By Mark vester
There have been a lot of headlines about the partnership between Golden Boy Promotions and Affliction, a mixed martial arts promotion. The headlines heated up when HBO analyst Larry Merchant reported misinformation to a live viewing audience, that De La Hoya was paid $5 million dollars to attend the Affliction pay-per-view, instead of the Golden Boy promoted card that featured Shane Mosley knocking out Antonio Margarito.
Gary Shaw, who was deeply involved with MMA when he as a part of the now bankrupt EliteXC, told veteran writer Tim Smith that De La Hoya's move to attend the Affliction card was a slap in the face to boxing. He doesn't think De La Hoya and Golden Boy will be able to cross over to the MMA fans. Shaw could be right - De La Hoya received thousands of boos from the Affliction crowd at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
"Oscar is not into MMA. He can’t sit there and tell you anything about the moves or strategies that these guys are using. Oscar is not into MMA, and the people who are in MMA are haters. They will never accept him. Oscar won’t be able to overcome that. How could you not attend a fight that involves a boxer who is a partner in your company in a sold-out arena where they have a statue of you out front? That’s a slap in the face to boxing,” Shaw said.
Bob Arum of Top Rank told Smith that it's a big business mistake for De La Hoya to try and challenge the MMA monopoly of Dana White and the UFC.
"There's one major company that accommodates the field," Arum said. "That company is very tough to go up against. It requires tremendous resources, time and effort to achieve a niche in a sport that is so dominated by one company. I don't think Golden Boy is doing anything wrong or disloyal to boxing by getting involved. I just think it's foolish and they'll end up losing a lot of money."
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