Promoter’s Plea Gets a Reduced Fee

Cedric Kushner, Shane Mosley’s promoter, has reached an agreement with World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman to pay a reduced sanctioning fee for Saturday’s welterweight title fight between Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya.

Under the old WBC guidelines, which assess a fighter 3% of his purse, Mosley would have been required to pay $135,000, based on his $4.5-million purse.

Instead, he will pay well under $100,000, Kushner said.

Earlier, when De La Hoya, who will receive a purse of $8 million, balked at paying his sanctioning fee, his promoter, Bob Arum, also negotiated a reduced rate.

“We generally do not relate well to the boxers,” Sulaiman said. “The sanctioning fees are too high and should be adjusted.”

But he rejected the idea that the public has moved beyond the sanctioning bodies and is interested only in the fighters, not the titles they hold.

“Boxing is a sport of champions,” he said. “Every promoter, big or small, and every television network wants to have their fights be for the championship of the world, just as all amateur fighters point toward a gold medal at the Olympics.”

With everybody on board in terms of sanctioning fees, Saturday’s fight will be for the WBC title as well as the welterweight championship of the lesser-known International Boxing Assn.

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Being honest: De La Hoya is the reigning WBC welterweight champion by virtue of beating Derrell Coley in February.

The title became vacant when Felix Trinidad, who won it from De La Hoya last September, gave up the championship upon moving to 154 pounds.

But De La Hoya, feeling funny taking back a belt he lost to Trinidad by beating the lightly regarded Coley, says he won’t truly consider himself WBC champion unless he beats Mosley.