expected to challenge Yonnhy Perez for his belt on the undercard of Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez IV on May 22 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The only way that fight won't happen is if Mares loses a tuneup fight against journeyman Felipe Almanza next Thursday at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.

Other than that, the closest Golden Boy has come to bringing a fighter from professional infancy to world-champion status was with former super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon, who had four pro bouts when he signed with Golden Boy.

De La Hoya on Monday spoke about Gomez like a miner anticipating a gold strike. Like De La Hoya, Gomez was born and raised in East L.A. De La Hoya said he saw Gomez spar many times before signing him and that from a tangible standpoint, Gomez has it all. Intangibly, as well.

"What I saw was the passion he has for the sport, the passion in his eyes," De La Hoya said. "Not too many fighters have that passion. He has that hunger, he has that 'it' factor and it doesn't come around so often.

"And believe me when I tell you, when I saw him spar, I'm still in awe of what I saw. At 18 years old, I couldn't do those things, not even close to what he's doing now."

De La Hoya was 19 when he won a gold medal in the Barcelona Games. Since Gomez just turned 18 on Feb. 4 - the same day De La Hoya turned 37 - Gomez was too young to box in the 2008 Beijing Games. But Gomez won the U.S. national championship at 140 pounds by defeating defending champion Jose Benavidez of Phoenix in the title bout last June in Denver. Gomez also won a silver medal in the AIBA World Championships in September in Milan. Gomez was still 17, but he was the only American to make the finals. Eric Gomez - matchmaker for Golden Boy and no relation - said Frankie Gomez is the real deal.

"I see a lot," Eric Gomez said. "He is very, very exciting. When Oscar says he feels he's a lot better than he was at his age, he's not kidding. This kid has a combination of speed and power. He's very, very powerful. A different style than Oscar. Oscar was a little more finesse.

"This kid's exciting. More aggressive, very aggressive. Has a hell of a chin."

Golden Boy Promotions is only in its eighth year, so to hang a jacket on the company that says it can't develop a world champion from scratch would be premature at this point. But all eyes will be on Golden Boy and Frankie Gomez. Of course, any promoter can only do so much. Gomez is the one who has to get in there and win.

Having joined the Los Angeles Police Department Police Athletic League when he was 8, Gomez's early venture into boxing helped keep him off the mean streets of East L.A., home to the most vicious Mexican-American gangs in the greater L.A. area.

"It comes with suffering and everything else," said Gomez, when asked about that passion De La Hoya mentioned. "Makes me want to fight, fight for my family."

Gomez was 120-8 as an amateur. He will make his pro debut April 3 on the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones Jr. fight at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram and BoxingScene.com