Battle Looming Between Arum, Duva Over Rights to Quartey

News bulletin: Legal system paralyzing boxing.

News bulletin: Promoters feuding.

News bulletin: Threats of lawsuits hang over boxing world.

Those connected with the sport can wring their hands over the sorry state of boxing, and federal legislation can be drawn up in an attempt to clean it up, but nothing ever seems to change.

The best fights are still those outside the ring.

The latest has promoter Bob Arum in one corner and promoter Dino Duva in the other battling over welterweight Ike Quartey, who was stripped of his World Boxing Assn. title earlier this week for failing to agree to a mandatory challenge.

Finally reacting to the ever-mounting group of critics of the course of World Boxing Council welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya’s career, Arum says he is trying to improve the quality of De La Hoya’s opponents.

That’s a good idea considering De La Hoya’s last opponent was the unqualified Patrick Charpentier and his next opponent is the over-the-hill Julio Cesar Chavez, whom De La Hoya will meet in a pointless rematch Sept. 18 in Las Vegas.

Arum says he will negotiate with Quartey this week in the hope of getting him to sign for a Nov. 21 fight against De La Hoya.

Sound good? It’s not that simple, as is usually the case in boxing.

Quartey already has a tentative deal to fight International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Felix Trinidad on Nov. 14.

Here’s where it gets really complicated.

Before the Quartey-Trinidad deal can be finalized, Trinidad wants to sever all ties with promoter Don King, who hates to miss a good fight between promoters even if he is only peripherally involved.

Trinidad maintains he no longer has a valid contract with King and that he is solely represented by Duva’s Main Events organization. Trinidad signed two contracts with King, one in 1993, which King calls a lifetime deal, and one in ‘94, which was for four years with a disputed two-year extension.

Determined to stop King from interfering with the Quartey fight, Trinidad has gone to court to seek an injunction against the promoter. Federal Judge Lawrence McKenna has asked attorneys for both parties to be in his New York courtroom Monday, at which time he’ll decide if an injunction or possibly a trial is warranted.

Enter Arum.

He claims that a clause in the Quartey-Trinidad deal stipulated that, if the matter was not settled by this past Friday, any of the parties involved could bail out.

“HBO [which would televise a Quartey-Trinidad fight] won’t go ahead with it if there is still some question whether Trinidad belongs to King,” Arum said, “because that would be like corporate suicide.”

Duva is infuriated because Arum mentioned the Friday deadline.

“That’s ridiculous,” Duva said. “If Bob Arum violated the confidentiality of that contract, we will launch a massive lawsuit against him and whoever told him about that agreement. I hate litigation just as much as anybody else, but if he keeps going about it this way, then he is going to force my hand. I am sick and tired of his tactics.”

All that said, Duva wouldn’t rule out a De La Hoya-Quartey fight in November. Just as long as he is part of it. And just as long as the money is there. Quartey would receive about $1.9 million to fight Trinidad. Arum would offer him about $4.5 million to fight De La Hoya.

But that $4.5-million figure was what Arum thought Quartey was worth before he was stripped of his title.

Arum said he will invite Duva to take part in the negotiations for a De La Hoya fight against Quartey along with several others who have a claim to Quartey. Duva says Quartey is a Main Events fighter. Period.

“I talked to him [Quartey] five times today,” Duva said. “Nothing has changed.”

AND THEN THERE IS WHITAKER

If the Quartey-Trinidad fight does indeed occur, Arum has a backup plan. He would like to pit De La Hoya against Pernell Whitaker on Nov. 21, a rematch of the fight De La Hoya barely won in 1997.

But again, there are a couple of hangups.

Duva, who also promotes Whitaker, says Whitaker won’t fight until Arum pays the fighter money he is still owed from the first De La Hoya-Whitaker fight, a sum of between $150,000 and $200,000.

Duva also said that Whitaker, who will complete a six-month suspension next month for a second positive test for cocaine, needs a tuneup fight.

Arum doesn’t deny that money is owed, but claims he is waiting for a dispute to be settled over pay-per-view revenues.

“It’s going to be resolved,” Arum said. “It’s no big thing.”

Indeed, it won’t be a big thing. Despite all of his protestations, Duva knows that the biggest match for any of his clients is against De La Hoya.

And Arum knows that De La Hoya has reached a point where he is thinking more of his legacy than of easy paydays. He wants a bona fide opponent.

So what’s the problem? Lawyers, judges, contracts and promoters.

So what’s new?

NO MAS? NO WAY

It has been 18 years since Roberto Duran, on the receiving end of more than he could handle from Sugar Ray Leonard, threw up his hands in their World Boxing Council welterweight title fight and told the world, “No mas.”

But there was more. Much more. And there still is.

Duran has fought 41 times since he quit in disgrace against Leonard, which caused some to predict he had lost too much credibility to be taken seriously again.

Since quitting against Leonard, Duran won the WBA junior middleweight title from Davey Moore in 1983 and the WBC middleweight crown from Iran Barkley in 1989.

But a look at his record since that disgraceful night in 1980 against Leonard in New Orleans shows that Duran has lost more than credibility. Until that night, Duran, who was known for his Hands of Stone, had an incredible 73-1 mark. Since then, with a record of 29-12, he often has looked as if he has Hands of Sand.

Yet on Friday, at age 47, Duran will step back into the ring and attempt to win yet another title when he takes on WBA middleweight champion William Joppy.

Duran makes no apologies. He never did. Not after turning his back on Leonard and walking out of the ring. And not now when people wonder why he is still putting on the gloves long after his prime.

“There is a great opportunity to fight for a world title,” Duran said earlier this week through an interpreter before a workout at a gym in the Hollywood area. “I can’t let it pass by.”

He won’t put a limit on his career, but envisions perhaps two or three more fights, which would extend into next year.

Although Duran’s place in boxing history is set, there is still one opponent he wants: Leonard.

Leonard also had talked about a fourth meeting between the two until his own comeback was sidetracked by his loss to Hector Camacho last year.

“Let him come,” Duran said of Leonard. “I’ve been waiting for that for a long time. Let’s get it on.”

QUICK JABS

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson’s hearing before the Nevada Athletic Commission on his revoked license, which originally was scheduled for Sept. 9, has been moved to Sept. 19 so that it will not interfere with the cancer treatments of Elias Ghanem, commission chairman.