Non-Heavyweights Are Lacking Golden Touch on Prize Money

Once upon a time, the non-heavyweights knew their place. They didn’t necessarily like it, but they knew it.

They understood that, no matter their talent, no matter their following, they were not Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson. And they couldn’t expect to be paid as if they were.

Then along came Oscar De La Hoya. And promoter Bob Arum. And together, they changed the rules. De La Hoya, who has moved up the weight ladder to 147 pounds, is making heavyweight money. His most recent bout, against Felix Trinidad last month, was the richest non-heavyweight bout ever. De La Hoya made a little more than $21 million, more than Evander Holyfield or Lennox Lewis made in their heavyweight unification bout last spring. Trinidad, who had made small change in comparison in the past, earned $10.5 million.

But is the golden touch of De La Hoya, the Golden Boy, transferable to other non-heavyweights he is not fighting?

Yes, say other non-heavyweights who want their share of the pot of gold.

No, says Lou DiBella, the HBO vice president who must decide how much to pay the fighters on his network.

The result: A stalemate boxing can ill afford.

A case in point is Floyd Mayweather. At 22, Mayweather is very appealing as a fighter. He is the World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion, is 22-0 with 17 knockouts, is good-looking, fast, cocky, colorful and he comes from a fighting family.

As a matter of fact, he is so appealing that DiBella offered him a seven-fight deal worth a minimum of $12.5 million.

So did Mayweather take the money and run?

Not exactly. Instead, he looked at the size of the purses De La Hoya was bringing home, folded his arms and stood firm, announcing that he would not fight for less than $3 million per bout.

“I can’t believe it,” DiBella said. “We bent over backward trying to accommodate him. I didn’t think there was any way that he would behave this way.”

And Mayweather is not alone. Other fighters, like Roy Jones Jr. and Shane Mosley, also want to know where their Oscar money is.

“These guys are just hurting themselves,” DiBella said. “They have to exercise good business judgment. They are pricing themselves out of action. They have all got Oscar on the brain. HBO didn’t pay Oscar $21 million. Lou DiBella didn’t pay Oscar $21 million. The fans paid Oscar $21 million. If you are an attraction, you can get that. These guys are not now attractions. And if they keep behaving the way they are, they never will be.”

It could be argued that DiBella is trying to hold purses down to save himself money. But if that were true, others, like the Showtime network, would be jumping in, waving cash. That’s not happening.

HBO and Showtime need matches to keep their operations going, but not at prices that will cause those operations to go bankrupt.

Earlier this year, Mayweather threatened to retire if he didn’t start getting the money he felt he deserved. Nobody took him seriously, certainly not Arum, who has a contract with Mayweather.

But if HBO won’t budge, what are Mayweather’s options?

“God knows what he will do next,” DiBella said. “Right now, I’m not even discussing it with him because his demands are so out of whack. At this point in his career, nobody cares what he does. I think he’s a good kid, a terrific athletic. But for his own sake, he has to grow up and should do so fast.

“For now, he’s in limbo.”

BOXING ALSO IN LIMBO

This was the year the sport was supposed to bounce back in a big way. The fights that nobody could make were suddenly occurring. The promoters and the networks and the various camps were coming together.

So what happened?

Holyfield and Lewis fought for the undisputed heavyweight title and it ended in a controversial draw that left everyone frustrated. De La Hoya and Trinidad fought their blockbuster match and it ended with De La Hoya running away from Trinidad in a match that left everyone bored. Tyson’s last match ended again with confusion and consternation.

The aftershocks are spreading through the sport, according to DiBella.

“The world is not holding its breath for any one fighter,” he said. “These fighters have to remember that there are loads of boxers out there who don’t get the chance at good money. The [commercial] networks don’t do boxing, and some of the cable networks don’t pay a lot.

“We can’t do a lot of meaningless fights. We can’t wait until the time is ready for a big fight. Even the big fights are in trouble.”

LOCALLY

All fighters complain about their promoters at one time or another. But middleweight Adrian Carreon did something about it. He is promoting his own fight show Friday night at Steven’s Steakhouse in the City of Commerce. The main event will feature junior-lightweights Carlos Hernandez (28-2-1, 17 knockouts) and Alejandro Jimenez (6-9-1, three knockouts) in a 10-round match. Carreon will put his unbeaten mark (7-0-1, two knockouts) on the line against Richard Gonzalez (4-4-1, two knockouts). And there will be a welterweight match between former Olympian Pepe Reilly (14-3, 11 knockouts) and Ramon Baez (8-2, five knockouts). First fight is at 7:30.