Arum, De La Hoya Trade Words on Pacquiao-Mayweather

By Edward Chaykovsky

The war of words continue. Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya, and Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, exchanged words over the details related to a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao welterweight fight. De La Hoya wants the fight to take place on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Arum wants the fight to take place in late-May in an outdoor arena on the Las Vegas strip.

Arum says the stadium will bring in another $30-40 million dollars to the promotion. De La Hoya says the two promoters don't have to be greedy. Arum also wants someone to guarantee Mayweather's purse.

"Floyd Mayweather guarantees his own purses. The 40,000-seat venue is baloney. How greedy do we have to be? The MGM is right there. There's enough money to go around, we don't have to be pigs here," De La Hoya told The Los Angeles Times.

De La Hoya did confirm to the paper that Mayweather-Pacquiao tickets at the MGM would have to be "steeply escalated" and the HBO pay-per-view price tag would be increased as well.

"We can sell out the 18,000 seats in two hours, and looking for anything else is just a never-ending game," De La Hoya said.

Arum also spoke to the paper and erupted over De La Hoya's comments to keep the fight at the MGM, and how the promotion can avoid losing money by increasing ticket prices to a high level. He also barked at De La Hoya's comment about Mayweather being responsible for his own guarantee.

"Oscar's so . . . stupid . . . to say Mayweather doesn't need a guarantee; you'd have to be stupid not to get a guarantee with this kind of money at play," Arum said. "We're not talking chump change.

"The one guy you can't rely on for anything is Oscar. He knows absolutely nothing. To say we shouldn't put it in a bigger arena and just jack the prices up in the smaller venue -- to only let those with incredible amounts of money into the building -- you wouldn't be allowing the extra 24,000 people who want to attend the Super Bowl of boxing. To make this fight available to the most possible people is not being greedy or a pig, it's advancing your sport, being fan-friendly."