By Rick Reeno

Former Top Rank head Bob Arum stated to writer Dan Rafael of USA Today that most Hispanic fans feel that Oscar De La Hoya quit in his last fight against Bernard Hopkins. He went to further state that the only reason De La Hoya bolted from Top Rank to join up with Hopkins is because Arum wouldn't agree to anymore big money guarantees on De La Hoya's future fights, particularly pointing out the guaranteed $25 million Oscar got for his bout with Hopkins. 

"Once we weren't going to put up a meaningful guarantee, we knew without anyone saying it there was no room for us to promote Oscar anymore" said Arum

"The feedback we were getting from the Hispanics was that Oscar quit in the Hopkins fight. I don't know if he quit or not, but certainly many of the Hispanic consumers felt he did. The erosion is so deep and threatens to get deeper because there is a feeling out there that he can't fight very much anymore, and that other than his fight with Vargas, he hasn't really won a fight in years against a good fighter. We don't think he really is fighting now for anything other than the money, that he doesn't train hard or come into the ring with passion."

Arum spoke of Hopkins in the same light, stating that the reason Bernard ran to Golden Boy was because Top Rank turned down what they called  a ridiculous demand of $5 million for his next fight with a $1 million dollar bonus for promoting Hopkins..

"I explained that such a deal would guarantee me a loss of $1.5 million for his next fight" said Arum