Negotiations open for De La Hoya, Pacquiao mega bout

[nyG]

I think it's time for old Oscar to just hang it up already.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=3522880

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer and Top Rank's Bob Arum met Wednesday and formally opened negotiations for a Dec. 6 megafight between Oscar De La Hoya, boxing's biggest star, and pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. Schaefer hosted Arum for more than two hours at the Golden Boy offices in Los Angeles to talk over a host of issues related to a fight that would take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and certainly be the year's biggest fight if it is made.

"We met and there are some issues, but it was a good meeting," Schaefer told ESPN.com on Wednesday night. "I think what it will take is for Manny to give and for Oscar to give to get a deal done. That's pretty much what it is. But the fact that we had a two hour-plus meeting is obviously a good sign. If it had been a five-minute meeting it would indicate the gaps are too big. "What Bob needs to do is talk to Manny and I need to talk to Oscar. I'm going to talk to Oscar face to face when he comes to Los Angeles next week. But this was a good first step. We had a very good, a very cordial meeting. We talked about a lot of things," Schaefer said. Arum told ESPN.com, "We had a nice meeting, a very productive meeting. Richard is going to talk further with Oscar next week. Manny is going to Beijing for [some of] the Olympics and I will talk to him soon. Richard and I can make a deal, but we are not the guys doing the fighting. It's going to be up to the fighters. There will have to be movement on both sides. Hopefully, there will be movement. We want to make a deal, Richard and I. Whether it can be made or not, I don't know. It will take give and take on both sides, like in any negotiation."

Although there are issues on the table such as the precise weight limit and brand of gloves the fighters would wear, Schaefer and Arum agreed those would be easily solved. The crux of the negotiation will come down to the percentage split of the revenue. "I can say without any question none of that will be a problem, weight or gloves," Arum said. "We are working essentially on the split." "If both guys are willing to give, Bob and I have laid the foundation and the groundwork under which a deal can be done," Schaefer said. De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs), who easily outpointed Steve Forbes on May 3 but took a lot of flush punches from the smaller man, weighed 150 pounds. Pacquiao and trainer Freddie Roach want him to come down to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.

Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs), who began his career at 106 pounds, has steadily moved up through the weight classes through the years, including winning a championship in his fifth division June 28 when he wiped out David Diaz in nine brutally one-sided rounds to win a lightweight belt and cement his place as the pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter in the sport. Arum said that the possibility of welterweight champion Antonio Margarito facing De La Hoya also came up in the meeting as an alternative plan. Margarito ruined Miguel Cotto's chance to face De La Hoya when he stopped him July 26. Now, Margarito wants his shot at De La Hoya. "Antonio is still out there and hasn't been totally rejected by the De La Hoya people," Arum said. "It came up, but Richard has to sit with Oscar and see what he wants to do." Schaefer was not as upbeat about a fight with Margarito. "I think Margarito has some other things planned," he said. "I think he should go fight [a rematch with] Paul Williams."

[Phistar]

yo seriously, oscar needs to GTFO...

he's gonna try and fight manny pacquiao now?

i seriously hope pacman whoops de la hoya like a little school boy yO!

[nyG]

Originally Posted by ESPN.com writer Dan Rafel

De La Hoya-Pacquiao talks bog down over revenue split

As Howie Mandel asks contestants each week on his hit game show: Deal or no deal? No deal, it appears. A week after face-to-face negotiations began for a Dec. 6 megafight between Oscar De La Hoya, boxing's most popular star, and Manny Pacquiao, the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, talks have broken down, leaving the fight in doubt. Talks reached a stalemate Tuesday when neither De La Hoya nor Pacquiao would budge from the percentage split each wanted.

According to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, De La Hoya was seeking a 70-30 revenue split in his favor while Pacquiao wanted 40 percent of an HBO PPV fight that would likely generate more than $100 million. "Bob told me today that Manny has declined to the accept the terms," Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com. "I had a nice conversation with Bob. We'll move on and I guess Manny will move on." The other issues in the way of De La Hoya-Pacquiao had been resolved. The sides agreed to a 147-pound maximum weight limit, meaning De La Hoya would have to make the welterweight limit for the first time since defeating Arturo Gatti in 2001. The lightest De La Hoya, who has won titles in six divisions, had been since was for his May decision win against Steve Forbes when he weighed 150 pounds. Pacquiao, who holds a 135-pound lightweight title after starting his career as a 106-pounder, would have moved up two weight classes to fight De La Hoya.

Also resolved was the issue of the gloves for the fight that would have taken place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where De La Hoya figures to face a different opponent at the end of the year unless he or Pacquiao has a change of heart. Arum said the sides had also agreed to wear 8-ounce gloves of the brand of their choice instead of 10-ounce gloves Schaefer said those issues were resolved because De La Hoya had given in. De La Hoya had wanted the weight limit to be 150 pounds and to fight in 10-ounce gloves. Also, Schaefer said that De La Hoya had already moved on his financial demands. Initially, De La Hoya proposed a 70-30 split of the revenue up to an undisclosed number of pay-per-view buys. After the fight reached that number, De La Hoya wanted an 80-20 split on the remainder of the buys. Eventually, he scrapped the 80-20 part of the deal and agreed to 70-30 for all buys. "On the three sticking points, Oscar gave in on 2½ of them you could say," Schaefer told ESPN.com. But the lack of movement on the overall split is what really damaged the deal. "Richard and I had a good meeting and we resolved the other issues," Arum said. "Oscar wanted 70-30 and Richard and I figured that there would be room for movement. Oscar was supposed to come in [to Los Angeles] this week to meet with Richard in person, but he didn't make it and had to do it on the telephone. Oscar was adamant about it being 70-30 or no deal. Richard told me that and that I transmitted it to Pacquiao and his people in the Philippines.

They told me that there was no deal and to look to make another fight." Said Schaefer: "Pacquiao has an adviser and lawyer, [Franklin "Jeng" Gacal] who basically is caught up in percentages. But if you go buy a car or a house or food do you pay in percentages or in money? The answer is you pay in currency not in percentages. I hope this has properly been explained to Manny." Arum said his backup plan is for Pacquiao to defend his lightweight belt against Humberto Soto, a top junior lightweight who would move up for the opportunity. However, Arum does not have a site or venue in which to stage the fight in the jam-packed fall. As for De La Hoya, Schaefer said he still intends to fight Dec. 6. De La Hoya has repeatedly said it will be the last fight of his storied career. Schaefer would not say who the possible opponents are but said he had a list of three fighters "and I am already negotiating with one of them." Arum was clearly disappointed with the turn the talks took. "This is not Richard or me f------ around," he said. "Richard and I had a very frank discussion. I always felt there would be a deal. When Richard came back and said that Oscar wasn't moving, I was surprised. Unless there is movement, the deal is off."

Schaefer's words from a week ago when talks began were prophetic when he said, "I think what it will take is for Manny to give and for Oscar to give to get a deal done." Had Pacquiao, who has won titles in five divisions, accepted the 30-percent split, he could have earned his biggest payday, upwards of $10 million to $15 million. Arum said that is not the way Pacquiao thinks. "The question in a fighter's mind is not how much they're going to make, but what is a fair split," he said. "Forget the ultimate number. They have to perceive what they are getting is fair. The deal we were working on was a lot of money for both guys. The question is what is a fair split? I thought somewhere between 30 and 40 percent for Manny was fair." The most Pacquiao, 29, has ever made for a fight is about $5 million, Arum said. "It is a bit mind-boggling for me that he would have to fight three or four times to make what he could make to fight Oscar," Schaefer said. "I hope Manny has been given all the information by his people." Arum said he wished that De La Hoya had said it was 70-30 or nothing from the start. "You don't start a negotiations offering 30 percent and adamantly take the position that you're not going to move. He should have said that in the beginning. It's not Richard, it's Oscar. He says Manny shouldn't get more than Floyd [Mayweather]. Floyd got 30 percent. Manny says he's bigger than Floyd was at the time." When De La Hoya, 35, lost to Mayweather in May 2007, Mayweather received 30 percent of the promotion for what turned out to be the biggest grossing fight in history. Arum left the door open to still making the fight. "If they called us and proposed 35 percent I would go and I would be able to get the fight done," Arum said. "I hope that Oscar, with all his money and everything, is going to be sensible here."

Oscar wants the money to make up for the ass whoopin he would've taken

[thilianwij]

MANNY PACQUIAO!!! GO PHILIPPINES!!! lol

pacquiao is too good man...

[P J Shaker]

yea he looks in top form to fight again...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

i wish he would just retire

[nyG]

Sources: De La Hoya, Pacquiao agree to Dec. 6 fight in Vegas

By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com

Oscar De La Hoya, boxing's biggest star, will announce Thursday that he will meet pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao on Dec. 6, two sources close to the fight told ESPN.com. Top Rank's Bob Arum, whose company promotes Pacquiao, would not confirm a deal was in place for what would be the year's biggest fight, but he did tell ESPN.com that De La Hoya would host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday to announce his opponent. "We'll know who is he is fighting tomorrow," Arum said Wednesday from Youngstown, Ohio, where he was attending a promotional event for the Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins fight that he is co-promoting with De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions. "I made a commitment that I wouldn't say anything and that tomorrow there would be an announcement. I'm not allowed to make any comments. Everything will be clear on Thursday."

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer would not confirm the deal, either, but sounded positive when asked about it. "Last week the deal was 90 percent dead, but we were able to revive it. The fact that it has been so quiet is a good sign," Schaefer said from Mexico, where he was traveling on business with De La Hoya. "It's been a lot of back and forth and skillful negotiating and to try to get each side to soften their stance. If the fight was Arum vs. Schaefer, it would have been made awhile ago."

Schaefer dismissed reports this week that welterweight titleholder Paul Williams was under serious consideration to meet De La Hoya. Schaefer said that although Williams' name was thrown out during an internal meeting, it was quickly dismissed, and no contact was ever made between the De La Hoya and Williams camps. Williams promoter Dan Goossen confirmed that as well.

De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs), who has repeatedly said the December fight would be the last bout of his storied career in which he's won world titles in six weight divisions, has been in talks with Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) for weeks. But negotiations got bogged down when the sides could not come to an agreement on how to split the revenue, which is expected to exceed more than $100 million. De La Hoya stood firm for weeks on a 70-30 split in his favor; Pacquiao was demanding a 40 percent slice of the pie.

The rest of the major issues, from the maximum weight to the size of the gloves, were agreed upon, with Pacquiao getting his way on a 147-pound weight limit and 8-ounce gloves.

The percentage split that De La Hoya and Pacquiao have apparently agreed to is unclear. Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer and one of De La Hoya's former trainers, has been an outspoken advocate of the fight, going so far as to say he would train Pacquiao for free because he was so confident he would win. Roach told ESPN.com on Wednesday that Pacquiao, whom he hadn't spoken to much recently, left him two voice mails about 7 a.m. ET. "He left me the messages and at the end of one of them, he said, 'Thanks for all your help.' I read that as the fight is done," Roach said. Pacquiao, a lightweight titleholder who has won belts in five weight classes and is the national icon of the Philippines, would move up to welterweight for the showdown with De La Hoya. The fight is expected to take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where De La Hoya has fought five of his past six bouts and seven of his past 10.

[thilianwij]

Woo Hoo! can't wait to see this match!!!